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Do you ever feel that no matter how hard you try to recognize your associates, they don’t appreciate what you do?
Have you ever gotten an award and felt like you were holding a bag of dog poop…and yet the person giving it to you looked like they were giving you a million dollars?
I’ve actually been on both sides of this argument, and though I do a much better job now of recognizing employees, I still miss the mark sometimes.
So I was delighted to find a recent article on Beyond Freelancing discusses all the various ways you can recognize your employees in a variety of ways that actually work:
- Go a little overboard
- Get personally involved
- Think outside the office
- Apply the “significant other” test
- Create an appreciative environment
You can read the entire post at Beyond Freelancing to get a little more meat around each suggestion.
The advice is solid, especially the advice about creating an appreciate environment. The better the environment for appreciation, the better recognition you can provide.
I’d say there is one thing missing from these great suggestions:
The associate
To ensure your recognition doesn’t suck, ask each associate how they want to be recognized.
Ask each person on your team these questions, in private, and make note of their answers:
- Do you want to be recognized in public or private?
- Do you want a gift card or an actual gift?
- Would you like me to buy you lunch, or would you rather have lunch with your manager or a member of senior management?
- Do you want to leave early one day or come in late another day?
- If you could be recognized in any way, what would it be?
If you’ve never done this before, your team may take a while to warm up to your questions. That doesn’t mean you should stop asking the questions!
Listen to what your team says and reward them accordingly.
If you do that, you can create an associate recognition plan that doesn’t suck!
What are YOUR suggestions for creating an associate recognition plan that doesn’t suck?
Photo credit to Philly Gryphons RFC
