Employee recognition is integral to the health of your company. It can help to improve morale, boost productivity, and reduce turnover—all of which have been major concerns on the minds of business owners everywhere lately. But sometimes, it’s hard to tell if your employee recognition programs are actually working.
Getting the success of any program is difficult, and understanding the ROI of the program can be even more challenging. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to find out: technology. Today, we’ll go over how using technology can help improve the impact of your employee recognition initiatives and make them more meaningful for both employees and managers alike. Keep reading to learn more.
The importance of technology in employee recognition
Now that we’ve established the importance of recognizing employees let’s take a look at some specific ways in which you can use technology to do so. If your company has a mobile app, then you might consider including employee recognition as part of its overall function. Set it up as a sort of gamification where if they meet a certain task or objective, they might get a badge or some kind of recognition. They’ll say things like a good job or congratulations or be set up as more of a digital award.
Perhaps there can be points involved. When the points accumulate to a certain amount, then the employee can redeem them for Rewards or prizes. Badges and gamification allow everyone to see what’s going on with their peers and help develop a sense of camaraderie among workers. This ultimately improves company culture and morale, not to mention making work a little bit more fun for the employees. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution and may not be helpful depending on the business, but gamification can be a powerful tool when it comes to building a sense of recognition in the office. Rewards should be part of that, and they should be implemented appropriately.
Real-time insights and analytics
After you’ve implemented a recognition program at your office, you’re going to want to understand how it’s being used and what type of work is being recognized. It can be part of a larger overall platform. Many modern employee recognition programs offer the ability to obtain real-time insights on how the program is running, when it’s being used, who’s doing certain tasks, and much more.
This can inform positive changes in the workplace and help drive better recognition in the organization as a whole. Real-time insights are the key to understanding how your employees feel about their work and the company. It’s vital to be able to identify high performance and can recognize it when you see it. Certain tools let you analyze your employee recognition program in real-time and make changes as needed, making it a superb piece of technology for all your recognition needs.
Small meaningful changes
A significant perk of employee recognition programs is that they help employers make small meaningful changes in the lives of their workers. The best recognition programs make it easy to feel appreciated by peers, managers, and the company itself. Small changes are much more effective than large ones and can have a greater impact. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on recognition awards or a bunch of anniversary parties. It can be a simple thank you message, shout out on the social recognition platform, or recognition of some sort of important milestone.
Creating an environment where people want to work together toward common goals is what recognition is all about. When you see what people recognize each other for, it’s easy to implement small changes that can help the organization—and its employees—grow together. With the right technology, you can take what used to be a comprehensive process and distill it into something much simpler in the long term.
Improving company culture
Another key area where employee recognition and technology converge to create a better working environment is company culture. Company culture is an integral aspect of running a business, and employees can benefit from a positive culture. If you don’t have a positive company culture, the opposite can happen, and that’s what makes employees leave the company. A positive company culture is important and should not be overlooked as part of the overall recognition process.
Create a sense of belonging
Recognition and rewards software helps you create a sense of belonging across the company. By improving company culture, you will show employees that you appreciate them and care about them as people and make them feel more connected with the company. Positive company culture also gives employees a sense of belonging, and it motivates them to work harder regardless of their department. When they feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, they might be more inclined to embrace company values and feel like they’re contributing to something meaningful.
At the end of the day, you want your employees to feel like they belong and that they’re part of something bigger than themselves. Using employee recognition and rewards effectively will help you accomplish this goal and create an environment where your employees actually want to be.
Photo credit: The feature image has been done by Deagreez.
