The employee recognition system is the backbone of any employee recognition program. It helps the organization digitize, automate and streamline its employee recognition program. Hence, the role of the employee recognition software is critical towards creating a culture of appreciation and driving employee engagement in the organization. However, if the current system might not be giving the desired results; hence, there might a need to change the employee rewards and recognition platform.
Recognition is extremely impactful in any work environment and boosts the motivation and performance of employees significantly.
A good recognition platform helps in driving deeper employee engagement besides making the rewards program fair, connected and operationally efficient.
It also helps in making the recognition program more transparent and integrated with the core values and culture of the organization. Most importantly, it enables employees to be recognized for their achievements in real-time.
Most organizations select the best recognition platform after careful consideration of the various factors that determine their efficiency and effectiveness. However, the effectiveness of even the best systems need to be re-assessed from time to time. Business and work environment is constantly changing; these changes can severely impact the effectiveness of even the most perfect recognition platform.
Given this, organizations might have to look for more advanced and relevant recognition solutions from time to time, to continue driving enhanced greater engagement of employees.
It is important for organizations to regularly assess the suitability of the current rewards and recognition platform based on their current and future organizational needs.
Organizations need to keep an eye for any of the gaps below that might arise with respect to the existing platform. This should prompt them to start looking for a new one:
1. Lack of Flexibility of the Solution
Businesses today are undergoing rapid changes in sync with changing market needs. A flexible employee recognition software should be able to respond to changing business requirements and allow easy reconfiguration.
However, if the current recognition platform being used by an organization is not flexible enough to respond to these changes, it definitely needs to be replaced.
Not doing so can make the recognition program obsolete and ineffective. This can, in turn, make the employees feel dissatisfied and undervalued, affecting their engagement and productivity.
2. Poor Interoperability with Other Systems
Lack of proper integration with other platforms such as the HRMS and the Intranet can make the process of accessing the recognition platform and sharing data with it cumbersome. Also, lack of integration capability with collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Slack can make the recognition system like an ‘island’. This can lead lower usage of the system and eventually lower impact of the program.
Social media integration such as with Facebook and LinkedIn plays an important role in enhancing the effectiveness of any employee recognition program. Apart from influencing the social recognition of employees for their positive performance, it also helps in hiring and building a brand as an employer.
However, if the recognition program does not provide proper integration with the right social media tools, the program might lose its effectiveness. In such a scenario, it might be better to switch to a new platform that has better integration features.
3. Lack of Regular Product Upgrades
A good employee rewards and recognition software gets upgraded on a regular basis. These upgrades help in resolving existing product issues, adding new advanced features, improving configurability and integration with other systems. No product can be afford to be frozen in time and still be able to deliver higher or even the same level of business impact.
Hence, if there are hardly any upgrades from the recognition platform vendors, it should be good sign for the organization to start looking for vendors that are more agile and responsive. A stagnant employee recognition platform can slowly kill an otherwise well-designed and implemented program.
4. Inadequate Post-Implementation Support
Customer support after implementation of the recognition software is is critical to the success of the program. This needs to be at different levels.
Employees who are end users of the platform should be able to get help and support related to the use of the platform and any issues they are facing over live chat, email or call during regular business hours. Post business hours, end uses should be able to access resources like FAQs or knowledge based, interact with a bot or log service tickets to get a resolution for the issues they might be facing.
The HR and program should be able to receive support during and after business hours from an account manager who can help them to resolve urgent or escalated issues, handle important queries and manage change requests. The account manager should be able to provide or connect them with experts who could provide new ideas and best practices for enhancing the program.
If the organization is not getting adequate customer support, it is about time to start thinking about a new employee rewards and recognition platform.
A good employee recognition platform can provide amazing results by enhancing the organization’s culture and employee retention through seamless experience.
Constantly monitoring and benchmarking the effectiveness and relevance of the recognition program and the platform being used is essential for organizations to understand when to change their employee rewards and recognition platform.
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