How can you use peer-to-peer recognition to increase employee engagement?

Peer-to-peer recognition encourages employees to interact with one another in a positive and supportive manner. When employees recognize and appreciate each other's contributions, it fosters a sense of camaraderie and teamwork, which can significantly improve overall engagement. Recognizing colleagues for their hard work and achievements helps to build stronger relationships within the team. When peer-to-peer recognition is aligned with the organization's core values, it reinforces those values and encourages employees to embody them in their daily work.

Employee engagement is the result of many factors, including an individual’s work fulfilling a sense of purpose, how the work environment and culture fosters a sense of community, and how a person’s contributions support a sense of pride and achievement. Recognition, whether it is from a peer or a leader, helps an individual feel their effort is worthwhile and meaningful. Coming from a peer boosts the relationship and possibly gives a person a greater feeling of respect and credibility, too.

The current studies show that the awards such as employee of the month, etc. have lost traction with the talent. In order to engage talent effectively and ensure intra & inter team collaboration, Peer to Peer recognitions have been proving successful. This is a real time recognition and gives a personal touch to the whole recognition and people who are actually doing the tasks can better evaluate who amongst them is doing exceptional. This does come with its own pitfalls, there can be a chance that a group of close work friends may nominate each other but here comes the role of management to ensure a fair process is being followed.

Encourage Regular Recognition: Encourage team members to recognize and appreciate each other's contributions regularly, whether through verbal praise, thank-you notes, or public acknowledgment in team meetings or newsletters. Make it Meaningful: Encourage employees to be specific and sincere in their recognition, highlighting the impact of their colleague's actions on the team or organization. Use Multiple Platforms: Provide multiple platforms for peer-to-peer recognition, such as a recognition board, online platform, or dedicated channel in communication tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, to make it accessible and visible to everyone.

The goal of any internal communication is to maintain a friendly environment to support productivity. Peer-to-peer recognition serves all these purposes and creates a healthy environment where everyone can grow simultaneously.

Building recognition in to the fabric of your company culture IS so important. Like any employee listening activity or strategy, acknowledge the contributions, celebrate the recognition, the work, attitudes, behaviours and the actual thanking. Acting on the feedback is how you reinforce the value of the recognition culture, team, collaboration, effort and appreciation.

Super powerful Peer-to-peer recognition. It’s so untapped in majority of organisations and relativity easy to implement and free! This also helps massively when recruiting especially through employee advocacy on LinkedIn. I would start with 1.Encouraging a culture where recognizing and appreciating colleagues is the norm. 2. Implement a system where employees can easily give and receive recognition. Even every Friday have a “pop star” awards plus LinkedIn has great tools now in profile & company page 3. provide training at onboarding to instill it as company value. 4.Make it public. Biggest motivator for people as helps with career 5. Finally, We focus on the softer side that is not all tied into KPI’s and targets.

In my current and previous company we've found that peer-to-peer recognition has made a huge difference to employee engagement. At Reorg we had 'Kudos' - all employees could submit 3 thank yous per quarter for anyone across the company, and submit on Slack in a very public channel. We would award a £10 amazon voucher to anyone who would receive a Kudos in that time frame. Even without the monetary reward this is a fantastic opportunity. At EMJ we have Monday Morning 'shout outs', again, anyone from the company has the chance to recognise a colleague in our weekly all-hands, and celebrate each others work (often dictating our SLT recognition and helping uncovering unsung heroes)

I agree that building criteria around peer to peer recognition will mean that what it motivates people to do is actions that are aligned with business goals. However, too many restrictions on how and where employees give recognition may put employees off.

Peer to peer recognition is very good in all means it will help in open communication and real time recognition will bring motivation. The only drawback is recognition doesn't mean that anyone considers himself/herself out of the world and being unrealistic.

Relevancy of culture, vibe, intentions, routines, loyalty towards the same goals and company are critical.. feedback and suggestions for improvement shud be considered...

Yes! We also need to consider measurable ways for employees in small businesses to recognise each other as there is high employee turnover in the SME sector.

The challenge for p2p recognition comes mainly from the existing feedback culture. The features of the existing culture will reflect and will be affected by the new framework in place. So it is more effective in mature organisations from the communication and trust point of view. If you have a hierarchical and formal structure in which honest feedback is filtered then you will have to consider a adapting curve in the implementation that may last some time and require some change management

Challenge the recognition given by colleagues, watch out for profiteering if there is reward (i.e. colleagues gaming the system). Set criteria for shout outs (i.e do they represent your values and how, what impact has the action made to warrant a shout out)

El reconocimiento entre pares es clave si queremos generar un clima donde todos los involucrados tengan lo que merecen y haya auténtica confianza, herramienta vital para trabajar en equipo y base de cualquier relación que funcione. A menudo este reconocimiento resulta complicado por poder parecer poco objetivo o exagerado pero lo cierto es que si detrás hay dirección por objetivos con metas claras, no habrá problema ninguno. El reconocimiento es una parte fundamental del proceso de feedback, además de lograr que la persona reconocida sienta que está siendo valorada y haciendo su trabajo de forma extraordinaria.

It comes down to clarity around company/organisational values. If there’s absolute clarity about which behaviours and attitudes are desired; and this is successfully communicated, inconsistencies and bias will be obvious.

É fundamental comunicar claramente o propósito do reconhecimento entre pares, destacando seus benefícios e as expectativas associadas a ele. Isso ajuda a alinhar todos os envolvidos e garantir que o reconhecimento seja eficaz. Considero importante encontrar o equilíbrio certo entre o reconhecimento peer-to-peer e outras formas de motivação e recompensa, garantindo que todas as iniciativas estejam alinhadas com os objetivos organizacionais e as necessidades dos colaboradores.

Making recognition a part of everyday interactions, not only related to "success stories" or big achievements. Recognition has to be ingrained in the company culture and reinforces positive behaviors on a daily basis.

Em uma empresa onde trabalhei, a plataforma de treinamento e desenvolvimento proporcionava uma oportunidade única de reconhecimento entre colegas. Através dela, podíamos selecionar um selo associado aos valores da empresa e deixar um comentário para nossos colegas. Essa transparência e visibilidade geraram um impacto incrivelmente positivo, fortalecendo ainda mais nossa cultura organizacional e estimulando a colaboração e o reconhecimento mútuo

As important as strategies to improve peer recognition is being aware of systematic boycott actions between peers. The job market is extremely competitive and unprofessional relationship attitudes continue to occur in many organizations. Just like “cancellations” in the virtual world, competition can lead to talents no longer being invited to certain projects for the simple reason that they are seen as a threat. Be aware of those people who repeatedly do not participate or are not remembered in the company's projects. If necessary, evaluate the possibility of relocation to teams that better accommodate that person's skills.

Creating a network of ambassadors and champions, enables you to effectively engage and entice more contributors to spread the wealth and share the benefits of your program.