Employee Recognition: Retaining Talent and Motivating Your Team as a First Generation Leader
So, you have a great team and are leveraging your experience as a first generation professional to lead them authentically.
Among your next priorities should be employee retention and satisfaction. Your company or industry may have standard practices (or expectations) for employee recognition, but perhaps you want to incorporate your own unique ways of motivating your team. This Article will share how to find the best ways to recognize your team and some of our favorite award ideas.
The Who, When, and How of Recognition
Before getting into the methods of recognition, you will want to strategize how best to message the feedback.
The Who: Special recognition should feel special. One way to elevate delivery of this feedback is to consider the messenger: Would this elevated feedback be best delivered by yourself or senior leadership? From your human resources department or from a key stakeholder? Think critically (and be creative) to highlight the nature and tone of the recognition through the delivery. (1)
The When: When would the delivery of the recognition be most meaningful? Consider giving recognition at the end of a project’s completion or upon the conclusion of a fiscal quarter. “Research on the Fresh Start effect suggests that recognizing your employees can be particularly impactful at key temporal landmarks. For example, a thank you note sent at the start of a new quarter or positive feedback delivered at the conclusion of a major project can serve as a booster shot of motivation when employees need it most” (1). The timing could also be determined by the recognition: would an award of an extra vacation day be best delivered after a busy season or during the holidays? Is a monetary award sent per your payroll schedule?
The How: Ah, the age-old question of public or private recognition! Public recognition may have the added benefit of motivating the entire team, but could also alienate others by a negative comparison (1). Private recognition has the opportunity to be quite meaningful and individualized, but may also lack the gravitas of company-wide awards. In any case, be intentional and thoughtful: “Employees reported feeling more valued when they could see that their employer took the time and effort to choose, purchase, and wrap the gift, and so they increased their own efforts in return (1).”
Show Them the Money . . . Realistically
The most obvious (and likely most popular) option for recognition is financial compensation tied to tenure or performance, either as a bonus, a merit increase (i.e. a raise), or other official, cadenced award.
This structure is often known to employees in advance, which creates transparent, attainable incentives for high performance. “Maybe it’s a quarterly bonus. Maybe it’s a commission structure that’s better than the competition. Maybe it’s offering to foot the bill for additional credentials. Or maybe it’s even profit-sharing in your company (2).”
Keep in mind, however, that these bonus need to be fair and equitable to all employees: “One study found that in some public sector organizations, merit bonuses actually reduced motivation and morale due to a widespread perception that the performance levels needed to earn the incentive were nearly impossible for many employees to achieve” (1). Your company may tie monetary bonuses to performance or revenue goals, but as a leader, it is appropriate to ask if you are within your ability to offer your team additional compensation at any time. Perhaps your company has a pool of funds for such a purpose or there are company-sponsored options to recognize individual contributions outside of an official timeline.
A Little Can Go a Long Way
Perhaps your company is watching its bottom line more closely than usual and you are looking for more budget-friendly measures to show employee appreciation. Check out this short list of our favorite ideas:
Write a short, personalized note expressing gratitude
Call out your high achiever’s contributions in your next team gathering or consider holding time in your regular team meetings for recognition (including peer-to-peer!)
If permissible, share leadership insights into your company performance, goal progress, and important industry news.
Be transparent for reasoning behind tasks. Illustrate to your team how their work furthers the goals of your business and show how important their contributions are to the company’s success.
Recognize signs of burnout. Stay in-tune with your team on workload and manage appropriately.
Offer additional flexibility. If your team has shown consistent dependability, consider awarding additional vacation or personal days or allowing them to work from home (if desired).
(1), (2), (3).
Unique list from Fellow
Food for Thought
The way to your employee’s hearts may be through their stomaches.
“In fact, a survey by Seamless found that 57 percent of employees say food-based perks would make them feel more valued and appreciated. . . In the same survey, 38 percent said food perks would make them more likely to endorse their employer in a ‘best places to work for’ survey, so not only will decent snacks help you keep your employees, it can also help you attract great new talent” (2).
Keeping a basket of fun snacks in a common area can go a long way. You could even consider a “snacks-luck”, where your team brings in their favorite snacks on a designated day.
Consider adopting an awards policy tied to sponsored lunch; if your department meets your quarterly goals, or helps bring an important project across the finish line, the company orders lunch for your entire team (3).
Ask and ye shall receive
Want to deliver meaningful recognition to your team but unsure what type of award would be most impactful?
Simply ask! Taking the guesswork out of employee recognition will help you provide meaningful, personalized awards. One way of gathering this information is through a company survey or a group interview. “To conduct a successful group interview, create your questions and scale ahead of time. Make sure each team understands that the purpose of the interview is to gather information and improve” (4). As you consider each member of your team’s motivations in their work, try to tie recognition to their values (2).
recognition is a key part of employee retention and satisfaction
Finding meaningful ways to recognize your team is essential to building and maintaining positive morale. Not all recognition needs to be a financial award and even small gestures can make a positive impression.
Citations
O’Flaherty, Shibeal, et al. “Research: A Little Recognition Can Provide a Big Morale Boost.” Harvard Business Review, 29 Mar. 2021, hbr.org/2021/03/research-a-little-recognition-can-provide-a-big-morale-boost.
“10 Scientifically Proven Ways to Motivate Employees.” The Bottom Line by Square, 25 Nov. 2022, squareup.com/us/en/the-bottom-line/growing-your-team/how-to-motivate-your-employees.
Sheehan, Hannah. “How Managers Can Motivate Employees: 26 Effective Ways.” Fellow, 3 Feb. 2022, fellow.app/blog/management/how-managers-can-motivate-employees-effective-ways/.
Water, Shonna. “7 Surefire Ways to Boost Employee Morale.” 7 Surefire Ways to Boost Employee Morale, 2021, www.betterup.com/blog/boost-employee-morale.
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