Employee Recognition: Do You Know How to Give It?

Do you have an employee or employees that have gone above and beyond their jobs and you want you to give them the employee recognition they deserve?  Just don’t know where to start or what to do?  Here are some very simple tips that will help you give your employees recogntion…

First, you want to make sure the employee recognition is given when it is earned.  If you give the recognition too late, then it won’t mean as much to your employee.  Try to make sure you give the employee recognition within a week of the employee completing the task.

Make sure the employee recognition matches the performance.  If your employee gets several tasks done that should have taken a lot longer to do, then give them half a day off…or the whole day.  Giving them a $100.00 cash bonus, might be going overboard.

Make sure you honestly believe they should have the employee recognition.  They will know if you don’t mean it.  Don’t give it if you don’t believe it is deserved.

Don’t reward them for being on time one day, when they are usually late.  The other employees might see this as a slap in the face.  They are coming in on time and getting nothing, and the employee might think you are making fun of them.  Instead, let the employee know, in private, how much you appreciate their getting to work on time.

Make sure you let them know why they are getting the recognition.  Saying, “great job” means nothing, but saying, “Great job on getting all those vacant units ready in such a short time” will let them know why you are proud of them.

Give each individual the recognition.  Don’t give one award, certificate, etc. to two employees.  If they both did a great job, let them both know how proud you are of them.

Know your staff, so you know what kind of recognition they would enjoy.  You don’t want to give an employee a gift card to an auto store if they know nothing about auto repair.

You want the recognition to mean something.  You want the employee recognition to make your employee want to do the best they can at their job.

Make sure the employee recognition is PERSONAL – This is why getting to know your staff member is important. The employee recognition should fit the person. If your staff member hates Italian food, then you wouldn’t want to give them a gift card to an Italian restaurant. If you do that, then your staff member would know you haven’t taken the time to get to know them and/or that you don’t care, you are just giving them something to say you gave them something…