Often, many employees do their jobs in relative obscurity, receiving little to no credit for their efforts. Employees whose hard work and dedication are not recognized are more likely to become dissatisfied with their jobs, causing inefficient work and costly turnover.

If your company does not yet have a system for recognizing employees’ contributions, creating one comes with many concrete benefits. Something as simple as recognition plaques for a job well done can be the gesture needed for an employee to feel that their work is valued.

This article will describe the many benefits of beginning an employee recognition program, offering suggestions of the types of programs that your company could start.

What Are the Benefits of Employee Recognition?

The primary benefit of employee recognition is that it makes workers happy. A happy worker is far more likely to work productively and to remain loyal to the company and its mission.

While not everyone physically takes work home from the office, everyone takes home their thoughts and feelings about the workplace. When employees have a reason to think positively about their jobs, they are more likely to go to work with a smile on their faces.

Image provided by EDCO.

Teamwork is improved when companies recognize their workers for doing their jobs well. Strong feelings of team camaraderie can be enhanced by recognizing members for their efforts. Understanding how to create proper teamwork is one of the most important aspects of the supervisor’s job, and recognizing employees who do it well encourages others to follow suit.

Another benefit of employee recognition is greater trust in supervisory employees. In the workplace, trust between the employee and their supervisor is one of the most important considerations. When supervisors reach out to employees and appreciate their efforts, their workers are more likely to trust them. Thanking employees for fulfilling their responsibilities is always a good idea.

Employee retention is a huge piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding why recognition programs are a good idea. Training a brand-new employee is expensive and could cost as much as $4,000 and involve 42 days in lost productivity while waiting for the new hire. Naturally, most workplaces want to avoid excessive turnover for this reason.

Employees who are appreciated are far more likely to stay in their jobs for an extended period of time. Their loyalty to the company should be rewarded.

Morale and purpose are also positively impacted by employee recognition programs. Employees are more likely to take the company’s values seriously and to conduct themselves in a way that could benefit their employer.

Implementing an Employee Recognition Program

Creating a working employee recognition program is one of the most important considerations for your business’s continuing success. Human resources officers and supervisors should get together and research productive ways to recognize employees for their efforts.

First, employers should sit down and formulate their plans. They should ask themselves what problems employee recognition programs solve and how solving them will positively impact business objectives.

Employers will need to decide what types of rewards they are willing to provide. Many private-sector employers are able to afford cash awards and gift cards, but nonprofits will have to be more creative in how they reward their employees. Fortunately, research shows that employers who have these programs spend only a very small portion of their payroll budgets on recognition.

Types of Recognition Programs

Here are four major types of recognition programs:

1. Tenure Awards

Recognizing employees at certain work milestones is beneficial. It encourages other employees to stay longer in their jobs as well.

2. Spot Awards

A spot award recognizes contributions for specific tasks or projects. They are an excellent choice for frequent, ongoing recognition. Spot awards are helpful when employees have completed a large project and are feeling drained or stressed by their work. It is essential to understand that employees need to be recognized at these times.

3. Points Systems

Points systems enable employees to choose their own rewards from a predetermined menu. This is a great option for companies with many remote workers.

Points systems can also have a social component, where peers can award each other points to be used on gifts and merchandise. Peer-to-peer recognition has a better effect on financial results than recognition given by managers alone.

4. Performance Recognition

This system rewards individual employee performance. Sales, wellness, and safety are three categories where this type of recognition can be helpful. This program could produce healthy competition between employees.

Employee Recognition Works

Recognition plaques, trophies, and other engraved awards are tangible reminders of a company’s gratitude toward its employees. Understanding how companies reward their employees for high performance requires some research, but it is a worthwhile course of action.

Take some time to think about how your employees would like to be recognized for their work, and try to implement one of these programs. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much employee productivity, morale, and turnover are improved.

EDCO Awards & Specialties is a premier supplier of Corporate Recognition Products, Branded Merchandise and Athletic Awards on the Internet. Incorporated in 1969 and originally known as Trophies by EDCO, Inc. EDCO has been supplying branded merchandise including employee recognition products, executive gifts and service awards on the internet for many years.  EDCO first showed up on the web in the mid 90’s as the first Awards business online!