For those of you who have participated in an employee recognition program, you already know how important it is to the employees themselves, the team, and the company as a whole. Not only does employee recognition boost the workplace performance, it also boosts morale among the employees, reduces turnover rates, creates positive attitude among the staff, improves productivity, creates the best working atmosphere and improves overall safety among significant other benefits.
If you want to gain all the above advantages with your recognition program, there are some common mistakes that you need to avoid at all costs. They include:
Inconsistency
You should note that employee recognition programs can only be effective and successful if you follow through them. But some people reward their employees for the first 6 months of the employee recognition program and soon, they begin to slack off. This is wrong and detrimental to your company.
You want to commit yourself fully to the recognition programs so that the employees are properly rewarded for that good thing they bring to your company. Your employees don’t need much from you, if not seeing a pattern of gifts and awards given to help them shine for the next recognition event. Don’t place the program on the back of your burner; employee recognition program is always advantageous to companies that are actually participating in them.
Not defining prerequisites
When you are planning to launch employee recognition programs in your company, you should make sure that you clearly display the prerequisites that are necessary for achieving those rewards. Most companies use their best judgment approach to determine suitability for employee recognition rewards. You should know that this can cause anger and resentment among some employees. The solution is to clearly define what workers must do in order to achieve an employee recognition reward.
No clear objectives and goals
You want to define your objectives and goals before launching any employee recognition program. What is this you are hoping to accomplish anyway? It could be that you want to create a better attitude in the company by showing your staffs that all of their hard work is being noticed or simply encourage employees to be more proactive by using the performance incentive model. Whatever you want to achieve, it is always important to set clear objectives and goals when designing your employ recognition plan. And there is nothing wrong if you want to engage professionals; they will come in handy in this one.
Recognizing the same employee
This is another common and big mistake. You don’t want to continue recognizing the same employees every time. In fact, it is wrong to name the same staff ’employee of the month’ several times. You want to spread the love across the board, so that every other employee has their own opportunity. Be careful because recognizing the same employee every other time can create some sense of discontent among other employees at the work place. Of course there are performers in the work place who you cannot afford to lose, but you want to check if the weaker staffs have improved in their performance too. Reward them for that even if they are not the best performers currently. This way, you will encourage team work and also improve on productivity.
Generic recognition
This happens when you send out bulk messages, gifts or announcements so as to recognize all of your employees without even taking some time to personalize the rewards. You should note that, although generic ‘thank you’ cards are easier to make and consume less time creating tens of the same recognition rewards, they do not carry much weight nowadays. And they won’t have much positive effect on your employees. Chances are high the recipients will toss the gifts in the trash where they cannot be heard of or seen again.
There is a better approach; that of personalizing your gifts or rewards. You want to custom tailor the employee recognition program so that your employees are individually recognized. There is nothing wrong with writing out those ‘thank you’ cards or letters, but it is prudent to make sure that they contain unique information about the individual. Alternatively, you can reward your employee with a personalized plaque or trophy with the employee’s name engraved on it. It is simple; the recognition reward needs to be tailored towards your recipient.
Rewarding wrong recipients
You need to carefully choose your recipients for the recognition program. You don’t want to reward a person who slacks off for a number of hours a day only to annoy the other employees. Make sure that you handout employee recognition rewards to only the people who rightfully deserve them.
Are you wondering what kinds of corporate gifts and other awards you should give your employees? Contact us at Crystal Plus. We stock all kinds of employee recognition awards and gifts you can think of, and we can even personalize the award for you!
