When the O.C. Tanner Institute measured the effect of awards on employee response and increased engagement, researchers found that gifts that were between $50 and $250+ had the greatest effect on employee morale.
But, even low-dollar prizes ($5 or $10) can have a disproportionately positive effect on employees when those prizes are symbolic. Symbolic prizes have the power to connect employees deeper into the company culture and increase the worth of lower-cost prices.
This article will discuss how employers can incorporate symbolic awards into their recognition programs to elevate employee recognition.
Symbolic Awards Connect Employees To The Company Culture
Symbolic awards have the power to deepen the connection between employees and the company culture. When a symbolic award is given, employees become a part of the corporate history and story.
Wikipedia found that non-monetary, symbolic awards increased editor retention by 20% month over month. The study reports that symbolic awards “induce their recipients to self-identify as members of the community of Wikipedians.”
Without physical or monetary awards, the retention and amount of work done by editors improved with only symbolic awards that created a community and brought volunteers into the organization’s culture.
What is interesting is that because of the virtual nature of Wiki. Because editors don’t form a traditional team, “only the award recipients themselves know that they are the individuals behind the pseudonyms that were awarded.”
In other words, symbolic awards worked even in the limited and individual work of editors because they formed a virtual team and community despite editors not meeting or interacting with the rest of the team.
Symbolic Awards Increase The Meaningfulness Of Recognition
The O.C. Tanner Institute found that monetary awards carry various levels of importance to individuals. Awards that are $50 and higher mean more to individuals and have greater power to increase performance and engagement than smaller awards.
$5 awards that are given across the organization actually hurt performance and engagement. Employees see the gesture as meaningless and inauthentic.
But, when symbolic awards are combined with lower-cost awards, even a $5 award becomes meaningful to individuals. The already positive effects of $50 to $500 value awards amplify when combined with a symbolic award.
When employees feel like they are part of a team and that they belong, their loyalty and engagement increase. Symbols help increase those feelings of connectedness because they weave the employee into the history and culture of the company. Internal jokes, history, and shared experience can be expanded to include employees that were not originally a part of the experience.
This is crucial because nearly every organization has newer members, either from growth or attrition. When leaders can harness the power of symbols to create a deeper culture and expand, it’s a connection to new and future employees, retention increases.
Meaningful Presentation Increases The Significance Of The Award
Symbolic awards alone are not enough to expand the community of the organization. It matters how the awards are given and in what manner. If employees are simply awarded a symbolic award virtually or a plaque placed on a wall, the symbolic award won’t be as powerful and may not have any positive effects.
However, when symbolic awards are presented as part of a ceremony, be it casual or formal, and are given as part of a community or team, or event, they become powerful. These events help to further create and expand the history and meaning behind the symbols.
In other words, symbolic awards become even more meaningful to employees in the future as they are used.
Three Steps To Harnessing The Power Of Symbolic Awards
Leaders can further harness the power of symbolic awards with three important steps. Harnessing symbolic awards early, avoiding generic awards, and creating a recognition experience.
Frequency and Earliness Matters For Symbolic Awards
When symbolic awards are given early, and with high frequency, they gain greater significance to the employee. This was demonstrated in the Wikipedia study, which found that a symbolic award given to editors on the first month of volunteerism increased editor retention by 20%.
The awards mean more when Service Awards are expanded to include new employees. A completion of onboarding award, 30 days award, 1 yr, and 3 yr service award make all the service awards more meaningful for employees.
Incorporating earlier service awards also makes the overall program more successful and will do more to retain employees than waiting until a 5-year service anniversary.
O.C. Tanner Institute found that when symbolic service awards are given early in an employee’s experience, they were twice as likely to feel included, that the organization was growing, that a thriving culture existed.
Use Unique Symbolic Awards
When leaders present generic awards, employees don’t perceive that the award has any symbolism at all. Generic awards diminish the value that employees give to an award. Even if the award costs little, leaders should use unique awards, custom certificates, and trophies even if the award costs little.
A prime example is at a research center where a glass brain is given to any inventor that obtains a patent. The glass brain doesn’t cost a lot, but is a unique symbolic award that means something to every employee that earns it.
Unique symbolic awards increase employees’ perceptions of a thriving culture, inclusion, and revenue increase by between 200-300%.
Create a Meaningful Presentation Experience
Did you know that giving an award without a meaningful experience can negatively affect the employee? One of the biggest reasons that awards are meaningful is because of the connection, esteem, and public recognition that an employee gets. Even when the recognition is private and between a few individuals, the recognized feels connection, esteem and recognition among the smaller group.
The presentation of an award is vital to creating an impactful recognition event. Whether the experience is a team meeting where the closest colleagues congratulate the recipient or a large corporate event, it is important to give an experience.
When done well, recognition experiences can be done virtually and be as impactful as in-person experiences. Teams that work remotely, but that reach out, recognize, and congratulate create as many connections as live events create.
Conclusion
Adding symbolic awards to existing awards and recognition events can magnify their positive effects on company culture. Symbolic awards, certificates, and trophies enhance the increase of recognition on engagement, performance, and quality of work. And, symbolic awards can overcome and create positive results from low-budget awards, which are often perceived negatively.
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.