When implementing a recognition program, employees will require training on how the program works. Telling employees about the mechanics of the program—what it is, where to log in to nominate or redeem an award, how to use an online advisor to recommend appropriate award levels, and so forth—is the easy part. (In a global company, this also might include information about tax considerations or budgets and changes to accommodate language, local business customs, and cultural cues—all fairly easy to adapt.)
But showing managers how and when to create recognition moments—and why doing it well is important to team, division, and company success—requires another layer of training. We’ve seen that this is actually even simpler than the mechanics but causes much more anxiety over doing it right. People believe that because recognition is powerful, it’s as difficult as other management disciplines.
This is a bit of a red herring. People understand the fundamental act of recognizing achievement, and the breathtaking pace of social media adoption worldwide affirms a natural human need for social interaction of all kinds.
Your managers haven’t earned an MBA in recognition, but they’re not children, either. It’s not their job to entertain employees, and not everyone needs a high level of emotional intelligence for recognition to work. Employees already know their managers’ temperaments. As long as a manager’s appreciation is sincere, fair, and deserved, employees will get the message. While training can help the less socially adept manager’s use of recognition, training also should focus on managing social recognition as a management discipline systematically across divisions, locations, and cultures. Summarize training by telling managers, “Catch your people doing the right thing.” That said, there are several good ways to reinforce the essentials of social recognition:
- Teach mechanics, such as the hands-on operation of the recognition approval and reporting system, an easy mobile app for real-time approvals and nominations, using every method available, including efficiencies such as Web-based interactive training.
- Train the trainers to understand the business implications of recognition and the stages of the recognition journey, from tactical recognition all the way to talent management.
- Make training social as well: Encourage all to participate, comment, and, especially, to add stories and scenarios in which recognition can advance company goals.
- When choosing between speed and formality of recognition, choose speed. Launch the program and watch your managers figure it out as they try to hit their awards targets.
- Include baseline recognition practices for all training of new managers and in your ongoing leadership development courses.
- Teach specific recognition techniques. For example, every recognition award should include very specific praise that makes explicit the connection among behaviors, values, and company goals.
- Teach recognition habits. For example, every recognition award should be followed up with reinforcing praise and congratulations, in person whenever possible.
- Have managers who are especially talented at recognition act as mentors to others and ambassadors of the recognition program as a way to maintain everyone’s enthusiasm and improve their recognition skills.
- Collect and communicate real-world accounts of recognition moments throughout the company—train by example!
- Continue the enthusiasm generated in training through your ongoing communications program. Remember, while training can instill new skills, managers will make recognition a daily practice only if they are convinced it brings results, so broadcast those results in e-mails, newsletters, and ongoing management training.
- Monitor your progress with follow-up training where necessary. If your program is tracking recognition activity, the program owner will quickly see where recognition is happening and where it’s not. If you launch a program and let managers know they have to hit a target number of awards given, as we’ve suggested, their awareness of value-affirming behaviors grows.
- Be sure, too, to include training in onboarding for all new employees. This serves as an excellent introduction to your company’s culture of recognition, as well as to the program itself. The power of thanks and recognition program mechanisms also should be included in any ongoing manager leadership and development training programs.
Say “recognition moment,” and our customers first imagine a ceremony where the entire department stands around and the manager gives out awards. Picturing this, and then thinking about achieving a high penetration rate in which 5 percent of the workforce is recognized every two weeks, our customers rightfully worry that there will be so many ceremonies that nobody gets any work done!
Actually, the recognition moment is when an employee receives an award and, more important, receives the personal message that accompanies the award. That moment can happen publicly or privately, in person, via e-mail, in a ceremony, or even at home via ordinary delivered mail. There are many options.
Three points matter: The award is linked to a values- and goals-based activity, it’s made quickly after the activity occurs, and somebody has taken time to write a personal message describing why the activity matters. The personal effort to write a message gives the award emotional impact.
Ceremonies delay the recognition moment and separate it from the activity that earned it, which reduces the impact of the award, in addition to taking more time and sometimes becoming less personal.
There is a place for ceremonies in a recognition program. Ceremonies are good for large team accomplishments, when many people are being rewarded. Little ceremonies might be scheduled into the work routine, for example when a manager reads the names and achievements of reward recipients at the end of a weekly team meeting. In a large company, an e-mail or Webcast might be broadcast periodically celebrating employee accomplishments large and small. (Again, this helps promote the recognition program and remind employees of company values.) Push communications integrated into the program to promote recognition received by a team on a weekly basis accomplishes the same goal.
A social recognition platform is an ongoing celebration of accomplishments, values, and positivity, which is yet another reason to make your recognition program as social as possible. That said, be aware that public ceremonies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. A recognition ceremony for an introverted person can be agonizing, which is more punishment than reward. Managers need to exercise judgment when choosing public versus private recognition.
Excerpt from “The Power of Thanks: How Social Recognition Empowers Employees and Creates a Best Place to Work” by Eric Mosley and Derek Irvine (McGraw-Hill Education, January 2015). For more information, visit http://amzn.to/1DlIvPK
Eric Mosley is CEO of Globoforce, where he helps companies build strong cultures of engaged employees by taking a modern, more strategic approach to recognition. Today, Globoforce is trusted by some of the most admired companies in the world to inspire and energize employees and create best places to work. In addition to “The Power of Thanks,” he is the author of “The Crowdsourced Performance Review.”
Derek Irvine is vice president, Client Strategy and Consulting, at Globoforce, where he helps customers leverage proven recognition strategies and best practices to elevate employee engagement, increase retention, and improve bottom-line results.
