By Employee recognition is an acknowledgement of an employee’s effort in the workplace. The effort that they have made may have resulted in a new client, a business success, or something as simple as a noticeable amount of dedication to your organisation. To be an effective leader, you need to understand the benefits of praising your employees, and how this can have a positive effect on your business. Appreciation is a basic human need, and people react to it joyfully because they enjoy knowing that their efforts are being valued.
People want to be respected by others, especially if they’ve made a notable contribution to a situation. Ignoring the efforts of your employees makes for an unhappy workforce, and may contribute to them seeking employment elsewhere. Everyone feels the need to be recognised for their achievements, as an individual, or as a team, if they’ve done good work, you should reward that. Rewarding or praising your employees reinforces positive actions, meaning they’ll continue to strive to achieve better results to impress you.
You can recognise actions worthy of praise quite easily, but first, you should understand that there are two major aspects to employee recognition. First of all, you should identify an opportunity to praise one of your employees. You should actively be looking for the chance to congratulate someone on a job well done, because if you aren’t looking, chances are that you’ll completely overlook the opportunity, and an employee may feel like they’re being forgotten or ignored. Secondly, the physical act of acknowledging an employee’s efforts. This act can be as simple as a verbally communicated acknowledgement, or something more elaborate and complex.
Employee recognition can have huge, positive impacts on relationships in the workplace. Not only between the employee and the member of the managerial team that is giving the praise, but also between co-workers, if praise is given to a group. It can also improve performance, because we are a naturally competitive species, and seeing one person getting praised for their work will have a domino effect on the rest of the staff members in the workplace. It’s also a component of great communication, which means that you’re doing your job as a good leader, and promotes positivity throughout your organisation.
Praising your employees should be an obvious step to take. Even though it’s an undervalued management technique, and is often poorly done, it couldn’t be easier than stepping over to an employee and letting them know that you think they’ve done a good job recently. If you believe this is a skill that you fall short on, perhaps you should consider some quick training on the matter. There are several companies that specialise in workplace communication and management skills, like Dale Carnegie, who offer a plethora of training solutions for businesses and organisations who need a bit of a refresher course in what it means to be a successful manager. If you’re unsure whether your employees feel appreciated, try sending out anonymous surveys to your team.
An EAP in Singapore is a tool that helps employees who are dealing with work-related issues. Here’s what you should know about our services and how we can help you.
