How important will employee reward and recognition be in keeping your team engaged and motivated in the coming months?
This is a question that some HR professionals and managers, who may not have been in the same office as their team for the past few months, will be asking themselves as they plan for a return to some degree of normality in their workplace – remote or physical. Before the crisis, employee reward and recognition programmes were one of the most cost-effective, powerful ways to boost employee engagement and morale.
Here are some of the reasons why:
- Employee engagement, productivity and performance are 14% higher in businesses with a recognition strategy than in those without one (Deloitte)
- Organisations which rate their recognition highly are 3 times more likely to see increased employee retention (Brandon Hall Group)
- 90% of workers say that recognition is important to them (National Employee Research Survey)
- 73% of employees say that performance feedback from other members of their team is as important as feedback from their manager (Human Resources Today)
Post-crisis reward and recognition programmes will be more important than ever
As we mentioned at the top, reward and recognition have long been valued as a low-cost, high impact way to foster and change behaviour, engage and motivate employees and embrace the ethical standards that are important to a business. Given the economic uncertainty ahead these programmes will be more important than ever. As Deloitte reports, in an unstable economy (one of Deloitte’s top 5 market factors which make recognition critical) many businesses will be working out how to do more with less. And with a reduction in salaries, bonuses and workforces, there will be additional pressures on employees that are staying.
But, as we all know, loyalty cannot be taken for granted. Research before the crisis found that two-thirds of employees were thinking about leaving their jobs this year. And with remote working looking like it’s going to be here to stay, and less office time, it’s vital that business don’t slip into an out of sight, out of mind culture and let their unhappy employees become more disengaged and unmotivated and start to look elsewhere.
Is it time to rethink your strategy?
Around 80% of businesses have some form of recognition in place, according to Deloitte. But most organisations don’t review on a regular basis and programmes go unchanged for years. If a review is long overdue, here are a few questions to get you started.
- Listening to employee feedback – are your employees feeling under appreciated?
- Revisiting your values – what does your business stand for and how should your values be tied into employee rewards?
- Setting new goals and influencing positive behaviour – have your goals changed and what types of positive behaviours do you want to encourage employees to repeat?
- Reward frequency – why wait, should you be instantly rewarding team members who are doing good things?
- Digital tools – do you have the right digital tools to encourage everyone to participate and build a positive reward and recognition culture, and measure the effectiveness of your programme?
What next?
There are lots of great low-cost ways to reward employees without breaking the bank from lifestyle rewards and points-based redeemable perks to peer-to-peer recognition and company awards. We’re here you need our help in getting started.