Digital employee recognition programs can drive a much higher level of employee engagement and motivation as compared to traditional offline recognition systems. However, despite the benefits of digitizing employee recognition, several organizations still harbor misconceptions about employee recognition platforms.
Read: Key Reasons to Digitize an Employee Recognition Program
So, in this article, we look at the common misconceptions about employee recognition platforms and the truth behind them:
1. Employee recognition platforms are too expensive
2. Platform implementation is complicated and time-consuming
3. The current offline program works smoothly without any major issues
4. Digitalization will result in loss of personal touch
5. The current program is perfect for the organization’s needs
A common perception in organizations is that a decent recognition platform requires a major financial investment.
Also, organizations need to invest in training their HR teams to use the platform efficiently, which can add to the overall expenses of implementing such platforms.
Hence, organizations fear that an expensive employee recognition program might eat into their overall program budget and leave little in the form of employee rewards.
Several cloud-based employee recognition platforms work on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model and hence do not require any upfront investment.
These platforms also have flexible pricing plans that are based on the actual features and functionalities utilized and the number of active users.
With a bit of research, organizations can easily find a platform that fits their budgets.
They can opt for monthly subscription plans that work on a pay-as-you-go model, making it very affordable.
Organizations often believe that setting up employee recognition platforms is a complicated and time-consuming process.
Hence, they feel that significant time and effort to customize the platform to their exact requirements.
Also, organizations feel uncertain about the smooth integration of the platform with other technology platforms at the workplace.
The new generation SaaS-based employee recognition platforms are easy to implement and integrate with other applications at the workplace.
A good platform vendor would provide a comprehensive framework for implementation, complete with project plans, checklists, and templates to speed up the entire process.
Most organizations do not want to fix processes that aren’t broken.
Hence, they would like to believe that the current offline processes of employee recognition are efficient and have few issues.
Offline recognition programs are quite cumbersome to recognize employees who are working remotely, no matter how small or big the organization is.
Hence, organizations need to seriously consider upgrading their offline programs to digital ones.
Another common objection against employee recognition software is that it results in the loss of personal touch from managers.
Hence, they fear that this can turn recognition into a mere formality.
Also, this is especially true for smaller organizations where all employees operate from the same workplace.
Modern employee recognition platforms come with cutting-edge features such as gamification, social recognition, bonus points, etc.
These features help in enhancing the employee engagement levels thereby significantly increasing their impact.
These platforms also integrate with internal collaboration platforms such as Slack and MS Teams and with social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook.
Also, several organizations feel that the current programs meet their requirements perfectly as they are like well-oiled machines that have been running smoothly over the years without many hiccups.
Hence, due to this, they are reluctant to explore other options and the best practices in the industry.
These platforms are highly configurable, making them extremely flexible to meet the current and future requirements of the organizations as well as the changing expectations of the workforce over a significant period.
They also provide dashboards and analytics, making it easier for organizations to monitor the key metrics of the program to take timely actions.
It is quite apparent that the common misconceptions about employee recognition platforms are not real, but have more to do with resistance to change. Hence, organizations should instead consider the benefits of going digital and focus on evaluating platforms that are best for them.
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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