In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, organizations need to develop a highly efficient and motivated workforce to stay ahead. However, even the best performing employees may become demotivated and inefficient or may choose to seek other employment opportunities over a period of time, if their skills and efforts are not acknowledged and appreciated in an appropriate and timely manner. Moreover, organizations, where employee rewards and recognition do not form an integral part of the HR strategy and organizational culture, tend to have a lower employer brand value. This makes it more difficult for such organizations to attract, recruit and even retain top talent for greater business success.
There was a time when HR teams were deeply involved in setting up and managing an efficient rewards and recognition program for the employees. However, with the significant changes in the way organizations are run today, this important function of HR has also undergone major changes.
The involvement of HR in deciding rewards and recognition policies has been reduced over time. This has happened as the HR teams today shoulder a wider range of responsibilities, leaving it to the line managers to recognize and appreciate their teams in whatever way they feel appropriate, without too much involvement of the HR team.
In the current scenario, where HR teams play a peripheral role in employee rewards and recognition, they need to make these policies an integral part of the HR strategy.
Whether it for attracting and recruiting talent or designing policies for ensuring better welfare and growth of employees, rewards and recognition need to form the core of every HR strategy. Such an approach helps in ensuring greater success for the HR teams in their recruitment drives besides improving the overall engagement and motivation levels of employees across all levels.
Some of the key benefits that organizations can obtain by integrating employee rewards and recognition programs into HR strategy are as follows:
1. Enhances Employee Satisfaction levels
When rewards and recognition form an integral part of the HR policies, employees tend to enjoy a greater sense of satisfaction as they can receive proper and timely acknowledgement and appreciation for their efforts. This helps in enhancing their happiness levels and motivates them to be more productive and efficient.
It also promotes a deeper sense of loyalty and belonging among the employees, who feel valued by their organizations and their supervisors and peers.
2. Attracts Top Talent for Key Roles
Most top professionals today prefer to work for organizations where their commitment, skills, and efficiency are acknowledged and appreciated.
Hence, organizations with employee reward and recognition as an integral part of their HR strategy are likely to attract such top-rated professionals more easily. Organizations having a global workforce can also benefit from such strategies.
3. Improves Employee Retention Rates
Employee turnover is one of the major HR challenges faced by organizations today. In a many cases, poor rewards and recognition culture is of the key reasons for high turnover rates. By adopting an HR strategy rooted in effective recognition policies, organizations can overcome this challenge and improve employee retention rates.
Receiving timely appreciation and rewards helps in keeping employees motivated, strengths their bond with the organization and minimizes their chances of seeking other job opportunities.
4. Creates an Environment of Self-Improvement
HR strategies that integrate effective reward and recognition programs help in creating a workplace environment that inspires employees to develop an attitude of self-improvement.
Watching their peers getting recognized for their efforts, innovation, and skills proves to be a great motivator for employees to improve their own performance and efficiency and attain similar rewards and recognition.
It also helps in developing a culture of healthy competition where employees inspire and support each other to achieve individual, team and organizational growth objectives.
5. Ensures Better Return on Investment
Most modern organizations, having a multi-cultural workforce, invest a considerable amount of time and effort in employee development and engagement.
However, the lack of a proper rewards and recognition policy reduces the impact of these efforts and provide returns on investment. Integrating their reward and recognition programs with key HR strategies enables organizations of get a better return on investment through enhanced employee performance and efficiency. Such strategies boost the morale of the workforce and maximize their contribution to the success of the business.
Integrating employee rewards and recognition with the HR strategy, helps organizations to achieve the objective of developing a talented and dedicated workforce committed to achieving organizational growth objectives.
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