Employee recognition has been a long-overlooked element of what makes for a successful workplace, but more companies are waking up to its importance, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A thoughtful and effective recognition program is planned well in advance with strategies that come into effect well before your program launches. And in these times, you must adapt your strategy as the majority of the workforce is working remotely. So, without further ado, here is a checklist for making sure you’re on track with the most essential employee recognition best practices when working remotely.
Employees must know the program exists
Since your team is working remotely, there are less chances of news spreading by word of mouth. Hence it is very important that you must create awareness of your loyalty program. If employees don’t know the program exists, other employee recognition program best practices will hardly make an impact.
Accessibility across locations and devices
You should be mindful of time zones and devices when assessing your program’s accessibility. This is especially crucial for organisations that have a presence in multiple countries. Globally distributed teams will need a program that can be accessed at any time. For employees who don’t do all their work on a computer, it will be better to include a mobile recognition app.
Make sure the rewards are useful
The new normal is not a new term anymore. People are still apprehensive about going shopping or any other activities they would have indulged in earlier. So, it is essential that you must revisit your rewards catalogue and make sure it includes offers valuable under current climate. It would be the best time for your brand to switch to multi-brand digital vouchers as it gives your employees the freedom to choose the rewards they love.
Rewards must be timely and relevant
The best employee recognition programs allow administrators to create custom recognition occasions. This helps employees know what to recognize each other for and gives leadership some control in encouraging specific behaviours. Like rewards, you should revisit your recognition occasions considering current events to ensure they still make sense.
Recognition must be a social experience
When it comes to employee recognition program best practices, making recognition social is a must. Allowing peers to like and comment on their colleague’s accomplishments via a public feed is an easy way to amplify the program’s impact. Recognition passed from one colleague to another is great, but when other peers have the chance to chime in, it means that much more.
The program data must be analysed
Perhaps the most critical employee recognition best practice of all is to pay careful attention to program metrics. Analytics can offer insight into participation, employee engagement, management practices, and more.
When looking closely at each of these employee recognition best practices, it’s important to acknowledge that choosing the right recognition platform plays a large role in their success. If HR leaders are managing an employee recognition strategy manually, they will face challenges with the manual processes of modifying the program and collecting data to measure and report results. By choosing a SaaS platform that automates these employee recognition strategies, HR leaders can eliminate the headache of manually maintaining a successful recognition program.
