As humans, we quite often seek validation from others. One of the biggest employee motivators is being recognised for hard work and being held in high esteem by their Manager or peers.
The most valuable asset in a business is its employees. You’re only as strong as the people you have working for you. Let’s not forget happy employees are the most productive. Giving recognition to your team can have a big impact on engagement and morale, especially if your team are feeling overwhelmed during a busy, stressful day. It also encourages particular behaviours and practices to become more of a part of the daily work culture.
You don’t have to take out a business loan to reward your employees, giving recognition can be as simple as a genuine “well done” which might sound simple, but it can be just as effective. Other things you could look at doing include…
Showcase your star performers with the wider industry
Some employers are fearful that if their top performer wins an award at the News On The Block PMAs or at the ARMA Ace Awards, that all recruiters and all other employers will be approaching that person and they’ll lose them. Yes, you probably will find that they’ll be approached, but if your employee is happy, they won’t leave. It’s your job to ensure that your employee is engaged, enjoying their job and recognising their achievements and celebrating their success is just one of the things you can be doing to improve staff engagement.
Successes of the Week
Take the last 20 or 30 minutes of your day on Friday to sit down with your team. If you’re a larger business, get your Regional Managers or Department Heads to catch up with their smaller teams. Go around the room and have your team members share their biggest success / achievement of the week with the rest of the team. It’s a real morale booster and a great way to finish on a Friday.
The Pit and Peak of Your Week
This is another great way to end the working week on a high. As a team, go around the room and share your ‘pits’. These are your lowest moments of the week, for example a bad AGM or a difficult call with a leaseholder. It’s an opportunity to pull together as a team and give suggestions on how to tackle or prevent that situation in the future. Once you’ve all shared your pits, share your ‘peaks’. These are your highest points of the week, your successes. This exercise aids collaboration within the team, addressing any negative situations throughout the week and coming up with resolutions to those potentially ongoing issues as a team. In the process, they are dealt with immediately not carried over into the following week. You then celebrate each other’s highest points as a team.
Colleague Kudos
Recognition and praise doesn’t just have to come from Senior Management. Create a culture of support within your team and encourage your team members to give “colleague kudos”. This can be one colleague thanking another for helping them out, it could be congratulating them for handling a difficult situation or getting through a challenging time. You can give kudos on LinkedIn now, but you could also have a board in your office dedicated to this. Have everyone fill it with sticky notes of congratulatory messages to exemplary colleagues, it’ll also serve as inspiration for others. You could also look at using a business social platform like Slack.
Incentivise your Staff
Some employees want verbal recognition and to be told they’re doing well. They’ll seek approval and recognition from their Line Manager and want to be reassured they’re doing well. Others will want to see the recognition. This might be done through bonuses, prizes or other incentives based on achieving success. You could look at linking employee performance and customer satisfaction (e.g. online reviews) to monetary rewards, paid lunches or gift vouchers. The reward could be larger if you were to make them less regular, for example Top Performer of the Quarter.
You’re likely to be able to create a more high-performing team by giving employees recognition. You’ll see improved staff retention rates and ultimately better business results. Even the most loyal employees need to be motivated to stay engaged in their role. A culture of recognition should be well embedded in any business.