Employee Recognition is Easy if You Follow These Steps

According to RewardGateway, an effective recognition and reward program helps drive business results and increase employee retention. However, only 22 percent of managers strongly agree that their company provides them with the tools and understanding on how to recognize colleagues effectively.

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is they expect managers to do certain things to be a good leaders, but they don’t communicate those expectations to managers or give them the necessary training and tools.

I believe that leaders are born, not made. I think a person comes out of their mother’s womb with a leadership chip in them or not. Meaning, they have innate skills to lead that other people were not born with.  Can everyone improve as a leader with the proper training, even people who are not born with a leadership chip? Yes, but organizations must provide adequate training and development opportunities for managers, and many do not.

So how do you provide effective recognition? It must be genuine, timely, and specific. In addition, the most successful managers engage in a dialogue with each of their direct reports to understand what type of recognition the employee would appreciate (a day off, a gift card, a thank you, for instance), and whether they like public or private accolades.

What Can I Do? Begin recognizing workers using the GTS model: Genuine, Timely, and Specific. Also, set-up 10-minute sessions with each of your direct reports to understand what type of recognition the employee would appreciate, and whether they want to be recognized privately or publicly. Your employees will love you for it.