Last week I wrote about some simple ways to make sure your employee recognition program is set up to be introduced during your onboarding process and that new hires get a warm welcome. This week I want to review a couple simple ways to ensure your employee recognition program handles terminations effectively and keeps your employees apprised of how everything will work.
Decide how you will handle terminations – the first thing you’ll need to decide is if you’re going to offer employees a grace period to spend their points after termination. Most of our clients will deactivate employee recognition accounts the day the employee leaves the organization but some, especially in the case of employees retiring or leaving on good terms with the company, will allow 30 days or so to use up any points after they leave.
Share this information with employees –most employee recognition program websites will provide space for program rules, regulations and/or restrictions. Make sure you include information about what will happen to points in case of termination so that everyone who is part of the employee recognition program knows what to expect.
Send a reminder & farewell – if your employee gives notice and is leaving the organization in good standing, it might be a good idea to send them a reminder through your employee recognition program to spend any outstanding points they have before their termination date. This will alleviate any employees coming back to you later to find out if they can still spend their employee recognition program points. In such a situation it might also be a good idea to post a list of employees who will be leaving the company in the next couple weeks so that their coworkers can get a chance to send them a farewell eCard or express their best wishes for future endeavors.
Remember, it’s as important to have a plan on how to handle team members who are leaving your employee recognition program as it is to plan for those who are joining it. By following these three simple steps you can ensure that your employees know what to expect and that there are no surprises.
Have some other thoughts on how you can effectively plan to handle accounts for team members leaving your employee recognition program? Share them here!
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