Spot awards have emerged as one of the most effective tools for recognizing employee efforts and contributions on the go. Let’s take a look at how organizations can manage spot awards using employee recognition software.
Spot awards or On-the-spot recognition involves rewarding any exemplary work or behavior of the employees almost immediately after.
Spot recognition doesn’t require waiting for a monthly, quarterly, or any other cycle.
The employees receive these rewards as and when the performance is demonstrated.
The award may be monetary or non-monetary and may comprise things like a shout-out on social media, gift cards, company merchandise, or even cash bonuses.
Spot awards also have an element of surprise as the employee might not expect to receive them, which further enhances their emotional value.
Spot awards go a long way in enhancing employee happiness and satisfaction within the workplace.
Hence, these awards assure employees that their organization notices their work, and acknowledges and values their efforts.
They also help reinforce desired behaviors and values that are integral to the consistent business growth and success of the organization.
Hence, organizations need to focus on creating those rewarding moments to keep their employees motivated and engaged.
Spot awards provide organizations with an easy and fast way to offer meaningful recognition to their employees.
Making spot awards an integral part of their employee recognition programs ensures the following benefits:
1. Ensures Instant Gratification
2. Empowers Line Managers
3. Builds Credibility And Transparency
4. Great Tool For Culture Building
5. Immediate Impact And Higher Returns
One of the biggest benefits of spot awards is that they provide instant gratification to the employees for their good work.
Being recognized for their work, immediately and often unexpectedly creates a sense of achievement for the employees.
It boosts their self-confidence and assures them that the organization values them.
Spot awards help to empower line managers and supervisors to reward and recognize their team members without waiting for management approvals.
Since they work closely with the employees. they are in the best position to assess and recognize an action of exemplary performance.
So, this boosts their confidence and their working relationships with their team members.
With spot awards, line managers can appreciate and reward their employees promptly.
This makes this form of recognition more authentic and transparent.
Hence, employees are likely to perceive spot awards as more genuine. This is as compared to other awards that follow longer cycles and require multiple levels of review.
Spot awards have a direct linkage to a recent performance or achievement of an employee, unlike awards that are given for performance over a longer timeframe.
Spot awards can be a great way to reward and recognize behaviors and actions of employees that are in alignment with the core values of the organization.
Since such behaviors are rarely documented, they cannot be rewarded later.
Hence, spot awards provide a great platform for recognizing such positive behaviors instantly. This can aid the organization in building a great organizational culture.
Employees love it when their efforts or their behavior are appreciated and recognized spontaneously.
These awards have an immediate positive impact on employee motivation, engagement, and productivity.
Usually, spot awards have low or no monetary value; hence they can be utilized multiple times throughout the year without breaking the budget.
These small yet timely awards might have a greater impact than big blockbuster annual or other awards.
Spot award is an immediate shot in the arm that every hard-working and well-intentioned employee needs!
Given the benefits of spot awards, every organization should look towards incorporating them into their employee recognition program.
An effective employee recognition software can help make it easier for organizations to implement a spot awards program and maximize its impact.
Here’s how it can be done:
1. Make It Simple And Easy For Line Managers To Reward
2. Create Greater Social Visibility
3. Provide Monetary Benefits Effectively
4. Manage Budgets And Prevent Misuse
5. Ensure Effective Recognition For Remote Workers
6. Track, Monitor, And Analyze Usage In Real-time
Employee recognition software can make it simple and easy for line managers to nominate their team members for spot awards.
They would be able to do it with a few clicks on their desktop or mobile apps. They can reward and recognize, no matter where they are and at what time of the day it is.
Line managers do not need to fill out detailed forms, or send emails to HR to initiate a spot award.
They can simply reward their employees with spot awards as and when they see an act of good performance that exceeds their expectations.
Almost every recognition software comes with built-in social features and social media integration that can enable greater social visibility for employees receiving spot recognition.
Most recognition platforms have a digital wall of fame and leaderboards. They showcase the winners and enable co-workers to congratulate them by liking and commenting.
Employee recognition platforms can also integrate with internal collaboration and communication platforms such as MS Teams, Slack, and Yammer, enabling the communication of spot awards across the organization instantly.
Also, the recognition platform allows employees to share their spot awards on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook, with their friends and connections.
Using an employee recognition platform for spot awards can also help in providing monetary benefits to the award winners in a flexible and meaningful way.
Employees can collect reward points from spot awards. They can redeem these points for different brands of gift cards, merchandise, and other options that are available on the recognition platform itself.
This provides employees with greater freedom to choose their rewards as per their needs., driving employee interest and satisfaction,
An employee recognition platform can help set budgets and limits for giving these spot awards.
Budgets can be allocated in the platform to different business units, teams, and line managers. This ensures that the spending is in line with the financial plans of the organization.
Different limits and restrictions on the number and frequency of spot awards can be set in the recognition platform.
This can prevent possible mistakes and potential misuse such as awarding the same employee multiple times within a short period making the entire process more fair and unbiased.
Using employee recognition software for spot awards also makes it effective for recognizing remote workers.
Since such employees rarely or never come to the workplace, the best way to reward and recognize them is through a digital platform.
Hence, an employee recognition platform enables line managers and supervisors to easily recognize their remote team members, irrespective of their location or time zone.
Therefore, they need not wait for an in-person meeting or an office visit from the team member and can be rewarded instantly.
Employee recognition software makes it easier to track the usage of the spot awards on the fly.
Line managers and HR can keep track of employees with the highest awards and those with the least or none at all.
Managers can analyze the reasons for such discrepancies and take the necessary steps to rectify them. Hence, they are no longer dependent on offline tracking of awards based on Excel sheets.
At the unit or the organization level, the management can track the key metrics of the program such as higher productivity, retention, etc. and assess the return on the investment..
Hence, based on the review of the aggregate performance of the program, they can ask the HR team to make necessary changes.
Organizations can manage spot awards using employee recognition software to make recognition more efficient, regular, and seamless. This can help in maximizing the benefits from the program in form of higher business impact and a positive work environment.
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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