In order to retain our employees, every manager should make time for employee recognition. The leaders are always praise the employees in genuine way, not a setup. Effective employee recognition is mostly art, not science. That’s why most formal recognition programs never deliver what they promise.
Get rid of the “Employee of The Month”, because it could lead to jealousy. Or else, nobody really cares about it. It’s easy for employees to spot an insincere, “we need to put something in place” recognition program.
Thus, don’t spend your time to create such programs. Here’s the recognition your staff really deserves.
The more time that passes between great performance and recognition, the lower the impact of that recognition. Immediately is never too soon. Don’t lose the initiative when planning out the employee recognition.
Generic praise is nice, but specific praise is wonderful. Don’t just tell an employee that he/she did a good job; tell her how he/she did a good job. Every employee will appreciate the gesture, and also knows you pay attention to what he/she does.
And they’ll know exactly what to do the next time in a similar situation.
Never praise for the sake of praising. It’s obvious to everyone, and you lessen the impact when you really do mean what you say. Any employee could tell if you were just checking off a box on your to-do list. (Thursday, 1 p.m.: Check in with troops and make them feel appreciated.)
Many bosses just have to toss in a little feedback while praising an employee. Say, “That was great how you handled the customer’s complaint, but next time you might also consider…” and all he/she hear is what he/she should do next time.
Praise and recognise now. Save performance improvement opportunities for later.
We are conditioned to spend the majority of our time looking for issues and problems we can correct. Spend a little time trying to catch employees doing good things and reinforce that behaviour by providing positive feedback.
Birthday presents are nice, but unexpected gifts make an even bigger impact. Unexpected recognition is always more powerful too. Winning “Employee of the Week” is nice, but receiving a surprise visit from the boss because you won back a lost client is awesome.
It’s easy to recognise some of your best employees—they are always doing great things. But maybe,consistent recognition is one of the reasons why they are your best employees.
Find ways to spread the positive feedback wealth. You might have to work hard to find reasons to recognise some of your less than stellar employees, but that’s okay. A little encouragement may be all a poor performer needs to turn the productivity corner.
Every employee responds differently to recognition. Many appreciate public praise. Others cringe if they’re made the centre of attention. Know your employees and tailor your recognition. Thus, it produces the greatest impact for each individual.
Recognising effort and achievement is self-reinforcing. When you do a better job of recognising your employees, they tend to perform better. And that gives you even more achievements to praise.
See: Watch your employees’ self-awareness, or pay on the stock exchange
Source: Inc
