Are Your 5-Star Employees Receiving 5-Star Recognition?
We all like that special feeling of recognition . When we surround ourselves with close family and friends, we subconsciously pick the people that make us feel good about ourselves. We tend to do the same thing in work environments.
Employee recognition is crucial to your retention efforts. If you build a cadence of persistent and inclusive employee recognition you will inadvertently be telling your employees hey, I like you! And your employees need to hear that . If you’ve built an objective, repeatable, and successful hiring process that focuses on the top 15% of available talent (5-Star Employees), don’t skimp out on employee retention!
As the Big Boss, you owe your 5-Star Employees recognition. We’ve got some unique ideas on how to make your people feel appreciated – what are you waiting for? Give one or all of these a try!
- Years of Service Award
This award celebrates the tenure of your employees. If you’ve got 5-Star people who have been with you for a specific period of time, this would be great recognition.
An example would be to give certificates for one, three, and five years of service, and so on – use whatever time frame works for you and your business.
Along with the certificates, make sure your employees receive a “shout-out” announcing their big day, and frame it as a “Celebration” in your Daily Huddle!
If awarding an employee for one year, include a small monetary gift such as a $10 gift card for their favorite coffee shop, then increase the monetary amounts based on the years of employment.
- Employee Recognition Wall
It’s a common trope for businesses to have an ‘employee of the month’ wall. You could change up the look with some more décor, fun pictures of each employee on the wall, or perhaps even homemade portraits of each employee (employees love when their bosses/company owners get involved on a personal level, so something like this would express the utmost appreciation).
- Shoutouts On Social Media Platforms
Maybe a physical employee recognition wall won’t work for your organization, but you could have a virtual wall! Use Facebook, Instagram, or any popular picture-sharing media platform could act as your virtual recognition tool!
- Employee Appreciation Events
Recognizing your employees ceremoniously is always a great idea. You could always take a few minutes to recognize your 5-Star Employees during office outings, holiday parties, even throw a surprise celebration! Any event where everybody is already gathered is a perfect recognition opportunity.
Heenle Turner, the HR Guru and Vice President of The ALL IN Company, has a personal account of a unique employee appreciation event:
“We had a program at Paychex for employee recognition based on customer service performance. In an organization of 15,000, about 15 people received the award every year. Your peers had to submit a story to their manager, then it would go all the way to the regional level for approval. The winners were treated like royalty and would fly to Rochester for a big ceremony. And we got this award TSA tried to confiscate, it was that big. But the ceremony and award made us all feel really, really special.”
There are endless employee recognition possibilities. What kinds of unique awards or ceremonies could you arrange for your employees? Let us know in a comment below!
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