If you’re running a smaller company, you might be thinking that you can’t afford an employee recognition program. But the truth is you can’t afford, not to have an employee recognition program.
Your employees crave recognition, thanks, and praise. It’s only natural for people to want to be told when they’re doing a good job. A strong employee recognition program can keep your employees happy and keep morale up. It can encourage employees to continue working to develop themselves professionally and personally. It can strengthen your company culture, making yours a more desirable workplace. And you might be surprised to learn that an employee recognition program can even improve your profit margins. Here’s why your company needs an employee recognition program.
Keep Morale High and Employees Happy
Employee morale is one of your company’s most valuable hidden assets. When it drops, employees become listless. They start to care less about their work and may not work as hard or as effectively as they really can.
A few words of praise and gratitude might seem like a simple thing, but they can mean the world to an employee that is busting his or her behind for the company. Apologizing for mistakes and misunderstandings is also important because it makes employees feel valued and cared for. These small gestures are actually among the most effective ways to keep your employees happy and keep morale high across the entire team.
Foster an Atmosphere of Self-Improvement
The sooner you start using an employee recognition platform, the sooner you can start fostering a culture of self-awareness and self-improvement among your employees. Employees want to be given opportunities for growth, whether that means building new skills they can use in their current roles, earning additional qualifications that can help them qualify to move up the ladder, or taking on additional duties that allow them to stretch their skills and advance their careers.
Providing opportunities for continuing education, training, and other forms of professional growth is a cornerstone of any effective employee recognition program. Underscore the importance of self-improvement by making an effort to recognize those who have committed to professional development, whether by taking company training courses, using the company tuition reimbursement program to take college courses, earning additional certifications, or adding new tasks to their roles.
Boost Your Bottom Line through Improved Productivity and Reduced Retention
Recognizing your employees’ accomplishments and saying thank you for their hard work keeps them more engaged, and engagement boosts productivity. That’s because engaged employees are interested in their work. They work harder and want to do the best possible job. They’re not just going through the motions. They actually care about their jobs, and they’re loyal to the company.
That means they’ll make you money by working harder for your organization. It also means they’ll save you money by sticking around longer. Employees who feel like their hard work is recognized and their input is appreciated are employees who are less likely to be angrily scrolling through job listings on their lunch breaks or during downtime. That’s important because replacing a single employee can cost up to two times that person’s salary. A company at which the average employee makes $50,000 per year can see turnover costs of $660,000 to $2.6 million per year. You can keep some of those costs down by making sure employees know how much you appreciate their hard work, and how much they mean to the company.
Strengthen Your Company Culture
A strong company culture benefits your entire organization. It makes your current employees grateful for their jobs and more loyal to the company because they know they’re valued members of the team. It can strengthen relationships between team members, helping everyone work more efficiently. Seventy percent of employees surveyed said recognition in the workplace made them feel more connected to their peers, while 86 percent said it fostered trust between teammates and trust between employees and leadership. Ninety-three percent said that recognition helps them feel like they fit in, and 91 percent said it motivated them to work hard for their teammates and the company.
If your company doesn’t yet have an employee recognition program, it’s definitely time to implement one. Employee recognition improves morale, boosts productivity, keeps turnover low, and does so much more to strengthen your company culture and keep your employees happy and engaged with their work. It’s well with the investment of time and money to make your company a better place to work.
