Employee recognition has the power to change employee optimism, feelings of belonging, and loyalty. But, too often, all types of recognition are grouped together and expected to give the same results. When recognition is viewed statically, it loses some of its power to change the workplace.
Recognition comes in three forms: corporate recognition, manager recognition, and peer recognition. Each of these types of recognition impacts the recognition culture at the workplace.
Company Recognition
Corporate recognition or company-given recognition is recognition that comes from the company as a whole. Corporate recognition usually includes standard recognition that all employees can achieve through specific actions or results.
Time in Service Awards often arise from corporate recognition programs. As part of an overall recognition program, employees receive recognition when they’ve been with a company for 1, 3, 5, 10 or so years. Some service recognition programs recognize every year an employee works for the employer, while others focus on employee recognition in 5-year increments.
Service Anniversaries
Service recognition awards are important because work anniversaries create a time of higher attrition as employees reflect on their place, purpose, and accomplishments at the workplace. Employees who don’t feel that they are appreciated, belong, or that they aren’t advancing are more likely to find another job following a major work anniversary.
It’s critical that service anniversaries are celebrated, but when they remain primarily a function of company recognition, they can serve to push employees away, rather than to retain them.
Employers should have service recognition as part of their overall recognition program. It’s important that every employee in the organization is recognized as they reach service anniversaries. Imagine the negative message it sends to recognize, especially publically, one employee, but ignore the same anniversary for another!
That type of recognition would do more harm than good and tell employees that only specific persons are appreciated.
But, it’s also important that service awards go beyond company recognition programs. Too often, an employee walks into their workspace to find a certificate and prize, but no mention is made publicly. This makes the token awards feel like a token effort and not like true appreciation for their years of service.
Annual Recognition Awards
Another type of corporate recognition are pre-set awards. One company I worked for in the past recognized the top 6% of all employees, regardless of position. Each position had set goals.
Based on how well employees performed, they would receive a large annual price if they were in the top 6%. Rankings were posted online so employees could check their rankings anytime.
Employee of the Month
Employee of the month awards are often a company awards given out monthly. Its power and its limitation is that a limited number of employees are given “employee of the month.” Because it’s a rarer award, some employees are more likely to value the recognition.
It is often sought-after and prized by employees. But, the limitation is that because only a handful of employees can receive the recognition, employees who are continually passed over may get frustrated and become disgruntled.
Others will write themselves off from receiving it and completely stop caring about the recognition.
But expanding “Employee of the Month” awards to each department or to each location doesn’t fix this limitation. It only serves to make the award less rare and less valuable.
Other Structured Recognitions
Company recognition usually comes in the form of structured recognition awards. Employees do or reach a certain benchmark and they are recognized.
Corporate-given recognition is a powerful first step in creating a company culture. Without a corporate-wide recognition program, some employees may not be recognized during important service anniversaries. And, company recognition serves to emphasize corporate goals and solidify a connection between the employee and the company.
But, company recognition should be the beginning of the recognition culture, not the final solution. It’s up to employers to give up control over recognition so that it can become part of the company culture.
Benefits of Corporate Recognition:
- Creates bragging rights for employees
- Prestigious and often sought-after awards
- Standardizes some forms of recognition across the company
- Creates a company-wide culture of recognition
- Helps to reinforce company values as important
Disadvantages of Corporate Recognition:
- Leaves large gaps in recognition
- Leaves employees more dissatisfied when they aren’t recognized
- Can become a “token” exercise that is routine
- Because it’s elite, it’s often used on resumes when employees apply elsewhere
Company recognition serves as a starting point to create a recognition culture, but true recognition culture requires recognition that is adopted down to a company’s roots. And that requires manager-adopted recognition.
Manager-Led Recognition
Manager led recognition has a unique ability to motivate employees. While company recognition provides elite and wide-spread recognition for employees, manager recognition creates a team culture. It’s usually more specific to the individual which makes the recognition more effective.
Effective recognition requires specific feedback. When employees know exactly what they did to get the recognition, they are more motivated to do better. Clear, specific feedback also helps to solidify the connection employees feel with their job roles and team.
Managers that give specific, regular feedback are able to motivate employees more than company recognition can. In fact, good managers can raise productivity by as much as 50%! They also create a cohesive team that can overcome challenges better.
In order for manager recognition to be effective each individual manager needs to buy into the importance of recognition. They must be willing to step away from the emergencies, meetings, and important functions to observe and recognize employees.
Managers are able to better recognize employees when they feel a connection to the company themselves and are engaged. It’s important for employers to communicate corporate goals, the mission, and the impact on the community from a human perspective.
Millennials are taking a greater role in management with over half of them (roughly 60%) of millennials with at least one direct report. And millennials have long valued growth, making an impact, mentoring, and experiences. They place a lower value on physical prizes, corporate initiatives, and profit.
Managers should receive recognition and mentoring, both of which can further engage them and increase engagement among their entire team.
Benefits of Manager Recognition
- More specific to the individual and their efforts or performance
- Has a greater ability to create a local, team culture
- Increases performance most effectively
Limitations of Manager Recognition
- Limited by the experience and observations of the manager
- Disgruntled managers can sour a team and may go against company recognition culture
- Individual managers can go awry in recognition
Peer to Peer Recognition
Peer recognition often feels like the most “dangerous” and risky type of recognition for many companies to invest in. Many employers shy away from investing in a peer recognition program because peer recognition is, by nature, out of the control of the employer.
Some fears that employers have regarding peer recognition programs include:
- What if employees are recognized for the wrong (or for unimportant) focuses
- Will employees participate?
- How much will we pay out for prizes…to employees we didn’t get to choose to recognize?
- We lose control!
- How will we measure the result? (with company recognition there are usually photos, big events, and set budgets)
Peer recognition can be scary from a corporate standpoint, but studies, surveys, and data demonstrate that peer recognition is the most effective form of recognition. Employees prefer peer recognition above even manager recognition.
76% of employees find peer recognition very motivating.
The reasons peer recognition is so effective.
- Peer recognition is seen as very authentic (not motivated by corporate initiatives)
- Peer recognition is usually very specific (Thanks for staying late last night to help me with X project)
- Peer recognition builds the team. Both recognizer and recongizee connect with each other.
- Peer recognition is more personal. Peers often recognize in a way that resonates the best with the person being recognized because they know them better.
- Peer recognition increases engagement with the recognizer and the recognizee creating a double positive effect.
- Peer recognition builds connection two ways. Both the peers feel greater connection to the team.
- Peer recognition increases performance.
The quandary of peer recognition often rests between the space where corporations naturally want to quantify the efforts of their recognition program and the effect it has on employees. Peer recognition makes this a difficult thing to do. (Thanks has pretty amazing reporting to make it easier.)
But, peer recognition has the power to transform a workplace. It has been said that if employees know how people felt about them, they’d never leave. Unfortunately, too many employees feel that they aren’t recognized on a regular basis.
Only 30% of employees feel they have been recognized recently (Gallup). Yet, over 85% of employers state they have an employee recognition program.
The gap between how employers view recognition and how employees feel recognized can be met through peer recognition. With peer recognition, employees are recognized more frequently and in more meaningful ways than when company (or company-manager) recognition is expected to fill the role independently.
Conclusion
Each form of recognition plays an important role in showing employee appreciation and creating a culture of recognition. Instead of viewing company-manager, and peer-based recognition as competitors, employers can approach these forms of recognition as a three-legged stool. The three forms of recognition can build a stronger and more stable culture of recognition than any other approach.
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.