While most organizations today realize the significance of recognizing their employees, many underestimate the importance of timely recognition. Offering timely employee recognition is critical to the success, impact, and importance of recognition in organizations.
When combined with other best practices such as regularity and specificity, timely appreciation and praise can go a long way in boosting employee morale and engagement.
Timely recognition ensures an increase in employee productivity and performance as compared to delayed recognition.
That is why organizations must adopt an employee recognition program that focuses on acknowledging and rewarding employees for their efforts and achievements on time.
It also helps to create a workplace culture of recognition and motivates employees in multiple ways.
According to Bamboo HR, 75% of employees receiving recognition at least once a month are satisfied with their job.
Gallup, the renowned analytic and advisory company recommends that organizations should recognize an employee every seven days.
Offering timely recognition to employees ensures various benefits for an organization.
The most important of these benefits include the following:
Recognizing employees for their efforts and achievements while the memories of the same are still fresh in their minds helps to validate their actions immediately.
When employees are appreciated without delay, it motivates them and assures them they are on the right path.
It fills them with a sense of purpose and self-worthiness.
Timely employee recognition is a way of acknowledging their progress in terms of doing meaningful work.
The employees feel inspired to improve their performance and efficiency to complete the assigned tasks faster.
The sooner the employees are appreciated for their good work the more inclined they feel to improve their productivity.
Timely recognition goes a long way in reinforcing desirable behaviors and repeating the same.
Employee understand their role and importance to their organization when they are appreciated for their work without delay.
This makes it easier for them to adopt such behaviors in their everyday work and motivates their coworkers to do the same.
One of the biggest benefits of timely recognition is that it enhances the impact and duration of the afterglow effect quite significantly.
Employees receive a boost of motivation every time they remember being recognized for their actions or behaviors almost immediately by their peers or superiors.
It inspires them to continue doing good work, maintain their record of superior performance, and even surpass it.
Timely recognition goes a long way in enhancing the level of trust and transparency between employers and their employees.
Employees get a positive message that their excellent work and behavior are being noticed and appreciated.
It also helps to eliminate any potential bias and favoritism in recognizing employees and makes the process more authentic and impactful.
Organizations need to understand the best ways of offering timely recognition.
This ensures that they can maximize the benefits and the overall impact of the recognition process.
Here are a few best practices that organizations can implement to offer timely recognition:
1. Implement a Spot Recognition Policy
2. Promote Peer-to-Peer Recognition
3. Use Employee Recognition Software For Immediate Recognition
4. Use Reward Points For Instant Recognition
5. Send Digital Thank You Notes and Appreciation Cards
A spot recognition policy is the most effective way to ensure timely recognition.
Spot recognition by supervisors boosts the sense of achievement of the employees and motivates them to repeat their good work and actions.
Employees feel assured that their actions are acknowledged and appreciated by those who matter the most.
Peer-to-peer recognition is another effective way of promoting the concept of appreciating employees in time.
It can be a significant morale booster for employees if their co-workers recognize it.
It assures them of their love and support. In addition to keeping the employees motivated, peer-to-peer recognition also helps to build a culture of appreciation.
Using digital tools such as employee recognition apps and other online platforms can make it easier to recognize employees in time.
These tools provide employees and managers the convenience of appreciating their coworkers and subordinates at any time and from any location.
Thus, they can help avoid delays in recognizing employees’ good work caused by administrative processes and other such reasons.
One way of effortlessly implementing timely recognition in the workplace is by offering reward points to deserving employees.
Organizations should empower managers and employees to award reward points to other employees for their good work and exceptional behavior.
Reward points help enhance the flexibility and impact of recognition and make the process more authentic and streamlined.
Another best practice that organizations should consider is using an employee recognition platform to send digital ‘thank you’ notes and appreciation cards. This is pretty effective in terms of offering timely recognition.
Employee morale is boosted in a big way when they are praised and appreciated for their good work and behavior through a personalized note.
Employee recognition needs to be timely and in the right way to get the desired results in terms of improved performance and higher engagement levels, which is why organizations need to adopt a policy of more effective and spontaneous recognition.
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
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