How to deliver emotionally impactful employee rewards and recognition
Businesses are increasingly getting to grips with the value of employee rewards and recognition in driving motivation, performance and retention.
A perceived lack of recognition by employees, however, indicates that many existing programmes aren’t having the desired impact just yet.
To truly make employees feel seen, heard and genuinely recognised, programmes need to be built around delivering emotional impact.
You can have all the features, functionality and budget to make a ‘good’ employee reward and recognition programme, but if the delivery misses the mark, employees won’t feel the true benefit of your business’ time, effort and investment.
Why focus on emotional impact?
Whether the objective of your rewards and recognition programme is increasing your employee retention rate, hitting key performance goals, strengthening employee culture and so on, your programme needs an emotional impact on employees.
Emotionally impactful recognition evokes meaning.
It creates lasting memories; it forms authentic connections anddrives real behaviour change.
When you focus on how it makes employees feel, you’ll naturally see a bigger shift towards hitting your programme objectives.
Here are five ways to deliver emotionally impactful employee rewards and recognition:
1. Deliver rewards that resonate
The rewards employees receive from your business should connect with their personal interests and needs to have a true, emotional impact.
Deliver personalised rewards by opting for a programme that facilitates choice.
That way, employees are given the freedom to choose a product or voucher that truly resonates, resulting in the reward being far more meaningful and memorable to the individual.
2. Empower employees to share the recognition responsibility
It’s important that appreciation comes from the people that they work alongside, as well as those in more senior positions.
Empowering everyone in your business to appreciate others through a peer-to-peer recognition tool connects colleagues, champions authenticity and brings more meaning to the recognition process, as well as driving fairness.
3. Prioritise personalisation
Rewards and recognition that genuinely lift people up are delivered with heart.
A transactional message of ‘Thanks for doing a good job’ probably won’t lift someone’s spirits as much as a genuine, thought-out message from someone that truly appreciates that individual.
Educate your workforce on the value of making recognition specific to the individual or group of people and even offer best practice tips to showcase what good recognition looks like.
4. Ensure timely delivery
Recognition and rewards that are delivered close to the event, milestone or achievement that they acknowledge have the best chance of being emotionally impactful.
This is because the link between the action and the recognition is at its strongest so individuals can make a meaningful connection between their effort and the positive feedback they’ve received.
5. Align your programme to company values
To give your employee recognition and rewards a deeper meaning, connect them to something tangible that provides a clear sense of purpose such as your company values.
When recognition is clearly linked to a purpose-driven action, it reinforces behaviours that align with your business goals.
This creates a stronger emotional connection for employees, whether the recognition comes from a colleague, senior leader or the business because individuals understand that their actions are contributing to a bigger picture.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, Boostworks
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