Are you looking to improve employee engagement and retention? If you are, you’re not alone. More than 90% of companies around the world have some type of employee recognition program or platform. You’ve undoubtedly heard of the concept by now, but when it comes to realizing recognition at your company, do you know how to use it effectively? Employee recognition is basically any action an employer takes to show how much they value and appreciate their employees. There are plenty of forms it can take, but unfortunately it can sometimes fall by the wayside at some companies. The reality is some organizations put more focus on areas like customer service or product development instead. As it turns out, recognition can be one of the critical tools a company can have in its engagement and retention toolbox. But you must use it effectively to get great results. In this article, we’ll tell you how.

Reimagine the Workplace

As the world continues to evolve, it’s time to reimagine the workplace. Using Employee engagement strategies and initiatives is the best way to do that. Start by reimagining your company values and communicating them to your teams. If the team understands the expectations, their role within the company, and can align their work with company values, it’ll make for a better overall experience. The best way to reimagine workplace recognition is to make sure it includes everyone. If everyone has an opportunity to recognize and be recognized, it fosters a better level of community. Instead of giving out plaques or meaningless awards, you can institute a Rewards program. You can put on social functions or help create experiences that will live with the employee for a long time. Frequent recognition can lead to better work-life balance, which matters a great deal to modern workers. Whatever park you take, caring for your employees is the foundation of a phenomenal recognition/engagement experience at any good company.

Build Community Engagement

In cases like this, consider using a platform with plenty of unique tools to help you build engagement. When it comes to employee engagement, industry leaders like Workhuman offer a variety of exceptional tools to get the job done. Whether it’s a cloud-based platform for social recognition, milestone tracking, inter office communication platforms, reward systems, or mood tracking software, there sure to be a solution for building a wonderful community at your organization. Remember that building engagement is about more than merely finding ways for employees to be happy at work. It’s about building a communal experience around high office morale, a great environment, and happy/productive work.

Recognize Milestones and Anniversaries

The ways of the past might have worked for a while, but modern employees need a softer touch. They crave experiences and things that matter – not just mere trinkets to hang on a shelf and forget about. So recognizing their milestones and anniversaries becomes an integral part of the employee recognition process—not to mention being great for their mental health. Some software programs and platforms do you have the ability to automatically notify employees of potential upcoming anniversary/milestones so that it’s easier to acknowledge them in a timely manner. If you’re taking three or four weeks to acknowledge an anniversary, then you’re not really recognizing it. Recognition needs to be timely and frequent to actually make a difference, so being ready to recognize those Milestones when they happen is critical. At the end of the day, leveraging in a recognition platform to allow for faster anniversary/ milestone acknowledgment, it’s easier to use those occasions to build camaraderie with your team, strength and bonds, improve morale, and celebrate those accomplishments in an authentic and meaningful way.

Cultivate Strong Communication Between Teams

Among the many weapons in the arsenal of el enhancing the employee experience, you’ll find recognition is going to be one of the most powerful. A mix of employee recognition, engagement, and positive feedback is a great way to cultivate strong communication between your teams. With the proliferation of technology and its widespread use in most organizations, it only makes sense that communication should be streamlined. Certain platforms allow quick, instant communication for direct feedback. They might also provide teleconferencing tools, quick access to email, and a way to recognize individuals broadly across the entire team. Employees who find themselves being recognized more often are typically more engaged and can be high performers.  Engaged employees are seven times more likely to be the best performers in the company and as companies embrace it more frequently, the number of engaged personnel is only increasing across most industries. That’s a pretty good track record. When you consider the positive feedback keeps team members motivated and focused, it lends plenty of credence to the idea that employee recognition is one of the best routes to achieving optimal team communication.

Offer Service Awards

Service awards can also be an effective method of using recognition at your company. People usually do like to be rewarded or at least have some reward options available to them. Rewards are a great way to build loyalty, boost morale, and just make the office a better place. So when it comes to offering rewards you’ll want to find things that your employees will actually want. This could be anything from gift cards to a vacation day to perhaps a nice parking space. Give them the opportunity to earn those rewards and select them from a list of options. Rewards don’t always have to be monetary in nature. Sometimes work related apparel featuring the company’s logo can be a good reward. It ultimately just depends on what your employees want. Whether you’re looking to boost productivity or just make the office a better place, be sure you’re offering the best rewards you can to your staff.