Employee Recognition
The Key to a Winning Retention Strategy
Employee recognition both public and private is a key factor in winning retention strategy. Showing your employees how much you appreciate them by recognizing their efforts and contributions costs little and gains a lot.
What is Recognition?
Many confuse the concept of recognition with a pat on the back for a good job. While everyone can use a pat on the back, that is only part of it. Everyone wants to be recognized and appreciated for their specific contribution. The key here is specific.
It can be private or public. Both are effective and both should be brought into play, even in small groups. It can be in the form of a some good words in a meeting in front of his or her peers or it can be more formal like the employee of the month. The important thing is to say specifically what accomplishment, what function or what act is being singled out and recognized.
Specifics of Employee Recognition
There are a number of ways to show appreciations and recognize efforts. Whether in public or private, they should all have a few common characteristics;
- Specific Action or Accomplishment
- Reason why it is important
- Then translate what it means to you, the group or the company
Recognition Examples
Private - Jim, I don't know if you know this but I've been watching the progress you have made on the design and I can see you are ahead of schedule. I want you to know this means a lot to the folks over in development because it will give them a head start and it gives us a good chance to deliver on time for the customer. I wanted to let you know we appreciate all you are doing and say thanks for the great work.
Public - Before the meeting is over I'd like to have Judy our safety coordinator come up her for an award. Judy, this is the 6th consecutive month we've been running without an accident. That means no down time or lost production due to safety issues. That means a lot to this department because we are the first department to accomplish this feat in 3 years. Let's give a hand to our Employee of the Quarter Judy Smith!
Word of Caution
There are a couple things that should be considered to make appreciation a valuable tool in retention. It must be
sincere. That means it should be a real accomplishment and the employee recognition should be for something that is tangible and real.
The second piece of advice is to know your employees. Some may not like individual public recognition. Some are okay with public recognition as long as it is part of a group. Some may not want any public recognition. The point is you need to know the personalities and cultural issues associated with your employees and recognized them and their accomplishments that will be most productive for your company.
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