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Recognize Your Employees

As Kleiman pointed out earlier, recognition is a top motivator for employees.

The Workhuman and Gallup report found that only 34% of employees reported that their employer had a recognition program. Of those who said their employer had an employee recognition program, only 13% rated it as excellent. This highlights that employers today are missing a key opportunity to reinforce their organizational culture and values by recognizing and celebrating the type of performance they want to see repeated across the organization. 

The report also noted that employees who strongly agreed that recognition was an important part of their organization’s culture were 3.7 times as likely to be engaged at work, 3.8 times as likely to feel connected to their company culture and half as likely to experience frequent burnout compared to those who didn’t agree that recognition was a key part of their organization’s culture. In other words, recognition matters. It matters for engagement, alignment and in reducing turnover.

The report further pointed out that employees who said their company’s recognition program was aligned with the values of the organization were 4.9 times more likely to strongly agree that they understood what was expected of them at work compared to those who said their company’s recognition program was not aligned with the values of the organization.

Setting clear expectations and rewarding the performance you want to see is key. Consider how your chain can recognize employees in line with the values and expectations of your company culture.

If these steps feel like too much to tackle at once, remember that it all starts with a decision to commit to being a star employer. Once you make that decision, you’re already on the path to improving your labor management practices.