Several studies show that employers are not adequately acknowledging employee performance. So what are the ways that workers want to be recognised?
A survey from the American Psychological Assocation (APA) conducted in 2014 asked employees what their employers deem as recognition-worthy. Individual job performance topped the list, but less than half of managers and supervisors are actually acknowledging workers for this. Similarly, the Society of Human Resources Management found managers and supervisors who recognise employee's performance was very important to 55 per cent of workers, but less than half (24 per cent) are satisfied with how this plays out.
In fact, judging by these statistics, it's hardly a surprise that a recent study conducted by TINYPulse in 2014 found that only 21 per cent of employees feel that they are valued at work. Recognition is an important part of instilling a culture of excellence and showing your employees that you do care about them. But what more can you do other than just naming your employee of the month?
How do employees want to be recognised?
The APA explored how employees like their recognition served - a lot of it revolves around financial compensation.
While there are many favours that employees enjoy, 62 per cent would like to receive salary increases, 47 per cent said monetary compensation would go down a treat and 43 per cent wanted performance-based bonuses to strive for. However, only 39 per cent of employers are actually giving out salary increases as a form of recognition, 31 per cent are expressing their appreciation verbally or with a note and 24 per cent are providing gift cards or monetary compensation.
Recognition is important to show your employees that you do care about them and value their work.
Interestingly, out of the top eight recognition practices listed by workers, employers are only outdoing what is wanted on one frontier - the simple thank you. But is this enough? Take, for instance, a respondent's quote from the TINYPulse study:
"I am not looking for a pat on the back every time I do something for a co-worker or a customer. But I think my hard work has been ignored. I have gone above and beyond in many ways and never [been] recognised for it."
Why are rewards important?
Most employees believe that some form of financial booster would acknowledge their hard work the best, but the main thing to remember is that recognition alone may not be enough. Ultimately, tangible rewards - whether they are money or any other non-cash prize - not only reinforce to the recipient that their work has been appreciated, but it sends the message to each and every staff member that excellent performance will be recognised.
To find out more about what sort of rewards can make employees feel the most valued, talk to the experts at Power2Motivate today.