3 Big Challenges to Employee Recognition and 3 Solid Solutions

Performance, motivation, engagement and satisfaction. These are always on the top of any organization’s mind when it comes to their employees.

But the methods of improving performance and motivation vary greatly. Thus, you face challenges to employee recognition.

One of the best methods to improve each of those measurements is employee rewards and recognition. Employees who feel recognized are 56% less likely to quit, perform 14% better, and are 48% less burned out. Employees even say recognition is the greatest motivator for them.

The benefits of employee recognition are all well and good, but obtaining those benefits can seem difficult, especially because effective recognition needs support from leaders, budget, and buy-in from everyone.

To help, here are solutions we’ve seen work for some of the most common recognition challenges HR teams face.

3 Common Challenges to Employee Recognition

Awardco recently teamed up with HR.com to conduct a survey of HR professionals around the world, and one of the questions asked was what are the biggest challenges when trying to implement or improve employee recognition. Here are the top three:

1. Prohibitive costs
2. Loss of engagement due to inconsistent application of recognition, and
3. Not enough leadership involvement.

These challenges aren’t surprising: Cost will always be an issue because the more a company invests in recognition and rewards, the more money it needs to spend. That’s always difficult for executives to accept, especially because the ROI of recognition can be difficult to measure.

Inconsistent application means it’s hard to spread recognition to everyone fairly, which can result in a large portion of employees feeling left out and overlooked. This can lead to disengagement and unhappiness.

Recognition Solutions HR Teams Need

As for leadership involvement, it’s no surprise that HR initiatives do better with executive support. But as mentioned above, recognition and rewards may feel frivolous or have too abstract of an ROI for leaders to fully support it.

If you’ve run into any of these issues, here are some of the solutions Awardco has seen with our own clients.

Double-Down Efforts for Non-Monetary Recognition

Non-monetary recognition is both easier to spread to everyone and easier to get leadership buy-in for. It’s a win-win for everyone, as long as it’s done right. Here are some ideas you can attempt:

• Empower peers to recognize each other. Peer recognition is a powerful tool that doesn’t take any money. All it takes is providing a simple way for peers to recognize each other for hard work.
• Shoutout employees as a company. Regularly spotlight different employees in the company, whether in all-hands meetings, on company social media pages, or anywhere else.
• Offer fun prizes for incentives. Incentivize behavior and offer rewards such as the best parking spot, the winner’s picture on a wall-of-fame, an extra day of PTO, or lunch with an executive.

Recognition isn’t solely about money—symbolic rewards, such as shoutouts, cards, or trophies, have a significant impact on motivation, performance, and retention.

Establish Multiple Avenues of Rewards and Recognition

If you only have a high-performer award, of course, many employees will feel left out, especially those whose work may not be as forward-facing as others. It’s important to have multiple avenues for employees to get recognized and rewarded so that everyone has equal opportunity to feel valued. Here are some tips:

• Recognize and celebrate employee milestones. Every employee, regardless of how visible their work is, has at least two milestones each year: birthdays and service anniversaries. Personal milestones, such as graduating, getting married, or having a child should be celebrated too. With that, everyone will be recognized at least a few times a year.
• Make holidays a big deal. After milestones, make sure everyone has something to enjoy during holiday celebrations. Keep in mind diversity and inclusion when it comes to celebrations and, remember, you don’t have to spend a bunch of money on fancy gifts or bonuses — a day off, a meal, or craft activities are great solutions.
• Implement enough incentives. Sales incentives are great, but there are so many more options to drive performance for other departments and teams. Wellness incentives to reward healthy behaviors, support incentives to reward CSMs who take on support tickets, safety incentives to drive safe behaviors in construction, etc.
• Train managers on recognition. The best way to make sure everyone feels valued and supported is to train managers to recognize their direct reports. This takes the responsibility away from the company and gives it to the people who work directly with each employee.

With these strategies, you’ll ensure that high performers are rewarded for their exemplary efforts without leaving out others.

Develop a Plan to Get Leadership Excited

Recognition and reward initiatives succeed only as far as leadership allows. Follow these best practices for getting the executive support you need for your recognition plans:

• Define the goals, objectives, methods, and budgets you expect from your recognition plan. Be as clear as possible about what you need and what you want to accomplish.
• Gather a team of highly regarded employees who feel strongly about recognition. This team can help advocate for you and refine your plan.
• Create a business case explaining the why of your proposition, the ROI you hope to see, and your methods for attaining that ROI.
• Reaffirm that potential ROI with statistics and case studies that show the impact of recognition in measurable ways.

It’s important to do as much preliminary planning as possible before taking your proposal to leadership. With clear plans, objectives, and results, plus a team of advocates behind you, leadership is much more likely to get excited.

Succeed in Your Recognition Endeavors

Whether you want to start a recognition strategy from scratch or hope to improve your organization’s offerings, these strategies will help you create an effective culture of recognition, rewards, and employee engagement.