There are a lot of fancy workplace apps, platforms, and gizmos out there today, all promising to shake up the way your team works. But if there’s any category of workplace tech to actually pay attention to, it should be social recognition platforms. As their name suggests, these platforms are a place where team members get kudos and rewards for the hard work they put in day after day.
And while social recognition platforms might seem like a “nice to have,” they might actually be the ones that are worth all of the hype.
Think about it: who likes to pour their heart and soul into a job, only to receive scant recognition for their hard work? Studies show us that when employees feel they’ve received recognition, organizations experience a boost in productivity, and a decrease in absenteeism. Meanwhile, 90% of employees agree that recognition makes them work harder.
When you have a skillful and hardworking team, they shouldn’t be taken for granted. With a growing talent shortage (which could result in $8.5 trillion in unrealized revenue), and employee turnover rates continuing to rise, organizations need to go above and beyond to boost morale and keep employees engaged.
The secret sauce to make all of that happen? Social recognition platforms.
Does Workplace Recognition (Actually) Matter?
Let’s start with the basics: what’s all the fuss about workplace recognition anyway? Employees are expected to do their jobs anyway, so why bother? The truth is that employees want to be recognized for their hard work and their achievements, it makes a difference in the way they perform, and there’s not actually a one-size-fits-all approach to recognition.
All of the data point in the same direction: employee recognition can significantly increase things like “intrinsic motivation, performance, and retention rates,” and leaders who are higher rated for employee recognition have employees who are far more engaged than their counterparts.
So it’s clear that yes, workplace recognition makes a big difference for employees, employers, and organizations as a whole. But as it turns out, many so-called solutions for workplace recognition can actually miss the mark. For example, employee recognition often needs to be more than just praise, merchandise, or money. This dissonance is called the employee recognition gap, and it represents a misalignment between employer communication, and what actually motivates their workforce.
Spell It Out for Me: How Can I Get Employee Recognition Right?
It’s important to overcome the employee recognition gap, and recognize your employees in a way that actually makes a difference. And sometimes, employee desires can be hard to pinpoint. For example, various studies show that in some cases, employees prefer non-cash incentives, and that they would choose a physical gift instead of a payment worth more than the gift itself.
How can you get employee recognition right? First of all, it’s important to note there are different types of recognition. For example, you can offer public recognition (at a company meeting, or in a newsletter, for example), or you can recognize achievements privately. And while employee recognition programs can include things such as compensation and benefits, these might not be wholly effective on their own accord. Employee recognition today needs to be authentic, requires involvement, and needs to be personal, among other things.
Ultimately: in order to properly execute employee recognition, organizations need to come up with a custom approach to employee recognition, which is holistic and data-backed. For example, an employee recognition program can define performance standards, incorporate job performance criteria, and can supply motivating and cost-effective rewards. These programs can also be customized, and regularly improved, in order to keep up with employee motivation.
Okay, we might have created more questions than answers. Are you now supposed to come up with an employee recognition program from scratch?
No, of course not. Instead of doing that, you can turn to a next-generation social recognition platform, which takes care of every element of employee recognition in an engaging one-stop-shop.
Breaking It Down: What Are Social Recognition Platforms?
If you’ve never heard of social recognition platforms, we don’t blame you. The sheer amount of workplace tools on the marketplace today can make it tough to keep up. But social recognition platforms are worth knowing about, and integrating into the way your team works. Social recognition platforms are a digital hub, where employees can be rewarded and recognized for their hard work.
These platforms can be used by everyone in an organization, to show gratitude towards one another. But social recognition platforms go beyond simply saying thank you (although they’re great for that), and they allow you to deliver real-world rewards for hard work.
For example, social recognition platforms allow essentially any point of interaction to be incentivized. You might be able to reward employees for completing e-learning or reading daily notices, link to wearables such as a FitBit or Apple watch, or even build a points-based system, which includes prizes.
Praise is also a central part of a social recognition platform, and these systems make it easy to both provide and receive recognition. For example, when teams use Refresh, any employee can send a note of thanks or a “kudos” to colleagues anytime they want. These platforms can also preset questions for employees to answer about their colleagues in order to facilitate 360° reviews.
Social recognition platforms also allow you to do things such as reward sales goals and drive participation. If your platform includes employee discount and perk features, you might be able to offer discounts to local businesses, gift game-day tickets, or acknowledge employee birthdays.
How to Maximize the Impact of Your Social Recognition Platform
In order to maximize the impact of your social recognition platform, here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Choose a platform that allows for customization: Just like no organization or team is exactly the same, no effective social recognition solution is going to be the same. Instead of using a platform that doesn’t allow for modifications, choose one which allows tailoring.
- Select modules that will work for your team: Does your team actually use a nutrition tracking program, or is that a waste of space and energy? When you choose a social recognition platform that allows for customization, be sure to select modules and components that are actually of value to your team.
- Integrate with the tools / resources your team already uses: Does your team already have to complete e-learning exercises? What about walking competitions based on digital wearables? Look for ways to integrate your social recognition platforms with the tools, initiatives, and processes that your team is already used to.
- Keep all of your employees in mind: Sure, your 9-5 in-office employees might be used to some verbal praise here and there, but what about your other workers? For example, if you have remote employees, or deskless employees, they might require special considerations when it comes to employee recognition.
Your Deskless Workers Are Craving Recognition
Let’s laser in on deskless workforces for a moment. If you have frontline employees who don’t have a designated office or workspace, these are the employees we’re talking about. And when it comes to employee recognition, it might matter more for these employees than it does to in-office employees.
Deskless workers aren’t in the office, which means they’re not going to receive any sort of on-the-fly praise, or be in-the-loop about what’s going on in the office. It also means that a good portion of their hard work can often go unrecognized. If an in-office employee does a great job during a meeting with a client, people around them might have seen what happened, and the boss might pass by their desk to give them a high-five. But deskless workers might not receive the same casual recognition.
As it turns out, one of the top reasons deskless workers say they want to leave their jobs is because of a lack of recognition for their contributions. And because they’re deskless, these workers need a digital solution, which they can easily access from their phone.
While social recognition platforms can benefit all employees, they might be the most powerful and useful for deskless workers. For workers who aren’t in-office, these platforms have the power to potentially boost engagement, increase morale, and give employees access to all of their perks and benefits in one place.
Social Recognition Platforms Are Your New Best Friend
Your team deserves to be recognized for all of their hard work. And it only makes sense to recognize them in a way that is actually of value to them. That’s where social recognition platforms like Refresh come into play. Our platform is a comprehensive hub that lets you tailor complete HR programs with infinite segmentation. You can fully customize your solutions to include things like universal scheduling, dynamic videos, nutrition tracking, rewards & perks, insurance, and reimbursement.
Interested in finding out how Refresh can transform the way your team interacts, engages, and is recognized? Contact us today.