Modern Employee Recognition Programs That Work: 5 Strategies

When done right, employee recognition programs can transform the company culture of your entire organization. From better engagement levels to improved employee retention, acknowledging your employees’ hard work can be a game-changer for frontline teams. 

With hourly & frontline employees quitting en masse, building successful employee recognition programs that motivate employees to stay is more important than ever. 

Yet, there is a lot of opportunity for employee recognition programs to fall flat. Traditional approaches, such as picking an employee of the month, often don’t resonate with the modern workforce anymore and can do more harm than good. 

→ Want to learn more about effectively recognizing employee performance in the hourly & frontline context? Watch Secchi’s Beyond Employee of the Month webinar. 

What Is Employee Recognition, and Why Does It Matter? 

Employee recognition is a way to acknowledge the hard work and accomplishments of your employees. Service awards, company lunches, and bonuses can all be a part of a healthy employee recognition program. 

Employee recognition is not just a “nice-have.” Intentional & thought-through employee recognition programs can: 

• Make your employees 21% more productive (Gallup) 
• Decrease turnover rate by 31% (Harvard Business Review) 
• Improve employee motivation by 79% (Society for Human Resource Management) 
• Increase team closeness by 85% (Globo Force Study)

As a result, organizations with good practices for employee recognition are 2.5x more likely to have above average financials, according to Deloitte. 

The Challenge with Employee Recognition Programs

Recognizing your hourly & frontline employees is not as easy as throwing your team a last-minute pizza party. How many times have you done something to make your employees feel acknowledged, only to get a survey back that says that your recognition is poor? 

→ Want real-life stories of employee recognition fails? Hear from Mike White, Secchi’s Founder & President, with experience in HR responsibility for 60+ manufacturing facilities globally. 

Research shows that 54% of frontline employees have considered quitting because of their work environment, and 21% of them don’t feel appreciated at work. 

? Employee recognition is a challenge, and as the landscape of frontline work changes, employee recognition programs must adapt, too. 

Employee Recognition Programs: Best Practices

1. Be Intentional

To make your employees feel good, the way you deliver employee recognition has to actually mean something. It’s essential to be authentic, thoughtful, and intentional about the way you recognize your employees to make it land. 

So, how can you be intentional about employee recognition? 

• Stay away from flattery. Don’t say things that aren’t actually true, such as “you’re irreplaceable.” Everyone is replaceable in the workplace, and just saying nice things to say something is only going to get you negative points.
  
• Go deeper than general statements. Instead of making surface-level comments like “good job,” point out specific things about employee performance, such as attention to detail or always being on time. 

• Spend time on it. Effective employee recognition is thoughtful, which means that you’re going to spend time on figuring out how you want to acknowledge your employees and what you want to say about their performance. 

Being intentional about employee recognition requires more effort than picking a random employee of the month, but it makes it much more functional and productive. 

2. Figure Out Your Employees’ Language of Appreciation

When it comes to building employee recognition programs that work, context is everything. It’s important to remember that providing recognition is not about what you want, it’s about what your employees want. 

In their book The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, Gary Chapman and Paul White identify different ways in which you can effectively recognize and reward employees. 

• Words of Affirmation: encourage employees by pointing out what they’re doing well and praising their hard work. 
  
• Quality Time: spending quality time with your workers, whether it’s a team-wide pizza party or simply spending time together.
  
• Gifts: monetary rewards, gift cards, and bonuses are the obvious choices, but personalized & timely gifts, such as a baby onesie for a new dad, are also an effective way to make your employees feel appreciated.
  
• Acts of Service: seeing the opportunities to pitch in and work together to show your employees that you understand how hard they work.
  
• Appropriate Physical Touch: a great example of this is an executive going out to the production floor and shaking hands with workers. 

Frontline workers are humans before employees, and meaningfully recognizing them can go a long way. 

3. Stay Disciplined and Consistent

It’s important for your recognition program to feel natural and authentic to your employees, but it doesn’t mean that you should provide recognition without a plan & whenever you feel like it. 

It’s crucial to have a consistent employee recognition process that you follow. If your strategy is waiting until you have a free moment to write a haphazard thank you note, receiving recognition isn’t going to feel meaningful to your employees. 

Don’t wing it. Brainstorm a pattern of recognition, document a consistent process, and stick to it.  There’s freedom in discipline, so use calendaring, phone reminders, or checklists to stay on track. 

→ Staying consistent with the employee recognition process is much easier with the right tool. Secchi is an hourly performance management software that makes it simple for frontline supervisors & HR leaders to provide meaningful recognition. 

4. Document Employee Recognition 

Most organizations do some kind of performance review on a regular basis. Whether it’s year-end reviews, quarterly reviews, or something more frequent, it’s important that employee recognition moments are property documented and discussed during those meetings. 

If there’s a disconnect between the routine recognition that you give your employees and what happens in the performance review meeting, you’re going to end up with a confused workforce. Confusion = lower productivity and motivation levels. 

?To avoid inconsistencies, document employee recognition and make it easy for supervisors & HR to refer back to it. 

5. Invest in the Right Tools

Meaningful employee recognition takes time, organization, and effort. Yet, having the right tool to deliver employee recognition can make all the difference. 

Secchi helps frontline supervisors, HR leaders, and executives easily identify top performers and efficiently recognize them with easy-to-use modern features. 

With Secchi you’ll get: 

✔️ Performance trends

✔️ Instant performance reviews

✔️ Opportunities to gamify rewards

✔️ Text-like messaging 

✔️ Personalized ways to provide recognition

→ Want to learn more about what Secchi can do for your team? Start with the Beyond Employee of the Month webinar. 

Employee Recognition Programs: 7+ Meaningful Ideas

Almost any employee recognition idea can work if there’s intention & thought behind it. When brainstorming ideas, it’s important to think about what’s going to resonate with your particular organization, team, and individual employees. 

Here are some ideas to get you started. 

• Shoutouts on social media: post a photo of an employee on your social media channels and highlight their accomplishments and personality traits. If you don’t have social media, you can send a newsletter to your email list or run a press release.
  
• Thank you notes: thank or encourage your employees with personalized notes, either handwritten or sent using a digital tool like Secchi. The key here is to go beyond general statements and make it as personal as possible.
  
• Video messages: record a short video for your employees to motivate, thank, and encourage them. Video can be more personable than notes.
  
• Bonuses and monetary awards: as long as it’s done meaningfully, this is always a great way to show your workers that you appreciate them.
  
• Professional development opportunities: contrary to popular belief, hourly workers are not only there for a paycheck. In a McKinsey survey, over 70% of frontline employees have applied to career advancement opportunities.
  
• Mental health support: a recent survey shows that 28% of healthcare professionals had quit a job because of burnout, and healthcare is not the only frontline industry impacted by deteriorating mental health. Prioritizing wellness in your employee recognition system can go a long way with your teams.
  
• Gift cards: a safe bet, but make it as personal as possible.
  
• Intentional messages: words of affirmation are one of the five ways in which you can show appreciation to your employees. Using a tool like Secchi helps you to effortlessly praise and encourage your workers in real-time. 

Beyond Employee of the Month: Encourage Good Work with Secchi

In our latest webinar, Secchi’s Founder and president Mike White breaks down a four-step framework for successful employee recognition. From a failed steak dinner to a retention-focused, consistent process, Mike shares what he learned from leading 60+ manufacturing facilities globally. 

Watch the Beyond Employee of the Month webinar and learn how to overcome barriers to modern employee recognition.