I came across an article the other day claiming that some employees are spending hours at work worrying about their job security, leading to decreased productivity rates. Many managers are blaming this perpetuating low employee morale and motivation on a phenomenon known as recessionary employee disengagement. The World at Work survey sites that “changes in manager behavior, such as a closed door, more private conferences, or less direct communication all represent potential ‘exit signs’ to many employees.”
Let’s face it; the recession has affected workplace morale and motivation across the board whether or not doors are closed for meetings. As many of my long term accounts have experienced, providing public employee recognition is a powerful way to retain and engage employees during any economy and reduce employee disengagement. An article on Managesmarter.com underscored this point recently by putting employee recognition at the top of their list of suggestions for managers to take in order to efficiently battle recessionary disengagement.
There are simple steps that mangers can take to include employee recognition in the workplace in order to effectively squash recessionary disengagement and increase employee productivity. Having a great employee recognition website is the first step you can take when battling low morale and employee disengagement due to the economy.
Modern employee recognition programs are a great solution for this type of recessionary situation as companies can utilize an employee recognition website to communicate the award program goals, feature employees of the month and allow employees to place orders all on one website. By having the award catalog online, merchandise and travel options are consistently updated for recognition program participants without the costly printing and shipping fees associated with paper catalogs.
Depending on the size of a client’s organization, public recognition is not always feasible. However, employees can still be recognized in a number of ways. Mark McGuinness, author of Wishful Thinking Blog, offers his advice on public recognition, “Excellence loves an audience - which should be relatively easy to attract if you’re achieving extraordinary things.”
Employee recognition newsletters, mailed employee recognition certificates and recognition via the award website are all alternatives to public recognition ceremonies or events. Whenever possible though, giving employees recognition in front of their co-workers in one of the most powerful motivational tools a manager has in the battle against recessionary disengagement.
I like to tell new clients who are looking to start an employee recognition program for the first time in company history two pieces of advice-keep employee recognition consistent and sporadic. This is easily attainable when a company rewards staff members for milestone anniversaries (consistent recognition) and on the spot (sporadic) recognition. On the spot recognition is called many things by different organizations but boils down to the same thing-an employee is noticed by another employee or manager and immediately rewarded for their good behavior.
Some of my clients will keep gifts on hand to award employees in such situations and will hand the employee a recognition award booklet and ordering instructions in front of co-workers for positive reinforcement. I have had other clients report that they will email or give the employee a hand written letter after they recognize an employee going above and beyond their employment duty in a certain situation to communicate their gratitude.
Public employee recognition is not only an effective tool for battling recessionary disengagement, it is the way savvy managers have discovered to retain and engage employees over time.
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