In the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic, many organizations have adopted a hybrid model of working; with one segment of their workforce working from home regularly. Hence, organizations need to explore employee recognition in a hybrid workplace to keep their employees motivated, irrespective of their place of work.
With many organizations adopting the hybrid model of work, it is not going to be an easy task for them to keep their workforce motivated in this hybrid workplace.
Here are the key challenges:
1. Possibility of unconscious bias against remote working employees among peers and managers.
2. Communication, collaboration, and teamwork between onsite and remote working team members.
3. Performance measurement/ monitoring of remote working employees vis-à-vis onsite employees.
4. Ensuring that both onsite and remote working employees feel equally valued and appreciated.
5. Remote working employees often experience a growing sense of isolation. They feel cut off from the day-to-day working of the organization.
Here are a few best practices of employee recognition that organizations working in a hybrid model can consider to derive the maximum benefits:
1. Implement a Digital Platform
2. Reward and Recognize Teams
3. Promote Peer-to-Peer Recognition
4. Celebrate Personal Milestones
5. Create Wellness Awards
A digital employee recognition platform is one of the best ways to facilitate employee recognition in a hybrid workplace.
It helps bridge the gap between the onsite and remote workforce by bringing everyone onto a common platform, digitally.
Hence, employee recognition platforms can enable managers and peers to recognize coworkers instantaneously, irrespective of their location.
Additionally, they can help create organization-wide visibility of those being rewarded and recognized.
Team working in a hybrid work environment can be challenging. Motivating teams with both onsite and remote-working members through team awards is especially important.
Team rewards and recognition encourage team members to work together by overcoming the challenges of working from different locations.
Hence, such hybrid teams are more likely to make use of digital collaboration tools such as Slack and Teams to work together effectively.
Peer-to-peer recognition is one of the key elements of any employee recognition program.
Hence, peer recognition assumes greater significance in a hybrid work environment as most employees do not get to meet each other in person.
Employees can thank and acknowledge each other for any help or support and appreciate one another for their achievements.
Therefore, such actions can not only motivate employees to perform at higher levels but also create an atmosphere of camaraderie and collaboration.
Another effective way of motivating employees and creating social bonding in a hybrid workspace is by celebrating their key personal milestones.
These could be birthdays, work anniversaries, specific professional achievements, etc.
Hence, digital employee recognition platforms can be leveraged for this. Team celebrations can be done in a hybrid mode, using platforms such as MS Teams and Slack.
Additionally, employee wellness programs are becoming an increasingly important part of the HR strategy of most organizations, especially after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Digital corporate wellness platforms can help not only in providing relevant content but also enable tracking of wellness activities of employees against their wellness goals.
Wellness challenges and contests can be organized virtually through these digital wellness platforms, involving both individual employees as well as teams.
Eventually, winners of such wellness events can be rewarded and recognized through digital recognition platforms to drive participation and engagement in such activities.
Organizations working in a hybrid model should create a culture in which supervisors and coworkers develop a habit of appreciating and acknowledging employees through digital recognition platforms.
Hence, ensuring proper and timely employee recognition in a hybrid workplace is essential for an organization to enhance the motivation and effectiveness of the workforce.
Therefore, the above best practices can help the organization develop and implement an effective employee recognition program for the hybrid model of work.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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