Image by Nationwide Children’s Hospital via Flickr
One of the big challenges any recognition program faces is keeping up momentum once its newness wears off.
Maintaining a program takes constant monitoring and a degree of effort. In fact, change and flexibility is a must. So here’s what you can do to ensure your employee recognition programs remain effective.
- Packaging the Program
Your program needs a name, an identity, and a theme. Use the program’s graphics on internal communication, cards, newsletters, and even award certificates. This all helps to rally your employees. You could get posters of the event made and get color copies (look at this website for some help) to distribute amongst employees and staff.
- Remind the Team
Write an article for the company newsletter, or post something on the intranet to let employees know how to recognize the program and why. It’s important to let managers and employees know that the program is an important part of the culture at the company and you’d like them all to participate.
- Recognize Champions
Recognize the active program users in a public setting, such as during a staff meeting. Award them with a small gift and certificate to acknowledge their accomplishments. Recognising active individuals sends the message to the rest of the staff that you do recognize their efforts. It’s also a great way to reward the employees who are dedicated to the program.
- Adding New Rewards
You could add employee gift cards and rewards to the program to recapture interest. This may just spark new life into the program.
- A Program Mascot
You can generate and sustain excitement for the program by recruiting a mascot to represent your recognition program.
- Team Incentives
You can motivate staff to be more active in the program by setting a goal, such as a free lunch or casual day. Tell the employees what the prize will be in advance to inspire them to strive for it.
- Make The Recognition More Accessible
Is your current program easy for everyone to use? If you don’t currently have a peer-to-peer recognition program in place in your business, make recognition more accessible for everyone.
You could try creating an area at work where there is a supply of streamers, poster paper, magic markers, balloons, and masking tape. Encourage everyone to use the area to create spontaneous bouts of recognition for their colleagues. Let everyone know it’s okay to take the time out to celebrate together and that all those materials are for everyone to use for recognition-related tasks.
- Inject a New Theme Into Your Recognition Program
Try changing things up a bit in your program by using a new theme. Switch things up but ensure the themes fit your business’s identity, values and culture.
- Survey Your Employees
If you’ve already been trying to boost your recognition programs and haven’t seen much change in excitement levels and employee participation, you may need to try a different approach and try surveying your team. Ask your staff what they think would generate more interest in the program, their suggestions for improvements, and what sort of rewards they would prefer. You may just discover that your program needs a serious revamp.
- Creating The New Recognition Program
Essentially, your team may just be ready for a brand new recognition program. Go ahead and conduct a short review to determine how long your program has been in place and what your staff like or dislike about it. Then get them all involved in putting together a new recognition program.
In today’s hustle and bustle, even a little recognition can go a long way to boosting moral, production, and general workplace happiness. Implement your program today!
