When you get good at recognising those who do their job well or go above and beyond their role, employees (and your business) benefit in many ways. Strategic recognition helps create the environment for more engagement because people feel valued, appreciated and motivated. So, how do you recognise strategically?
Strategic recognition is showing appreciation for a success that helped improve the employee (or customer) experience that can be tied to your company’s values, mission or objectives.
Build on the “thank you” message with a description of how their effort made an impact. Going that extra mile can turn a nice message into one that has a cascading impact on your team, their peers and your company as a whole. To truly see the strategic impact of employee recognition, it’s key to embed it in your company culture using AVI recognition:
| A: Tell the action |
| V: Connect to an area of focus or company value |
| I: Explain the impact |
As more people get on board with making recognition a habit – an integral part of your work culture (or, “the way we do things around here”) – the ripple effect spreads throughout the organization. The value of employee recognition is unmatched and your team’s (or company’s) goals and objectives will benefit.
Let’s take a look at a real-life example to see how this impacts business results. Peoplecare, an insurance organisation from the New South Wales south coast, wanted to strengthen the connection between the customer experience and the day-to-day actions of employees, as well as get manager buy-in for recognition initiatives.
To reinforce their company values, what they call their "True Loves", the organisation implemented a strategic recognition program called "V.I.P" as a tool for capturing, sharing, discussing and learning from successes and best practices for delivering its mission
The platform encourages managers to strategically recognise employees in order to build a culture of continuous recognition and improve customer satisfaction.
A year into the program, recognition activity is high with 92% participation. Employees and managers have captured over 2,000 examples of successes and best practices since the program began. What’s more, Peoplecare made it onto AON's Best Employer list 2 years in a row, which is a testament to impact strategic recognition has had on strengthening their company culture, EVP, employee experience, and ultimately their customer service too.
This is just one example of how strategic recognition can reinforce what is important to your business and have a powerful impact on employee engagement. If you're interested in learning more about how recognition tools can support your business goals, get in touch with us and a member of our team will walk you through our solutions.
