Employee recognition is and will continue to be an essential part of company culture. The reason is pretty straightforward. Employees are more likely to perform well when they feel appreciated, recognized, and happy.
Despite all of that, there are still instances where employees have reported that they do not feel recognized at their workplace! We must acknowledge that employee recognition is not widely adopted in many industries. If you try to dig deeper, the reasons can be manifold.
One of the most common errors that people make is believing that employee recognition is a one-size-fits-all solution. Every organization must have its own employee recognition ideas and strategies to suit its unique work environment and values. With increased gender diversity in the workplace and multi-generational workforce, what works for one person may not be meaningful to another.
Having said that, we must also understand what it means for employees to be recognized at work.
What does Recognition Mean to an Employee?
In simple words, employees want to know if their work and effort are helping in adding value to the company. It is crucial for them because it provides them with a sense of direction and purpose in what they are doing and why they are doing it.
So how do you let them know? It can either be verbal or something more tangible. By verbal recognition, I mean expressing appreciation by just saying “thank you” or by praising them, either in private or among their peers.
Another great way to show employee recognition, perhaps the most effective one, is through tangible recognition. It can include incentives, gifts, or even a promotion! It gives people the drive to perform better and adds that little bounce to their steps.
As employee recognition methods cannot be the same for all organizations, every employee also has different ways of perceiving recognition. Some might get motivated by monetary rewards, while others can be content with a simple gesture of appreciation.
To understand this better, we have a comprehensive Guide on Employee Rewards and Recognition, helping you from the basics to the very last stage of implementation.
Why Do We Need Rewards and Recognition in the workplace?
We often consider rewards and recognition to be the same. But there are some obvious differences between them.
Simply put, you reward someone when you want them to repeat a (positive) behaviour. We practice this basic human psychology even with children when parents want them to perform better.
On the other hand, when someone sees their peers getting rewards for their effort, it positively impacts motivating them to perform better.
Having a robust employee recognition program will help you see increased employee engagement levels and motivation in a workplace. Above all, your employees will feel valued.
Rewarding an employee on their significant milestones is an excellent way to strengthen their commitment to your company.
Having A Total Employee Recognition Solution For Your Workplace
Having an employee recognition program has hidden costs that can add up to turn quite expensive. HRs and leaders have struggled to balance between having an effective R&R program and maintaining the budget.
In such a case, Total Recognition Programs provide a well-rounded approach to staff recognition without having to break the bank. It is a 360-degree platform that combines all kinds of employee recognition programs into one.
In an industry report published by Vantage Circle, it was found that 39% of HRs and 23% of managers consider total recognition programs as the ideal form of non-monetary incentives.
Knowing the importance of engagement on business success, Vantage Circle designed an all-in-one employee engagement platform that combines rewards and recognition, employee benefits, employee feedback, and wellness programs. All into a unified total solution.
Their reward and recognition solution has a powerful yet simple AI-based platform, making employee recognition easy, fun, effective, and globally accessible.
Its multilingual and mobile-friendly setup provides a smooth user experience, easy-to-use and, customizable solution.
Some of the key features include:
Peer-to-peer recognition: This feature allows employees to give quick, easy, and timely recognition to their peers. It includes a social leaderboard, a timeline feed, a way to drive engagement through “likes” and “comments”.
On-the-spot recognition: An instant way to recognize employees, this feature allows you to keep your recognition quick, public, and timely.
Point-based Rewards: Managers give awards as points that can be accrued over time or redeemed into some monetary reward.
Manager Dashboard: The manager dashboard gives you deep insights into employee trends, top performers, and behaviours that help you in equal and fair recognition. You can generate and download real-time reports for the points allocated to employees, teams, or departments.
Global Catalog: Our global catalogue offers employees the flexibility to select their own reward from a wide variety of products and services. It includes top brands in all major countries around the world. Once employees redeem points, gift card details are sent instantly to their emails.
SOLI Framework: Global organizations need global solutions. Especially when implementing a company-wide solution, such as a rewards and recognition program. SOLI-based reward system provides organizations with the means to reward employees justly. SOLI framework goes beyond the currency conversion rates (which change frequently) and measures against the living standards in that country.
Deep integrations: Our integration strategy enables the Vantage Circle platform to integrate seamlessly with 3rd part platforms to make your workflows as smooth as possible. The standard integrations via pre-configured APIs enable unified access and easy data flow to and from Vantage Circle. Deep integrations with MS Teams allow users to do all recognition and reward actions from within teams. Also, deep integrations with goal management systems allow alignment of recognition with performance.
AI-driven functionalities: Vantage Circle's AI-driven technology acts as a key driver to automate the entire employee engagement process. It has an AI-driven filter (Recent v/s Relevant) that helps users get a personalized experience viewing the social timeline. Also, a 'Text Prediction' feature automatically generates the next possible word that fits well with the message while recognizing peers.
Bottom Line
Keeping employees motivated and engaged is not easy. But, practicing a culture of employee recognition and appreciation will surely help. The collaboration between Rembrandt and Vantage Circle will surely make employee recognition easier, fairer, and more meaningful.