Recognition Is Important In Engaging Your Employees... But Not This Way

I was sitting in on a new client’s all-hands meeting.
 
Agenda item: “Employee of the Month”.
 
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙩𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙢𝙚 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙢, 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙜𝙣𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩.
 
A gift card of not insignificant value was offered to the recognized employee, or to each team member, if a team was recognized.
 
However, employees had described it to me as a meaningless ritual, and had predicted what would happen:
 
✅ The IT team, which had been working on a major company-wide software implementation project, for two months straight, would not even get a mention, because it was not ‘their turn’ this month.
 
Instead, they dejectedly told me, it would be someone from Finance or Marketing.
 
Because no-one from those departments had been ‘recognized’ recently, and someone from IT had been, so it wouldn’t be IT’s turn for another couple of months at least.
 
🚩 They called it!
 
IT was not recognized, and a Finance employee was.
 
We never found out what happened in subsequent months, because the “Employee of the Month” program was disbanded right after the meeting.
 
What is relevant here though is that the recognition program that the leaders were so proud of, was a complete waste of time.
 
𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙙, 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙙 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚𝙨 – 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙.
 
Because recognition has got to be genuine, and employees know when it’s not.
 
So, yes, recognize employees, but do it the right way, which is not through a ritualistic, meaningless program.

It’s simple to do, and it costs nothing, although later, if you want, you can consider a recognition system of some kind.

But, for now, you just need a few minutes:

• Be specific – it’s 𝙣𝙤𝙩 enough to just say “good job” and think the job is done – explain exactly why you appreciate them
  
  
• Talk about the difference they made.
  ​ 
• Tell them immediately after they’ve done something you want to recognize.

Start with telling people 1:1, so train your managers on how to do it: Specific; Difference they made; Immediate.
 
And Zoom with those who may be working from home, who may already be feeling isolated and cut-off.

If you later want to recognize publicly, make sure everyone is comfortable with that, and avoid programs like the one described above.

But, for now, start small, do it right and do it consistently, and see the difference it makes.