With a third of employees across the globe feeling undervalued, and just under half feeling only somewhat valued, companies are increasing looking at how they can improve employee recognition.
65% of employees said they didn’t receive any recognition last year. Therefore, it’s worth explaining what actually constitutes employee recognition in the eyes of your employees.
What is Employee Recognition?
Employee recognition is the process of making an employee feel valued for the contribution they bring to a company.
Many companies wrongly make the assumption that increasing an employee’s salary or paying a bonus constitutes recognition. Whilst that may be the case for a small number of staff members, much cheaper recognition strategies can have much larger impacts.
In fact, according to a recent study, pay rises only tend to increase employee happiness for an average of 1-4 weeks.
So what are the costs associated with getting employee recognition wrong?
What is the Impact of Feeling Undervalued?
Having a large proportion of your staff feeling undervalued can serious adverse effects on even the best-laid of workplace wellness plans.
When employees feel undervalued their morale plummets, productivity suffers, and mental health problems such as stress management issues or burnout become rife. What’s more, employee sickness rates tend to rise, along with absenteeism.
Therefore, by administering recognition ineffectively, you can inadvertently create a toxic working environment for your employees.
So how can you get recognition right?
How to Build a Culture of Appreciation?
The key to building a truly appreciative work environment is tailoring recognition to your employees.
To give an arbitrary example, after a female employee over performs, her boss thinks it’s a great idea to parade her in front of her fellow employees as part of his speech praising her efforts. As a shy introvert, this is her idea of a worst nightmare, leading to mortal embarrassment and a genuine feeling of never wanting to put in that position again.
The result? Lowered productivity from that employee, and a big dent in her morale.
If her manager had simply taken the time to find out that: a) she was an introvert who hated standing up in front of people and that b) she was a foodie and loved treating herself to meals out at high-quality restaurants; then he could have called her into his office before discreetly giving her a voucher for one of her favourite restaurants as recognition for her contributions.
This would have had a much more beneficial effect, increasing morale, loyalty, and productivity.
That’s why it’s so crucial for employers to be flexible with their recognition. By investing time into finding out what makes your employees tick, you’re able to offer recognition that matches an employee’s values.
A one-size-fits all approach is no longer adequate.
Investing in Recognition Often Costs You Less
As already mentioned, employers wrongly think money is the key to recognition, when small token gestures often have much bigger impacts on an employee’s job satisfaction and engagement.
Thus, by investing a little time into getting to know your employees, you can often end up spending less on recognition by way of rewards.
Employee expectations are changing, 96% of Millennials value healthcare benefits as a valuable aspect of their employment. In many cases, employees would prefer healthcare benefits as a reward as opposed to a pay increase.
Here at DocHQ we can help you craft employee benefits packages that give your employees the recognition they deserve.
As soon as employees are struck down with any kind of sickness symptoms we can provide them with access to a doctor and have any necessary prescriptions ready within 24 hours, keeping your employees healthy and in work.
We can also provide annual health checks, discounts on many well-known brands, and access to mental health support if necessary. If you want to tailor your benefits to your employees, why not get in contact with a member of our team to discuss your healthcare and wellness options?
DocHQ Ltd is a Health Tech company improving choices. We help you connect efficiently to health support and advice whether you are at home, work or travelling. See our website for our services or call us on 0330 088 0645.
