1. Reward Frequently

The modern work environment is extremely stressful and competitive, which is why it is important to recognize the efforts of employees frequently. In fact, organizations need reconsider with the tradition of rewarding and recognizing their employees on a yearly or quarterly basis.

Frequent recognition is likely to reassure the employees constantly that they are being valued and appreciated for their achievements and contribution of the organization.


2. Make Recognition Spontaneous

It is important for organizations today to ensure that the employee recognition program is lightweight and spontaneous.

This means that recognition should not be confined to a certain schedule and should be offered as and when an employee does something that is worth appreciating. Such spontaneous recognition is deemed more authentic and fills the employees with a sense of gratitude.


3. Reward in Time

Rewards and recognition can provide the best results only when they are offered on time. Delay in appreciating the efforts and achievements of the employees just to adhere to predefined timelines can make the whole process ineffective. This is because people tend to quickly forget the achievements of others.

Delayed recognition not only diminishes the sense of achievement for the employees in question but also fails to motivate their peers.


4. Be Specific about the Behaviors or Achievements being Rewarded

Rewards and recognition should be associated with specific achievements and actions of the recipients for it to be more effective. A successful rewards program should clearly outline the criteria for which the employees are being appreciated.

Even any form of verbal or written recognition may seem incomplete unless it specifically states the task or action for which praise is being bestowed on the employees.


5. Provide Equal Opportunities for Participation

A great recognition program should level the playing field for all members of the workforce. This essentially means that the program should encourage participation from employees working at various levels within the organizational hierarchy.

In order to keep the program well-organized, it may be divided into segments, with each segment covering a specific level of employees. Such an approach is sure to boost employee motivation and engagement across all levels within the organization.


6. Ensure Highest Levels of Transparency

If for any reason, the workforce believes the rewards and recognition system is biased, it will render the process completely useless and ineffective. Hence it is important for an organization to ensure complete transparency while designing and implementing the rewards program.

For this, they need to take their workforce into confidence by sharing the complete policy, criteria and any important updates in the program from time to time.


7. Create Maximum Visibility

Making the rewards program visible of the entire workforce means that employees are appreciated and rewarded for their achievements on a more public platform or forum. Maximizing the visibility of a rewards program ensures that the other members of the workforce feel inspired by learning about the commendable work done by a colleague.

This could be done through offline events such as townhalls, team meetings and award ceremonies as well their virtual equivalents. Visibility can also be achieved through communication on organization-wide digital platforms such as the intranet, Teams and Slack. This motivates other employees to make a similar positive contribution towards the organizational and receive similar appreciation and recognition for their efforts.


8. Align with Business Objectives

Recognizing great work is important, however, if it is not relevant for meeting business objectives, it becomes more of a formality. On the other hand, when a reward program that is properly aligned with the business objectives, employees are likely to feel more motivated and involved in meeting or exceeding their targets and getting rewarded.

This helps in bridging any mental gap that the employees might have between their own achievements and the organization’s achievements and motivate them to align their efforts accordingly.


9. Make the Benefits Measurable

It is important to ensure that the benefits from the rewards program being developed are measurable. This means that the organizations should be able to quantify the improvement in employee engagement, motivation and productivity after the implementation of the program.

It also helps the organizations to identify any challenges or shortcomings in the program that need to be addressed to get even better results.