In today’s workforce, employees have greater autonomy and influence over business outcomes than ever before. The reason? Technology has changed the way we work. Interconnectedness means that organizations rely less on hierarchical structures in favor of greater collaboration. As a result, the behaviors of individuals and the ability to influence them becomes central to every organization’s success, including a dedicated strategy for encouraging and reinforcing those behaviors.
Best practice organizations are spending 1% or more of payroll dollars on an increasingly diverse range of employee recognition programs. As more companies realize the strategic value of recognition for reinforcing particular behaviors, practices and activities that result in better performance and positive business results, budgeting has become much more strategic. However, we still find organizations that don’t have a dedicated employee recognition budget or a strategy.
In our previously released eBook Best Practices for Building Employee Recognition Budgets, we provide practical guidance for building your employee recognition budget and your strategy for tracking, managing and ensuring accountability for the alignment of recognition programs with enterprise goals and objectives. In this post, we want to highlight the different types of recognition you should consider including in your recognition budget.
SERVICE AWARDS: Service awards express widespread appreciation for loyalty. These programs celebrate career milestones beginning in year one. These programs positively impact engagement levels and are overwhelmingly favored by all employee groups, including 80% of 25- to 34-year-olds.
PERFORMANCE RECOGNITION: Performance recognition programs target behaviors aligned with specific business objectives. This includes addressing challenges and opportunities tied to strategic business objectives, such as driving innovation, improving collaboration, enhancing workplace safety and increasing workgroup efficiency.
SOCIAL RECOGNITION: Social recognition enables employees to celebrate one another on a peer-to-peer basis. Programs such as these bring an important cultural dimension to employee recognition by adding social reinforcement to the demonstration of important behaviors and corporate values and amplifying recognition across the organization.
ONBOARDING RECOGNITION: Onboarding and preboarding programs reinforce when the risk of voluntary turnover is highest. They help you create fulfilling experiences that assimilate new employees into your culture and reduce time to productivity. Preboarding programs welcome new hires before their first day on the job.
The goal of your employee recognition strategy should be to reinforce the behaviors and activities that drive business results. Successful recognition strategies include programs designed to accomplish different objectives. Service awards express widespread appreciation for loyalty. Performance recognition programs target behaviors aligned with specific business objectives. Social recognition enables employees to celebrate one another on a peer-to-peer basis. And onboarding and preboarding programs provide reinforcement at a time when the risk of voluntary turnover is highest.
The recognition types include in this post, along with the guidance in our eBook can help you build a budget that is right for your organization heading into the new year.
