Why do some companies have consistently high turnover? High turnover is often caused by nonexistent communication between management and staff. Other reasons are a lack of support or recognition of accomplishments and company culture. What is recognition in the workplace?
Recognition in the workplace sometimes looks like encouragement, feedback, and appreciation for contributions to the organization's progress. Many managers know that appreciating their team is something they should be doing. A pizza party, happy hour with the team, or handwritten notes with thank you, is an excellent way to create cohesion among your team. Here are five other ways one can use to reward employees for stellar performances.
Express thanks to your team members: Human beings love positive feedback. Your employees want to hear a good report about their contribution to the organization. This can affect their self-worth and build a bond between you and your team. According to OGO, more than 40% of American workers would increase their efforts if their coworkers consistently recognized them. Many employees prefer verbal rewards rather than rewards or bonuses. To increase engagement among your team, they need to hear you say "thank you" every time they accomplish something great. Know your team intimately and the contributions they make. You can send them a thank you note, a thank you text, or an email.
Personalize employee rewards: Find meaningful ways to reward your employees and appreciate their contributions. You could give symbolic gifts based on the gravity of the contribution and the effect on the organization's bottom line. You can also appreciate members of your team who have made it a habit of being punctual at work every day to help contribute to the success of your organization. Some of the great ideas for symbolic gifts you can give to your team to appreciate them are tickets to their favorite club match, a week-long cruise at the end of the year for a family vacation, or purchasing a Swiss-made watch. Other minor gifts could be getting a coveted parking space or being named employee of the month. Get to know your team, goals, desires, and personality traits. This will help you keep them motivated and engaged.
Show appreciation: Callup, a global telecoms company, advised other companies who want to retain their talent or boost organic growth to focus on employee recognition. Every manager knows how important it is to improve engagement, and making appreciation part of company culture is the way to do it. Many employees in companies that do not have employee recognition as part of their program report that they feel unappreciated. This often results in less productivity and higher turnover. To retain your best talent and experience high-level engagement and productivity, you should recognize your team and what they do for the company. Recognizing an employee for increasing the bottom line can help increase the dopamine levels in analytical team members. They want praise for something tangible and targeted. This will help your team know what you want and do more of it.
Give monetary bonuses or gift cards: Understand your team well and discover what they appreciate. If your team has many entry-level young ones strapped for cash, money to pay bills can help them lower their stress levels. You can give out money or gift cards weekly or fortnightly. You can give cash rewards to one or two team members that go the extra mile in helping the organization meet its goals. This will make your team feel valued. Although cash can be a way to make team members happy, a word of advice is to make it a part of the appreciation program and not the entire package.
Let the employees do the gifting: Allow your team to participate in the giving of rewards to improve engagement amongst the team. Get members' input by having them nominate others for annual or quarterly rewards. Let them nominate others anonymously and give a reason for their nomination. They read the nominations aloud and the appreciative comments made by their teammates. Many modern organizations use reward systems to acknowledge those who promote workplace culture or communicate the organization's values.
Appreciate your team with gifts, team bonding sessions, time out together or as a department, and the odd gift of a Swiss-made watch for those who have made valuable contributions financially or in time commitment. This would help to maintain engagement and minimize turnover at your organization.