26 Oct
Today we have proven facts and figures through numerous research reports that Recognition has a great impact on Employee Engagement. We will not go through those numbers here again as you would have seen those enough; rather we will analyze what really makes Recognition a powerful mechanism to drive engagement, build a positive work culture and help organizations to perform well, both operationally and financially.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This famous quote from Maya Angelou in a way says it all. This is also very much in line with the top 3 zones of the pyramid of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; a popular psychology theory which talks about Human Motivation.
Once the basic physiological and safety needs are satisfied, the next need for a human being is social need so individuals want to be felt as part of the communities and collaborate socially. Next is self esteem, the need to be felt important, recognized and valued. The topmost is self actualization, the state of achieving one’s full potential and sense of contribution to the world.
Now if we apply the above theory to employees at workplace, we will know precisely why Recognition works!
Fulfillment of Social and Self-Esteem Need
Employees would firstly need a conducive environment where they can communicate and collaborate with each other. When you socially appreciate and recognize employees for their good work, they see value in their work and when they see that their work is valued, their esteem is satisfied. Now, they are motivated to maintain or improve their good work.
Fulfillment of Self-Actualization Need
When organizations recognize and communicate how individual’s work is enabling them to meet larger goals, they feel aligned and also get a sense of self actualization for being able to make contribution to organizations’s success. This motivates them further to put their best food forward.
Meaningful Recognition stimulates emotional quotient and activates engagement. That’s why it’s said engagement is nothing but emotional commitment to organizational goals and values.
Recognition, a basic yet powerful theory is unfortunately still not valued and practiced widely by leaders or managers.
Remember, you touch the inner core of lives when you recognize, Isn’t that an honor?
In our next blog, we will see why and how recognition should be linked to rewards and what should be an ideal Reward and Recognition strategy.
