25 Effective Employee Recognition Ideas for Business Leaders
1. Create employee enrichment with real-time recognition: Hallmark Business Connections’ new mobile engagement solution makes real-time employee recognition easy and accessible for managers anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
2. Display employee contributions to management: To highlight individual and team-wide successes, invite management to attend meetings with employees so that all groups can be present for recognition.
3. Use social media to showcase employee achievements: With employee permission, use company social media accounts to showcase what makes employees special and why they earned an appreciation award or recognition.
4. Offer flexible work schedules: Recognition programs should take into account what matters to employees. Flexible work arrangements, which allow employees to balance their professional and personal lives, can enhance employee health and wellness, improve retention, and increase employee engagement productivity.
5. Offer one-on-one praising: Not everyone likes being recognized publically. For employees who prefer to be recognized individually (and in private), set up one-on-one meetings at a time and place that’s convenient for the individual being recognized.
6. Hold a monthly recognition meeting: Have a monthly breakfast meeting in an outside location. Invite your team, share ideas, and recognize at least one person over the course of the meeting.
7. Set up a celebration calendar: To make recognition accessible to everyone and visually appealing, post a large “celebration calendar” in the break or lunch room. Tack on notes of recognition for specific dates (i.e., “Mary celebrates 10 years of service this Thursday!” or “Nice work on today’s client presentation, XYZ!”).
8. Include a “Moment of Excellence” during staff meetings: During regular staff meetings include a “Moment of Excellence” to acknowledge employee contributions. Make sure to recognize different employees during each meeting (giving credit where credit is due, of course) to make everyone on the team feels valued.
9. Tell people, face to face, what a great job they’re doing: Perhaps, more than anything else, employees appreciate direct expressions of gratitude. Human contact has a power to move us far beyond plaques and gift cards. It’s a tool that shouldn’t be overlooked.
10. Get to know staff: To establish a connection with employees (and inspire lasting engagement), get to know a new hire or an employee with whom you don’t normally interact. Information you learn, such as favorite food or hobbies, could be useful in future recognition efforts.
11. Offer professional development opportunities: Encourage employees to identify specific areas of interest in job-related skills. Then arrange for them to spend a day with an in-house “expert” to learn more about the topic.
12. Make it fun: Google offers a great example of how you can make an office environment fun, while still getting results and encouraging employees to reach their objectives. They joke around, play tricks on each other, and have mascots and rituals that keep the culture alive and well. And, despite so, they seem to have super productive employees, too, so it isn’t all fun and games all the time either.
13. Reward employees with custom appreciation: When it comes to recognition, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution that will work for everyone. To make recognition effective, be sure to give it a personal touch. A sport enthusiast, for example, may appreciate tickets to go see their favorite team play whereas a parent with small children may prefer a day off to spend with the family.
14. Have an awards ceremony: Recognizing employees with periodic awards ceremonies can increase camaraderie and make each employee feel like they have a special place in your business.
15. Write a thank you card: This is simple, but nothing says “thank you” quite like the words themselves. By writing out a thank you card and leaving it on someone’s keyboard or mailing it to their home, you’re going a long way toward making an employee feel valued and appreciated not only by you, but by the company as well.
16. Create a game to reinforce recognition: Remember: Recognition can (and should) be fun! Cheryl Miller of Wells Fargo created the game, Race for Recognition, with the help of her art and design group. Wells Fargo managers played this western-themed board game as a way to reinforce both basic recognition principles and Wells Fargo’s recognition programs.
17. Plan a quarterly appreciation event: Once a quarter, take your team out to lunch, bowling, or for drinks after work. These events don’t need to be a huge time or resource sink, but getting together on a regular basis can pay dividends in more invested and appreciated employees.
18. Practice random acts of recognition: Instead of recognizing an employee for a job well done after the fact, select an individual (either deliberately or at random) and then actively find a reason to recognize the employee. This creative approach to recognition encourages you to focus on the individual’s strengths (i.e., the source of their value and ongoing contributions to your organization) and then observe when he or she applies those strengths.
19. Cater breakfast or lunch: It’s often said that the way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. The same principle applies for work. Start the day off by bringing in a tray of doughnuts (or, better yet, yogurt, granola, and fruit to reinforce workplace wellness programs) for the office. Follow it up with lunch. Just be sure you know what kind of special treats your employees prefer!
20. Let employees give peer praise: Put a large sheet of paper near the work space of an employee being recognized and ask the rest of your staff to leave anonymous kudos. By day’s end, they’ll have a poster full of affirmations that will make them feel all warm and fuzzy.
21. Encourage employees to take advantage of their earned time off: There’s never a perfect time to take a vacation from work, but you can show appreciation for your employees’ hard work and dedication by helping clear the path for time away from the office. Encouraging employees to take advantage of their earned time off demonstrates that you care about your members’ well-being and they value the importance of having a work/life balance.
22. Make a video: As an alternative to a handwritten note, consider taking your recognition to the next level with a short and fun video clip for your employee to watch. You can record something easily from your smartphone and make it available to them within your company Intranet or publicly.
23. Give out Monopoly money: Develop fake “Monopoly” type money based on team achievements and allow team members to redeem it for items of their choosing – gift cards, gift certificates, company merchandise, etc. Giving employees the freedom to choose recognition awards can make them feel that you value their individual preferences.
24. Pay for a conference: To show employees you’re making an investment in their future, pay for individuals to attend industry conferences or offer other educational or mentoring opportunities.
25. Change titles and/or roles for deserving employees: Job title or role changes and improvements can give employees a real boost in morale even when pay increases are not available.
Final Thoughts
Employee recognition doesn’t need to break the bank in order to be effective. In fact, very few of the examples highlighted above involve a significant company financial investment. On the other hand, many require an investment in time on the part of business leaders and company executives. What this shows is that the most effective recognition programs involve making a personal connection with individual employees that inspires deep, lasting engagement.
What are some of your company’s best employee recognition ideas? Which ideas would you add to our list?
