The top management in all organizations defines the vision, business strategies, and organizational policies and guides the team to implement the business plans. Hence, given the importance of employee recognition in keeping the workforce motivated, the organization’s top management must be actively involved in the process.
HR experts believe that the active involvement of the top management in employee recognition programs is essential for ensuring their success.
So, this is how their involvement can make an impact on the effectiveness of the program:
1. Makes It More Integrated
2. Builds Credibility
3. Creates Trust
4. Makes It Aspirational
5. Enhances Participation
The involvement of top management in the employee recognition program helps it more closely align with the organization’s business goals and core values.
Hence, this can help the organization derive a more significant business impact from the program.
The visible involvement of the top management in the program enhances its importance in the eyes of the employees.
They start perceiving it as something more strategic, not just another HR initiative.
The involvement of the top management helps assure the employees that the organization is genuinely interested in recognizing their efforts and contributions.
Therefore, they view the program as a genuine initiative by the organization to appreciate those who have contributed the most to its growth and success.
Also, the active involvement of the organization’s top leaders in the employee recognition program makes it aspirational for employees.
This motivates them to further outperform in their roles and increases their chances of being recognized and noticed by top management.
Given the visibility of the employee recognition program to the top management and their involvement in it, more employees are motivated to try harder to perform better and get recognized.
Also, supervisors and managers are keen to nominate their team members for recognition for the same reason.
This helps in enhancing the overall impact of the program.
The top management should play a critical role in making the key decisions about the employee recognition program.
So, here are the critical aspects of the program where they make a significant impact:
1. Defining Program Goals
2. Funding For The Program
3. Approval For The Program Design
3. Approval For The Program Design
5. Employee Communication
6. Felicitation Of Award Winners
7. Direct Recognition By Management
One important responsibility of the top management is to outline the key objectives of the recognition program.
Understanding what the organization intends to achieve through the employee rewards and recognition program is critical to ensuring its success.
This also makes it easier for management to track and measure the program’s impact and make the necessary decisions to improve its effectiveness.
Another important responsibility of top management regarding recognition programs is approving the budgets for the same.
This might be based on various factors, including the program goals, expected return on investment, overall financial situation, etc.
Primarily, a clear understanding of the expected ROI might drive the budget allocation to the program.
In most organizations, the top management has the final say in defining the program design.
Importantly, the program goals and framework need to align with the organization’s business goals and core values.
Typically, the top management would finalize the recognition program, policies, and process framework.
More often than not, selecting the right technology platform for employee recognition is one of the most critical decisions in setting up the program.
There are various factors that the organization needs to consider when deciding on a platform.
Hence, the top management should give the final sign-off on the decision to go ahead with a particular recognition platform.
Also, there should be involvement of the top management in important communication and updates about the employee recognition program.
Communication about the program launch and the announcement of significant awards are great ways to generate visibility around the program.
Personal emails, personally signed appreciation letters or certificates, and even video messages from the top management to the award winners are great ideas.
Another great way of ensuring the involvement of the top management in the recognition programs is by making them give away awards during an awards ceremony or town hall.
Receiving rewards from a high-level executive fills the employees with a sense of pride and achievement.
Informal interaction between the top leaders and the award winners over coffee, a meal, or even shooting selfies with them are also great ways to motivate and inspire them further.
Another effective way to ensure the involvement of the top management in reward programs is through management awards.
Though the nominations might come from different managers in the organization, the top leaders can personally make the final decision based on the available data.
Management can award the winners in an awards ceremony in the presence of a large gathering of employees across the organization. Such awards are perceived to be of great value to the employees.
The involvement of the top management in employee recognition is one of the critical success factors of the program. Their involvement can lend significant credibility and visibility to the program, and increase its efficacy significantly.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked in leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
To stay updated on the latest HiFives blogs follow us on Twitter (@MyHiFives)
Learn more about HR Best Practices on HiFives.