Congratulations! Your new employee recognition program is all set up and you are ready to tackle the current issue of dwindling employee engagement. You’ve done your research and your exciting new employee recognition program allows everyone in your company to get involved. Supervisors can award their employees for going above and beyond, employees can send eCards to thank each other for helping out or nominate their peers for awards. Everyone who is actively participating can earn an amazing variety of recognition awards!
But no one is. Sure, a couple of nominations came in the first week of the program, and one of the employees sent her best friend an eCard about a month ago, but other than that, your employee recognition program is basically a dud. Why?!
The first thing I want you to do is count how many eCards you’ve sent to coworkers. How many nominations have you submitted? How many of your direct reports have been recognized for going above and beyond?
Unfortunately, for too many of the administrators I talk to, the answer is zero. They put a ton of hard work into picking out a provider, setting up an amazing employee recognition program, hanging posters and passing out kickoff flyers…and then…nothing. What they don’t realize is that every program needs a Champion. Not forever – I don’t want you to carry the entire program on your back – but if there’s one thing we see time and again, it’s that administrators for the most successful employee recognition programs lead by example. They’re the first ones to recognize their peers and engage employees in the program. After all, telling everyone how great your employee recognition program is will never have the same effect as showing them. And if you’re not participating in the program, why would they?
So get out there! Send an eCard to your friend in Accounting who is celebrating her 40th birthday (again), nominate that coworker who covered for you when you were out sick last week and award your employee who just came up with a great new method for streamlining procedures. Once your employees see how exciting it is to receive these awards, they’ll start to send them on their own and you’ll see your program start to blossom and employee engagement begin to increase.
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