Employee Appreciation & Productive Recognition

What Is Employee Appreciation

Timely, formal or informal, expressed
and appreciative acknowledgment of a person’s or team’s efforts above and beyond the call of duty or reasonable expectations in the course of their professional endeavors, or behaviors and results which uphold the company’s goals and values.

Does Employee Appreciation Even Matter?

“The number-one reason most Americans
leave their jobs is that they don’t feel appreciated.” - Gallup, Tom Rath and Donald Clifton “How Full Is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life”.

Companies with strategic recognition programs
report 71% and higher engagement levels among workers, as compared to companies with- out the same – 2012 SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey.

Disengaged workers cost the economy
$300B+ every year – Gallup, 2010.

Benefits Of Employee Appreciation

60% of Best-in-Class organizations stated
that employee recognition is extremely valuable in driving individual performance – Aberdeen Group, “The Power of Employee Recognition”, 2013.

70% of North American workers
hold timely recognition to be “effective” or “very effective” - surveyed by staffing firm OfficeTeam.

Motivated workers invest more effort
and enthusiasm in their work, since they feel they have a purpose – an important part to play in the company’s goals.

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Improved Work Culture

Companies spending 1% or more
of payroll on recognition, 85% see a positive impact on engagement – SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recog- nition Survey, 2012.

Employee appreciation creates an environment
where employees want to work and to continue making a difference on the company and on their colleagues.

Lesser Turnover

Organizations scoring in top 20%
for building appreciation-rich cultures have 31% lower voluntary turnover than every other enterprise – Bersin & Associates “The State of Employee Recognition in 2012”.

Higher turnovers affect morale and
cost companies millions of dollars from employee investments, but well-appreciated employees stay longer in the organization.

Better Teamwork and Cohesiveness

“We are at our best
when each other is at their best.” - Mark Welch, Northern Trust’s Chief Talent Officer.

Peers are the #1 influence
on their colleagues, not monetary compensation or bonuses, and the reason behind 20% of all employees going the extra mile – 2014 TINYpulse Employee Engagement and Organizational Culture Report.

When offered the opportunity, 44%
of all employees will organically give each other recognition on a consistent basis – 2014 TINYpulse Em- ployee Engagement and Organizational Culture Report.

Teamwork improves significantly with appreciation
programs, because employees understand their efforts are recognized not only by supervi- sors but by colleagues and peers as well.

Directly Improves Customer Satisfaction

“We’ve seen retail clients increase
customer satisfaction rates by 112% in retail stores that implemented recognition programs versus stores that did not...” Rob Catalano, Vice President of Global Expansion and Engagement – Achievers.

41% of customer are loyal
because of good employee attitude – MCA Brand Ambassador Benchmark

5% increase in customer retention
generates a 25% to 85% increase in profitability – Harvard Business Review

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Employee Recognition Best Practices

Example: Instead of “Employee of
the Month”, create a culture of “doing the right thing” by recognizing outstanding customer service when a problem arises.

David Brown, founder and president
of Datotel, replaced gift cards and “employee of the month” programs with handwritten notes and direct praise for commendable behavior and results, creating better morale and engagement.

Random appreciation has less impact,
and so recognition programs should align with company goals and values in order to reinforce behav- ior towards practices which really matter the most.

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Focus On Peer to Peer
recognition

Employees often view recognition from
bosses as “political”, but consider peer to peer appreciation as genuine since colleagues are better ac- quainted with personal efforts and contributions than supervisors.

Peer-to-peer is 35.7% more likely
to have a positive impact on financial results than manager-only recognition – SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey, 2012.

Public Praise Trumps Monetary Appreciation
Programs

40% of surveyed employees felt
that increased salaries and financial rewards were ineffective in reducing turnover – Kepner-Tregoe Survey.

#1 motivator (37%) voiced by
employees in a recent Forbes survey - “Recognize Me”.

When asked what leaders could
do more of to improve engagement, 58% of respondents replied “Give recognition” - Psychometrics, A Study of Employee Engagement in the Canadian Workplace 2010.

“Story Telling” is one of
the most powerful practices in employee recognition, carried out by publicly praising specific exemplary performanc- es, sharing appreciation on social media, or mentioning the efforts on a company blog or newsletter.

Keep your recognition programs simple
yet frequent

70% of employees are recognized
annually or not at all - Bersin & Associates “The State of Employee Recognition in 2012”.

Employees not adequately recognized at
work are three times more likely to leave in the following year – Gallup

Inculcate a simple culture of
top-down as well as peer-to-peer complimentary appreciation, since frequent recognition motivates employees to give their best every day.

Need for strategic recognition programs

Having a recognition program is
insufficient on its own, if not combined with strategic approach and tactical understanding of appreciation methods which would fulfill the needs of the employees.

Only 58% of employees think
that their organizations have recognition programs, despite 75% of organizations having them in some form or the other – Bersin & Associates “The State of Employee Recognition in 2012”.

Northern Trust An exemplary case
study

Hailed as one of the
most admired companies in the world by the Fortune magazine for 8 consecutive years, and recognized by Financial Times Group as the best private bank in US for the 6th time in 2014.

They’ve pioneered employee appreciation programs
over the past decade resulting in 96% employee appreciation reports, and 87% reports of recognition programs having improved work culture.

85% of employees satisfied with
recognition experience.

85% of employees satisfied with
recognition experience.

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