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A Guide to Recognizing Your Employees’ Contributions

Employees are essential to any organization’s success. Yet too many employers overlook the importance of recognizing employees’ contributions. 

Some employers may feel that their appreciation for their employees is implicit in their actions or words, or that their compensation strategies are saying “thank you” for them. And while kind words and paychecks do contribute to employees feeling seen and valued, you need a much more robust recognition strategy if you want to retain your talent.

No matter what type of organization you run, employee recognition is a critical part of your larger HR strategy. In this short guide, we’ll take a look at how you can improve your approach. Let’s dive in. 

The Importance of a Solid Employee Recognition Strategy 

Employee recognition is important for two reasons: employee retention and engagement. When employees feel valued for the work that they do, they’ll not only want to continue working at your organization, but they’ll also be more involved in your workplace and more excited about their jobs. 

Further, according to a report by Workhuman, when employees are sufficiently recognized, they’re five times as likely to see a path to growth in their organization and 73% less likely to feel frequent burnout. 

Clearly, your recognition strategy is worth getting right. So consider working with an experienced HR consultant to perfect it. According to Astron Solutions, both you and your consultant should view the engagement as a partnership. This will help you design a great recognition strategy and also set you up to successfully work together on other aspects of your HR approach. 

Let’s explore some tips for more effectively recognizing your employees. 

1. Set up a formal employee recognition program. 

Creating a formal employee recognition program can provide your employees with clear guidelines for how they can earn recognition and give you the framework for incorporating your strategy into your broader performance management efforts. 

To set up your own program, define the following: 
Eligibility
Approval process
Award/reward types
Frequency of reward presentations
Performance goals to measure
Award thresholds
Be open to receiving feedback about how well your program is being administered and how your employees feel about it. 

2. Get creative with how you recognize your employees. 

You can also fine-tune your recognition strategy by trying out new types of employee recognition. Here are some tried and tested favorites: 

Classic thank-you card: Write a personalized thank-you card detailing why the employee is being recognized and how their efforts made a difference to your organization. 

Wellness-related rewards: Rewards like gym memberships, subscriptions to mindfulness apps, or gift cards for meal kit delivery services will help your employees feel recognized and promote healthy lifestyles—win-win! 

Employee of the month: This classic idea usually involves recognizing one top-performing employee of the month, who then receives extra perks like a VIP parking spot or plaque. 

You can scale your recognition methods to accommodate different contributions. For example, if your major gifts officer wins three new major gifts for your nonprofit in a month, it would make sense to reward them with something a little larger than the employee who miraculously fixed the jammed printer (though both individuals should be recognized somehow!). 

3. Be consistent and transparent. 

Similar to how you should approach communicating compensation to your employees, be consistent and transparent with how you administer your employee recognition program. 

Use the program elements listed above to recognize your employees fairly and to give clear answers about why recognition works the way it does at your organization.

Additionally, if you’re thinking of making changes to your program, communicate how the changes will make recognition more fun and effective for everyone involved!

If your organization has been wanting to improve its employee retention and engagement numbers, take action today by honing your recognition strategy. You’ve got this!