How to Motivate and Reward Your Team
Lewis Glanz Consulting
LGC is a global recruitment solutions partner who helps companies build and scale their teams.
When people feel valued, other positive emotions result, such as motivation and loyalty. If you truly want your organization to thrive, you must put the time and energy into ensuring that your employees feel important.
Whether you are a CEO, business owner, or administrator, every team leader is tasked with motivating their team members. In this article, we will arm you with the tools and steps to implement an employee recognition program that will make your team and business thrive.
What Are the Fundamentals of Employee Recognition?
Effective employee recognition and rewards can significantly improve employee engagement, resulting in higher productivity, better job performance, and increased company loyalty (Satish, 2023).
Further, it decreases employee turnover (Igomu, 2023), as people will remain loyal to employers who make them feel valued.
Recognition could also improve self-efficacy, as Zhang et al. (2023) found to be true with teachers. People naturally gain confidence in their ability to achieve when motivated by recognition. There is a solid relationship between empowerment and individual performance (Qatawneh, 2023).
By recognizing your employees, you are empowering them, and by providing this empowerment, their performance will increase.
Now that we’ve explored just a few of the multitude of benefits of employee recognition, let’s discuss a few key points in employee recognition.
Employee recognition can be attained in a variety of ways, and team leaders have the opportunity to lean on their creative side.
How to Build a Successful Employee Recognition Program
In building an effective employee recognition program, consider the following steps.
First, you must have an objective. What will you be rewarding or recognizing employees for? Then, determine the interests of your employees. What are team members most interested in receiving for their hard work? Additionally, will you be providing tangible or intangible motivations? Lastly, we touch on the value of peer recognition and how to implement this effective technique.
Objective
Initially, you must determine what you will be rewarding your team members for. Would you like to recognize work anniversaries? Do you want to praise job performance? Loyalty, customer service, acquisitions?
No matter the objective, consider tying the rewards to the company’s overall mission to make it relevant for employees (Igomu, 2023).
For example, public school teachers in the United States could be nominated as Teacher of the Year in their school, district, state, or country. Nominations require that the teacher form strong relationships with their students; be engaging; deliver high-quality, research-based, and standards-driven lessons; and go above and beyond in the area of education. Award candidates strive for the same elements that produce successful students to achieve this honor.
Likewise, if you connect the recognition objective to the overall organization mission, you will hit two birds with one stone, so to speak.
Determine interest
Ensure the recognition is actually what your employees want. Survey how your employees want to be recognized to ensure support.
For example, some individuals may thrive on public acknowledgment, while others cringe at the thought of being recognized in front of peers.
Do your team members want to be recognized privately or publicly? Would they prefer tangible or intangible rewards? These are just a few questions to consider when gauging your teammates’ interests.
Types of rewards
Conducting a quick internet search of types of awards will produce countless ideas. Truth be told, this is where you can act on your creative side. Rewards can be more easily understood when categorized by reward tangibility.
Tangible
Tangible rewards are types of recognition you can see, touch, or hold. Tangible rewards, such as compensation and benefits, provide employees with financial security and stability, which can increase their job satisfaction and reduce their stress levels (Igomu, 2023).
Awards, such as certificates, medals, or plaques, can demonstrate recognition.
Intangible
Intangible employee recognition methods cannot be physically held. Often, recognition doesn’t have to cost a dime. In fact, nonfinancial approaches effectively improve business performance, profitability, and employee retention (Tang, 2023).
Intangible rewards such as recognition, career development, and work–life balance can enhance employees’ sense of value and belonging within the organization, increase their work engagement and motivation, and ultimately contribute to their job satisfaction (Igomu, 2023).
Employee recognition shows appreciation for employees. Intangible forms of recognition may include providing additional time off for employees or a special parking spot in the company parking lot.
Public praise can be a powerful way to recognize your teammates. According to the social information processing theory, humans look to their peers to help develop their self-concept (Festinger, 1954).
An employee of the month may be chosen to spotlight a teammate in the organization newsletter or include their picture on the wall. An employee appreciation day could be designated to recognize the entire company’s hard work. It could be celebrated with a company picnic or a trip to a local amusement park.
As another impactful method to express recognition, try writing a message of appreciation to someone close to each of your teammates from you as the employer. This small act of kindness shows the appreciation you have for someone supporting your teammate at home and in their personal life.
Peer recognition
Recognition doesn’t just have to be executed by the leadership. It can be implemented between peers. Leaders should establish an environment where everyone is expected to notice when someone shows good performance.
Trust is built when people recognize their teammates performing well. Promote peer-to-peer recognition by creating a shout-out wall for team members to publicly display compliments and kudos to each other.
Implementing Your Program for Employee Recognition
Now that you have a solid understanding of how to build a successful employee recognition program, let’s look at how to implement your program so that it is effective. Take all the following elements into consideration: communication, consistency, fairness, and reassessment.
Communication
To communicate the type of reward, you must convey well-defined criteria with transparent communication (Igomu, 2023; Satish, 2023). The reward and how to achieve it should be effectively and clearly communicated.
Perhaps hold a meeting or send a detailed email explaining the reward. Post the criteria in a high-traffic area, such as the breakroom. Ensure you get the word out company-wide, including remote workers.
Consistency
Be consistent. Conduct the chosen program with fidelity. If employees expect recognition and earn it, they deserve it.
You may need to schedule the appreciation time to ensure consistency. Mark it on your calendar or set a reminder to solidify appreciation as a priority and to hold yourself accountable. As mentioned, you could also charge your employees with the task of recognizing their peers.
The frequency should be more than just once per year. Further, the recognition needs to be somewhat immediate when success occurs. Timeliness will make the reward more impactful.
Fairness
There must be a fair distribution of rewards (Igomu, 2023; Satish, 2023). Be cognizant of discrimination. Everyone should have the same opportunity to earn recognition.
Consideration may be given to employees with special circumstances, such as those who work part time or may be new to the company. These employees may be performing to the best of their ability; however, their results may not equal those of their peers.
Don’t recognize only the results; recognize the growth it takes to accomplish those results. Further, positive leaders consider individuals and recognize their employees’ unique strengths, weaknesses, and needs (Bass & Riggio, 2006).
Reassessment
As the motivator, you must regularly assess and reassess the recognition program and make necessary adaptations to ensure its continued effectiveness (Satish, 2023). Reward programs should remain flexible (Igomu, 2032). If something doesn’t appear to be working, you should be prepared to switch gears quickly and determine what will be effective.
If motivating individuals doesn’t seem to be effective, perhaps try a team-based recognition program. Presslee et al. (2023) observed the positive effects of a team recognition system for six fast-food franchise restaurant locations. Each team had the opportunity to earn a thank you note or token gift every two weeks. This is a fruitful program, especially if there is low employee motivation and individual performance is difficult to measure or costly.
Remember that every organization is unique, and what may make one company’s employee recognition program successful may not be effective for another. Ultimately, creativity and flexibility will be important characteristics of your employee recognition plan.
Keep in mind that appreciation is not a participation trophy. It affirms good work and is critical for success. Ultimately, appreciation and employee recognition are essential for your team’s success. As a bonus, appreciating others puts you in a good mood as well.