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Who doesn’t love appreciation? Everyone has the desire to be appreciated, praised, and recognized. People want appreciation for their efforts in the workplace too. Organizations that focus on employee appreciation are able to achieve improved employee engagement.

 

When Jane reached her seat, she saw a box of her favorite doughnuts. There was a beautifully written note saying Thank You, mentioning her achievement in the last week. Jane was almost in tears. She had joined the organization just a fortnight ago and had never experienced such recognition in her previous workplace. Her eyes became moist with happiness. Her colleagues hugged her and congratulated her.

 

Studies have shown that employees work harder and stay more loyal if their efforts are recognized. From the annual appreciation certificate, the workplace has come a long way; accordingly, employee recognition programs are also seeing a shift. 

Employee recognition has a positive effect not only on the employees but also on the entire organization. 

 

Let’s see the different types and ways organizations can show their appreciation towards employees for better employee engagement.

Types of Employee Recognition for Better Employee Engagement 

There are many ways to recognize and show gratitude towards employees. There are three key recognition types, and they serve different purposes.

1. Micro recognition

Micro recognition is also known as day-to-day recognition. It is an ongoing and frequent recognition. Showing appreciation notes, giving cards, publishing on bulletin boards, or recognizing employees quickly and easily can be considered micro recognition. The biggest advantage of micro recognition is that you don’t require any major resources or time. It is a way to reinstate organizational values regularly and make employees valued consistently.  

2. Informal recognition

Remember when you went for a Pizza party or a happy hour outing? Organizations often recognize them informally when individuals or teams reach goals or complete projects. It can be a pizza party, potluck, a trip to a pub, or even an outing. Sometimes small gifts are also included in it. Informal recognition doesn’t occur daily but is not structured as formal recognition.

3. Formal recognition

Formal recognition is more organized. Sometimes it’s for the length of the service, or in certain cases, nomination and selection processes are involved. There will be a special ceremony to celebrate the same. However, formal recognition programs are not done frequently and need a lot of planning and a big budget.

It doesn’t matter what type of recognition you’re planning for the employees/teams. Ensure that it is meaningful for your employees.

Surprise them with treats or eats

Who doesn’t like a pleasant surprise amid tight budgets and strict deadlines? Give them some donuts or chilled drinks on a hot day. Allow them to take a short break, enjoy the treat, and return to work. If your treat is blended with a little humor, nothing can match that. They will enjoy such fun treats during busy days or stressful times.  

Have an employee wall of fame

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words. You can achieve results that a long letter of appreciation cannot achieve with a photo. A wall of fame is a great way to highlight the achievements of both individuals and teams. It’s a distinct method to put your organization’s culture on a show for everyone to see. You can click candid pictures while they are at work and use them to put them on the wall of fame. You can also highlight team wins with photos of the team once they complete projects, achieve sales targets, or win new projects.

Leverage social media

Use your company’s social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to appreciate your employees. When you recognize your star employees on social media, you showcase your company’s culture and values for everyone to see. Recognizing employees on social media is a major manner to share how proud the company is of its employees. When sharing the success of your employee, make sure to give a small bio with their role, achievement, and how it benefitted the organization. You can be sure that the recognized employees will share the social recognition posts with their followers. Isn’t this a simple way of creating brand ambassadors for your organization?

Plan an off-site 

A little change of place is sure to boost productivity. You can plan the off-site at a café, a resort, or any location that suits the team. However, it would be best to let them know what they are being recognized or appreciated for. It will ensure to give them a clear focus. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to off-site. You can also celebrate the halfway of a project with an off-site.

Give rotation trophy 

Giving a trophy you can pass around the office is a great way to boost employee engagement. You can give it to an employee to demonstrate your organizational values. Allow them to keep it on their desk for a week. Create a note with the trophy mentioning what organizational value the employee showed to earn it. Announce it to your peers. In the next team meeting or the following month, the employee can hand it off to the next employee who deserves it. This is a great way to build employee engagement and a culture of recognition.

Employee recognition tees

Design various T-shirt designs for different awards and encourage them to wear them each Friday. Either create a T-shirt for each company value and give the team or have the teammates sign a company tee with thank you messages.

Cheers for peers 

Peer recognition is a sincere expression of praise and appreciation between co-workers. It is based on the concept of employees celebrating each other. Peer-to-peer recognition involves everyone in the organization stepping up and sharing praise. In this program, there is no excessive stress on managers and executives to be the only ones providing praise and recognition. The entire organization can work together to improve team morale and appreciation. Making peer-to-peer recognition a part of your recognition strategy helps increase employee engagement and form a great culture.

Conclusion

You can do employee appreciation in many forms, but whatever your methodology, it’s one of the most treasured areas. Applying the right recognition program is a significant way toward employee engagement.

Employee appreciation programs are powerful and improve employee engagement, increase productivity, boost morale, and reduce attrition. As the pandemic-induced work culture shifts are getting normalized, it is important to adopt and customize employee appreciation programs to improve employee engagement.