Culture building through recognition and appreciation

Today, almost all organizations have some kind of a rewards and recognition program in place. They understand that employees need to be recognized and appreciated from time to time. However, are these employee recognition programs aimed at just improving an individual’s contribution to the organization? Do we recognize employees only so they can work better, or is there more to these appreciation strategies?

Keep reading to know more.

What is culture and how to build company culture?

Workplace culture is one of the most critical aspects of an organization that determines its atmosphere and environment. Culture is a set of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and practices that make up a workplace.

There are so many types of cultures already imbibed in the workplace. Some workplaces have an ad-hoc culture, while others enjoy a market-driven culture. Few workplaces are really fun to be in and have a clan culture.

Your organization’s culture is what makes your workplace unique. In many cases, the workplace culture is the main reason employees stay back or exit the firm.

Do you know two factors that help build a positive workplace culture? It is recognition and appreciation.

Both recognition and appreciation are two factors that employees consider more close to their hearts than financial benefits. This is a fact consistently endorsed by industry experts. You could be paying your employees really well. However, if they don’t feel appreciated or recognized, your retention rate is going to be consistently low. The right employee recognition ideas can keep your employees happy, engaged, and satisfied.

How to build a culture of appreciation?

Here is a list of best practices to help build a culture of appreciation.

Get your leaders involved

If leaders are highly appreciative, the employees enjoy working under them. Leaders have to take every possible opportunity to identify and appreciate the right talent. They have to be a part of some, if not all the employee recognition programs. This will help make a big difference in how people perceive these programs.

Invest in recognition tools

You could be appreciating your employees in different forms. However, having a common platform for your rewards and recognition program is a great way to make the process more streamlined and effective. PossibleWorks’ R&R tool is a holistic experience that helps bring together different forms of appreciation and reward strategies, all at one place.

You can develop the habit of timely recognition using such tools. Create spot awards, peer-to-peer recognition badges, social appreciation posts, and real time recognition feed, so your employees are thanked and recognized without delays. These tool help create examples of good work for other employees to get inspiration from and also provides a level playing field for all employees devoid of geographical boundaries. Given the social nature of this recognition, the positive impact is multifold compared to the traditional recognition methods.

Link your recognition tools to performance appraisal processes

When do appreciation and recognition become more valuable? When the employee realizes that the management takes these seriously. Let’s say an employee was recognized for exemplary work about six months back. Unless recorded, such instances are forgotten before the appraisal cycle.

By linking the recognition tools with the appraisal process, you will know exactly how well the employee has performed over the year in the softer aspects and reward them, accordingly. Culture building cannot get more credible than this.

Increase the visibility of appreciation

Some organizations appreciate their employees, but they do it via personal emails or one-to-one meetings. It will help build the workplace culture if all employee recognition programs and appreciations happen on a larger platform where it is visible socially.

When someone is appreciated, it would mean more to them if they are appreciated openly. You could send an email to all employees or mention the employee’s name in the workplace magazine or the R&R portal.
Most recognition tools also help improve the social visibility of appreciations and recognitions.

Why should you capitalize on appreciation?

In most cases, appreciation doesn’t cost the company much but provides enormous benefits! Is that not reason enough to capitalize on such programs?

Most companies work really hard to improve the culture of their workplace. They introduce many engagement activities, rework the office space, and introduce plans that are a hit with the employees.

You could do all this. However, they may not result in the right benefits when the appreciation part is missing. Start by building a culture of appreciation and bank on it.

When you recognize your employees, they’ll go the extra mile!

Are you looking for tips to increase the remote employee engagement rate? Check our latest blog out.

What are the best ways to recognize people?

You can start with small gestures to show your employees that they are appreciated. Invest in the right idea that adds value to the employee. There are innumerous studies that indicate that 90% of the employees agreed that a value-based recognition program improved employee engagement. Make sure the ideas you implement are relevant for your workforce.

Make recognition fun

According to Gartner, an IT research company, a large portion of the Fortune 1000 companies has gamification-based recognition programs for their employees. Gamification-style employee recognition programs have fun avatars, titles, and badges that employees can win while they are recognized. This style is a hit with the millennials and Gen X folks.

Click here to read a case study on how a leading retail brand in Asia successfully introduced a gamification-based rewards and recognition framework in its workplace.

Encourage peer-to-peer recognition

When building a culture of appreciation, make sure you encourage peer-to-peer recognition. This is a great way to add more value to the appreciations given out. Peers work very closely with one another and hence can validate appreciations better. Employees consider peer-to-peer feedback very inclusive and special.

Once it is done right, this process will be taken forward by the employees themselves.

Start saying thank you

Isn’t it easy to say a Thank You? However, most people forget or ignore this small act of appreciation. You can encourage managers to thank employees for the extra contributions they make. It could be staying late one day to complete tasks or identifying a bug that saved the team time and effort. Thank-yous can be in the form of handwritten notes, emails, or sending over some food or coffee to the employee’s desk. This habit helps in positive culture building across the organization.

Appreciate honestly

Honesty is very important when you appreciate someone. It is easy to spot fake appreciative emails with adorned words that the people send out. When you appreciate, it has to be genuine, that happens only when you absolutely mean it.

A workplace where people are appreciated for everything will lose its authenticity. Appreciate tasks, behaviors, and skills that are desired and actually mean something for the organization.

Conclusion

Culture is an essential part of a workplace, and it is important to keep the culture alive by showcasing and appreciating aligned behaviour. Build a culture of appreciation and recognition in your company by using the above strategies.

Investing in recognition tools will make a drastic difference in the appreciative culture at your workplace. If you think your employees are not being appreciated enough, these tools can rapidly change the scenario.

Get in touch with PossibleWorks if you want to try our R&R tools at your workplace. Consult our experts to identify how these tools can aid culture building through the right employee recognition programs and appreciation techniques.