Steven Handmaker — March 1, 2019 — March 1, 2019
Robert Half, a global staffing firm, recently reported that 12 percent of workers say they would quit their job because they don’t feel appreciated.
These days organizations are looking for new ways to stand-out and even more ways to retain their current high performing employees. However, what organizations forget from time to time is the simplest key to a happy employee is recognition. Not just any type of recognition, but personalized recognition.
Personalization enhances the employee experience and without it, appreciation and recognition are not as meaningful. It doesn’t take much time, effort or money to personalize appreciation, but the improvements in engagement and retention could be significant.
Here are three long-lasting steps you can start with today to personalize employee recognition:
1. Ask employees about their preferences: Discover how they want to be recognized when they do something awesome. This can be done during the on-boarding process on a simple notecard that’s then given to the manager for safe keeping, or you can have it as a check-up question on reviews in case preferences change over time. The more you know about your employees, the easier personalization is!
2. When appreciating someone, be specific by naming accomplishments: Tell them exactly what you’re proud of. The more specific the better. “Thank you for your contribution to this report” is vastly inferior to, “Thank you for swooping in at the last minute to edit this report under immense deadline pressure.” Take it one step further by tying the accomplishment to how it benefited the organization overall. Employees will feel a greater sense of value and understand the importance of their contributions to the success of the organization.
3. Be creative and have fun with it: If you know personal things about the employee, add it to the way you appreciate. If they get a caramel macchiato every day from Starbucks, surprise them with one. If they like Star Wars, give them a Yoda coffee mug to keep at their desk.
A culture of appreciation leads people to work together to achieve more, and when recognition goes viral, participation soars. Learn more on how to effectively attract talent while keeping employees engaged in this video.
This story was co-written by Michele McDermott.
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