October 10, 2021 0 Comment

Building a Culture of Appreciation through Employee Recognition

Today, most organizations understand the importance of employee engagement to ensure retention of their top talent. One of the proven ways to build an engaged workforce is to create a strong culture of appreciation in the organization. Such a culture can go a long way in promoting employee commitment, loyalty and engagement.

How can an Organization Create a Culture of Appreciation?


A ‘Culture of Appreciation’ is a work environment where appreciation and acknowledgement is normal behavior, almost like a habit for supervisors and employees, without additional impetus from the HR or the management. You can also refer to it as the ‘Attitude of Gratitude’. It can foster business growth and creativity by boosting the morale and confidence of the employees.

Here are a few best practices for building such a culture of appreciation in any organization:
How can an Organization Create a Culture of Appreciation
1. Involve the Leaders

The best way to start building a culture of appreciation in an organization is to encourage the leadership team to practice and preach. The leaders should make it a point to use every possible interaction with the employees to appreciate and acknowledge their achievements. In fact, floor meetings, team huddles, townhalls, Zoom calls, etc. are all great forums to practice and demonstrate the art of appreciation.


2. Digitize the Process

The organization can make it simple and convenient for managers to appreciate their team members and peers to appreciate each other by leveraging a digital employee recognition platform. Hence, the organization can implement Spot Awards and Peer-to-Peer Recognition on their employee recognition system. Such systems make it easy for employees to appreciate one another digitally, no matter where they are operating from.


3. Maximize Social Visibility

Leveraging internal platforms such as MS Teams, Slack and the company intranet to showcase the appreciation/ recognition received by employees are good ways to create social social visibility around the practice of appreciation. In fact, it can create a positive feeling for the winners and encourage others to appreciate their team members, creating a sort of virtuous circle. Sharing the recognition on public social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn can create additional visibility.


4. Add Personal Touch

While using digital platforms to appreciate employees make it more convenient, it can also make the process more impersonal. Hence, organizations should encourages supervisors and managers to appreciate and recognize employees personally, whenever possible. This can also happen over a voice or video call, or even a video message. A well-written and personalized thank you note can also add to the personal touch.


5. Link Appreciation to KRAs

Making appreciation and recognition of team members a part of the performance evaluation criteria of managers and leaders can also encourage them to make it a regular practice. In fact, peer appreciation can be one of the positive behavioral traits expected from all employees. Making it a part of the KRAs will encourage employees to practice it regularly, eventually making it a habit.

Bottom-line

Building a strong culture of appreciation assures employees that they are valued by their employers and peers. This enhances their sense of self-worth and makes them active contributors in the process of growth and success of the business.

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HiFives (https://www.hifives.in) is an employee rewards, recognition and engagement SaaS platform that enables organizations to digitize, automate and transform their employee experience. The platform enables supervisors and co-workers to nominate, recognize and reward employees using a points-based system. Budget management, jury-based evaluation and multi-level approval workflows are built into the platform. HiFives has social features such as a wall of fame and gamification features such as leaderboards, e-certificates and digital badges. It also has a global redemption system with country-specific e-gift card options. HiFives integrates with all leading HRMS systems, Office 365, Google Workspace, MS Teams, Slack and other popular tools used at the workplace. HiFives is used by many large enterprises, small businesses and startups across 25+ countries in the world, in many industries including manufacturing, retail, technology, financial services and media.