How to use recognition to help employees stay motivated

Finding motivation and staying focused can be difficult for employees not used to working from home. Even for those who are, the added anxieties associated with a pandemic, plus the pressure of keeping families occupied or having someone in the house on furlough, can all create a distracting and disengaging atmosphere. As an employer, it’s amazing how effective a simple ‘thank you’ can be.

Saying ‘thank you’ improves our wellbeing

We’re all missing being closer to each other but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to connect and do something nice for our employees. Showing gratitude and thanking others is a great way to not only boost employees’ motivation, but our own too. Thanking others makes us feel good, and being thanked makes us twice as likely to help someone out again in future.

Engaging all employees

At the moment, it can be easy for team leaders and HR managers to focus most of their attention on those who are struggling the most with their wellbeing. In a webinar we hosted recently, we shared some thoughts from a customer of ours on this: “For every employee that I’m concerned about, there are four others who silently get on with it and continue to deliver. It was easy to thank high performers when they sat beside me, now not so much.”

While giving thanks is often used as a means of encouraging and revitalising those who are struggling or are spiralling into disengagement, it’s most important to ensure that your high performers aren’t neglected just because they’re adapting (or at least, seem to be adapting) better to the new way of working. Consistent acknowledgment of their hard work can help them maintain their motivation and ensure that they don’t become disengaged.

Giving feedback keeps us collaborative

Giving feedback on someone’s work or overall performance is a part of recognition. In our ‘new normal’, offering feedback or advice to your team on their work is a great opportunity for them to not only collaborate and improve as a whole, but to spend time talking to someone else. Sometimes it’s difficult for our people to get the right perspective when heavily involved in a project without that constant collaboration and back-and-forth they might have while sat alongside their team. Getting feedback from you or a colleague means you might notice something they didn’t, or suggest ways to improve. This is a great opportunity to maintain current connections and build new relationships at work.

Celebrating small wins helps us stay positive

Encouraging employees to find the small wins in their day and reminding them of the impact they are having on your organisation will help keep both you and them motivated. Thinking positively leads to acting positively, which puts us in a better mood and gives us more energy. In acknowledging even the small parts of their daily achievements, you can help give them the motivation to tackle the larger, more difficult responsibilities in front of them, and help keep their focus on the task at hand.

Using social platforms to keep it fun

Delivering your recognitions in a fun and engaging way is going to be hugely helpful in keeping people happy and motivated, even when they’re unable to receive that recognition in person. Plus, it often adds to people’s pride in their work when they’re recognised publicly, which, in 2020 – especially while on lockdown – means on an online social platform.

If you can embellish your heartfelt thanks with videos, gifs and memes, and share them with your whole organisation, you can make the experience of recognition fun for you, your recipient and anyone who can see your recognition. Having the ability to like and comment on other people’s recognitions boosts the recipient’s motivation yet further, and also spreads a sense of connectivity among your whole workforce.

The author is Gethin Nadin, director, employee wellbeing, Benefex.

This article is provided by Benefex.