One of the many things that employees look forward to in their job is to be recognized. Being recognized can become a driving force for an employee to keep thriving, become better, and be more productive. Furthermore, it’s also a great way to show to the whole team members that every effort they give counts to the success of a business. Thus, when you’re a business owner or manager, you must create an employee recognition system to show appreciation to your people that their contributions to the company are highly valued.   

If you’re planning to start a recognition program, here are five tips that will guide you in establishing an effective and reinforcing employee recognition system. Boost their morale, improve company culture, and lead your company to greater success through these methods:  

1. Have a Criteria  

To start, you need to set criteria for your employees. How do you want them to be recognized? Take note of your expectations regarding your company’s production, sales, and other positive outcomes you wish to have for your business. Then, you can compare these to your employees’ actions, efforts, and behaviors. You also need to make other sets of criteria for other departments depending on their line of work. The clearer your criteria will be, the easier it’ll be for them to perform accordingly.   

Furthermore, you also need to understand the cost and coverage of your employee reward system. Running to the store to buy gift cards and attaching handwritten notes may have worked for your small company. But once your company grows into 100 people or more, your current reward system may not work anymore. As a solution, you can utilize a reward platform or software wherein your employees can redeem their rewards through codes and claim gift cards for branded online stores. 

2. Make Everyone Eligible For Recognition 

An effective employee recognition system should recognize everyone in the company with no exception, regardless of their job responsibilities. This means you need to provide equal opportunity and give everyone a chance to be recognized. Rewarding the same employee over and over again might make others feel overlooked, or they may sense a type of managerial favoritism, something which your employees should never feel from you. 

3. Practice the Recognition System As Close to Their Performance 

When you recognize an employee for their performance, make sure to do the recognition as close to when they performed excellently. For example, if a certain employee was able to hit or exceed the target sales, you can recognize that person for that month. This will boost the employee’s company satisfaction and motivate them to continue performing well for the following months. This will also encourage the other employees to do the same. Annual recognition may only be applicable for awards like: 

• Employee of the year 
• Years of service award 
• Work anniversary award 
• Yearly sales achievement award 

You can also practice the recognition system in an unexpected way, or in other words, with an element of surprise. For example, you can recognize an employee out of the blue by giving them a gift card or a free lunch as a way of appreciating their hard work.  

4. Set a Fair and Unbiased Standards For Recognition 

Avoid recognizing an employee based on subjective criteria. Doing this will only make the employees think they’re recognized based on the manager’s favorites and not solely on their performance and output. The best standard to use when recognizing employees should be through figures (e.g., sales total, revenue, number of clients recruited). 

5. Make Your Employee Recognition System a Fun Experience 

Lastly, make your employee recognition system fun and pleasant experience. For instance, you can ask everyone to wear themed costumes during the rewarding ceremony. Then, besides rewarding the top performers, you can include the best in costume award.  

Another way to create a fun recognition experience is by fostering a rewarding work environment. For example, you can treat everyone to ice creams, cakes, or other goodies out of the blue as your way of recognizing their efforts for exceeding the monthly target sales.  

The Bottom Line 

As you can see, giving out rewards and recognitions will help the employers and employees achieve what they need in different ways. The employees will continue to perform better due to the recognition, while the employer will enjoy a more successful business due to the employees’ good performance. So, start incorporating these tips to help yourself organize an effective employee recognition system for your company.