Effective Employee Recognition….Is There Such a Thing?

Of course there is, but you wouldn’t know it by the surveys that you see on the subject every day. If you ask an executive if their company does a good job on employee recognition most will say sure. If you ask middle management they’ll say its ok. If you ask the employees they’ll tell you the recognition is bad, horrible, not very good, and pathetic and a variety of words that connote negativity. I guess it’s all through the eye of the beholder, but the beholder that is the real judge is the employee and they are the one you’re supposed to be recognizing.


I found this article last month in a magazine written for the Glass industry. A magazine on the glass industry may seem seemed to be a strange place to find such a well written and worthwhile discussion on employee recognition, but it had so many good points that I wanted to share it with you.

Each month I read article after article about employee recognition and employee engagement and then follow them up with reading current survey results that relate how employee engagement is actually at all-time lows. According to Towers & Perrin, only 21% of employees are engaged globally. Doesn’t that indicate that most companies don’t really believe in or practice employee recognition which is a cornerstone of employee engagement?

Are all these well written posts and articles on the subject never read by the executives whose job it is to worry and correct such things, or is it only the HR folks who really care? And unfortunately, many of them are never given the power, authority or budget to get the job done!

There are right and wrong ways to build cultures where employee recognition and employee engagement are intertwined such that you have a workforce going in the right direction. This article outlines a very simple yet thoughtful approach to getting that done. One tenet of the article captures the essence of employee recognition. “What must be understood right up front is that fancy trophies, awards, bonuses and banquets mean nothing to employees when basic needs are not being met?

The article goes on to quote human resources expert Susan Heathfield, founder of Heathfield Consulting Associates and a "Human Resources Guide" that identifies employees' basic needs as:

1. Treat your employees with respect. This requires regular, open, two-way communication that proves employees' opinions are valued.

2. Don’t treat employees like they are members of a crowd. People in today's workplace need to feel included and part of the business equation.

3. Educational growth. Employees want to grow their knowledge and education base to improve their abilities.

4. Make sure they have an impact on decision making. We know the impact of employee empowerment. Employees with the means to impact decision making become engaged in the business and tend to stay that way

5. Leadership. Employees need to feel they are on a well-defined and important path to be part of something bigger than them. Employees must have a leader to follow who is trustworthy and sets a good example.

Finally, when planning your employee recognition program, make sure you have these needs in place, and then do it with commitment. Make sure you constantly work with it to make it part of a culture that thanks employees for their performance and becomes a tradition that inspires employees to be the best they can be.