Last week I discussed why employee service award programs alone are not enough to keep employees engaged. I also presented the first 2 steps to improve an employee service award program: change from service award only to employee recognition programs and recognize more often and for a variety of reasons that will positively impact your business. This week I would like to take a look at the next 3 steps to improve your program and make an impact on your employee engagement levels.
According to a 2011 Forbes.com article, we will soon have 5 generations in the workforce. By next year, a Harvard Business Review article states that Millennials, or people born between 1977-1997, will make up nearly half of the workforce. The more diverse your workforce, the more you are going to want to rely on a professional company to setup and maintain your employee recognition catalog. Coming up with a reward catalog on your own can be very difficult if you are trying to please everyone. Plus, if you don’t have desirable rewards, employees won’t take the program seriously and may not even want to participate.
Last year, our most popular merchandise items were in the kitchenware, electronics and health/wellness merchandise categories. Gift cards were also very popular and so far in 2013, we’ve added many new travel experiences to meet the strong demand from our client’s participants. Our merchandising team is constantly working on updating our catalog to make sure it appeals to a wide set of demographics. It is important to align your organization with a reward provider who has industry ties and can include a wide variety of merchandise, gift cards and travel experiences.
Incorporate Peer Recognition
One of the best things you can do to impact employee engagement is to incorporate peer recognition into your employee recognition program. Peer recognition is so powerful because it facilitates communication, builds teamwork and lets employees reward each other. Over the years, I have helped manage numerous peer recognition programs and overall, I have to say that employees use the program for good and do not abuse it or send unprofessional messages to co-workers.
Peer recognition facilitates communication by giving employees a formal outlet for recognizing co-workers. By having this outlet, management is emphasizing the need for co-workers to thank others for going above and beyond and helping each other out. This can go a long way in building a teamwork environment. An article featured on Human Resources Executive Online included an interview with one program administrator who I feel sums up the power of peer recognition well.
“We tended to be a little cynical in the past or critical of each other. I can just tell you there's a spring in people's step a little bit more. [The peer recognition program] builds a sense of community in the organization, camaraderie, friendships and really strong work relationships by giving each other some appreciation."
Automate the Employee Recognition Program
Part of why service award programs don’t have the impact on employee engagement that they could, is that HR and managers have so much work to execute the program. While everyone is working to make sure employees get the information, order a gift and are satisfied with is, people tend to forget the intention of the program: to recognize and reward those who have reached important milestones. There are many different options to help automate service awards and employee recognition programs. Our clients, for instance, can send over their list of employees with milestone anniversaries for the entire year. Our team makes sure each employee on the list is confirmed when it gets close to his or her actual anniversary date and we then ship out the printed recognition package or email the person for timely recognition. Packages and emails can also be sent to managers so they can be personally presented to the employee. Awards Network takes care of the order fulfillment and any customer service questions that come up during the redemption process.
Another example of automation at Awards Network is our peer recognition process. Our system tracks nominations for our clients; all they have to do is approve or deny them. Our online administrative website offers comprehensive nomination reporting for our clients so they can easily monitor the employee recognition program.
In 2008, Towers Perrin released their study results that showed organizations with high levels of employee engagement also had a 19% increase in operating income and a 28% increase in earnings per share. By using these 5 steps to improve and expand your service award program, you will be able to have more of an impact on employee engagement and you and your employees will reap the rewards.
