A recent survey by OfficeTeam revealed that 89% of employers think they are doing a good job with employee recognition for outstanding efforts at work. That would be great, except only 70% of employees tend to agree with that statement. The divide between employee and employer opinions is significant. If employees don't have confidence or agree that their employers are doing well recognizing their efforts, then employers get no return on what is often a significant investment. There are many reasons why employers can fail at delivering employee recognition. Sometimes it's a lack of effort, communication or application of a program. Here are three reasons we find most common- and how to overcome them.
- No Purpose: If your employee recognition program is too ad-hoc it can seem like there is no clear purpose or direction. Before handing out rewards or recognizing employees publicly, the leader/administrator of the program should be able to set out specific purposes and goals of the program. This will provide guidance and direction to keep the program focused and clearly laid out for employees.
- No Feedback: Every employee recognition program starts with "employee." Don't lose sight of that. Solicit feedback from employees on where, when, how and why they want to be recognized. Keep it meaningful not just for your management team but for the people you aim to acknowledge.
- No Learning: Great employers help their employees grow. Employee recognition should be about learning. Employees should be recognized for both learning and personal growth, just as much as working hard to further company goals.
A lot of factors can come into play when an employee recognition program isn't successful. But the important thing is how companies and employers understand and meet those challenges in order to overcome them. Here are more
examples and solutions in Incentive Magazine's article, Top 10 Reasons Why Companies Fail at Employer Recognition.
