Four Ways Managers Can Effectively Use Recognition

A good leader knows that recognition is important to managing a productive and happy team. Publicly recognizing good work or appreciated characteristics shows the team not only what matters, but that they matter as well. It also just feels good to be recognized and appreciated, which can lead to increased employee morale and retention. 

But how do you make sure recognition is effective and will have a positive impact? We’re here to help. Here are four ways managers can effectively use recognition to boost morale for their team. 

Reflect Your Company’s Values

If you’re not sure where to start with recognition, look towards your company’s values. Company’s values, also known as core values, are guiding principles and fundamental beliefs about the company’s vision, mission and principals. They are often characteristics that the company and its employees want to be known for. Good managers will know their company’s values and look for them in their team.

For example, if one of your company’s values is collaboration, you would want to recognize your team members for working well within and outside the team. Perhaps this is someone who freely offers their help to others or makes sure that all the stakeholders are updated and involved. Recognizing these efforts will really show that the company (and the manager) values collaboration, encouraging more of that characteristic. 

An easy way to connect your company’s values to recognitions is to use customizable templates, like Assembly’s Employee Recognition Template, to make it easy for anyone to recognize someone for acting out those values. 

Recognize Frequently and Regularly

Because of how valuable recognition is as a driver of company culture and employee retention, it has to be done frequently and regularly. Recognizing your team mates every once in a while or randomly just won’t have the positive effect recognition can have on your team. When you make recognition a frequent and regular part of your work habits, it will create a culture of recognition. Imagine how great it would be to work for a place full of people that recognizes each other for their achievements and hard work! 

The best way to create this awesome culture of recognition is to make it a part of your workflow as a manager. You don’t want to rely on yourself to remember to recognize and to encourage others to do the same. You also don’t want this to become a responsibility to one person or a specific team. Recognition should be a part of every employee’s workflow. Learn how easy that can be with Assembly’s Employee Recognition here. 

Make it Seamless 

Since it should be every employee’s regular activity to recognize their coworkers, you want to make sure that it is not a responsibility or a burden. Recognizing one another should be as easy and seamless as any other work activity like messaging on slack or creating a shared document. If recognizing a coworker takes multiple steps and a separate tool or log-in, it makes the process feel like an interruption from their work routine. 

To make recognition seamless, integrate with the other tools in your tech stack. It can be integrated with an HR tools like Workday or Bamboo or a security tool like Okta, ADP or OneLogin. Make it part of your work platform like Google G Suite or Office 365. Slack is also a great integration for recognition. And guess what, Assembly integrated with all of these and more! Learn about all the integrations Assembly offers to make recognition absolutely seamless. 

Recognize and Reward

Lastly, make the recognition worth it. Being recognized can be its own reward, but it can be even more impactful when it leads to an actual reward! By recognizing and rewarding, you’re telling your employees that you see their work and who they are AND you want to celebrate them! 

This combination can be done in so many ways! Keep track of the recognitions so you can call out and reward employees who have been recognized multiple times at a company’s all-hands or quarterly meeting. Amplify special recognitions by adding a gift, like a gift card or a meal, with it. Getting access to company swag is also a special treat. Get a demo of Assembly's employee recognition workflow to see how recognizing and rewarding can go hand-in-hand. 

So, there you go. To effectively use recognition you need to reflect your company’s values, recognize frequently and regularly, make it seamless and add a reward. Have questions or need real-life examples of how this works? Contact us today and we’ll show how you can effectively use recognition.