Employee recognition can go a long way in the fight to retain top talent. Do your employees feel like they’re being recognized for the work they’re doing? How often does your organization recognize those employees who go above and beyond? And it’s not just your leadership team that should be doing the recognizing, either - do you have a platform where employees can recognize their peers for a job well done?
In this article, we’re going to help you answer these questions, and show you why employee recognition is such an important part of retaining top talent. We’ll also explore how an employee engagement platform, like Workplace from Facebook (Workplace), can help you with employee recognition initiatives. Read on to learn more!
The State of The World: The Great Attrition is Upon Us
The world has seen massive disruption in the past 18 months, and statistics are showing that this has taken a toll on workplaces. The latest Gallup report from October 2020 shows that the percentage of engaged employees – those who are highly involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace – has dropped to 36%, and a recent McKinsey & Company article states that more than 15 million US workers (and still counting!) have quit their jobs since April 2021.
So, how do organizations stem the tide of departing employees? How can they ensure that top talent doesn’t walk out the door? The answer may surprise you: compliment your employees. Give them recognition.
Employee Recognition & Compliments Go a Long Way in Retaining Talent
There are several surprising statistics that are outlined in this Workplace article, but employers agree that improving employee engagement starts with compliments – that is to say, recognizing your employees for going above and beyond.
- When asked what leaders could do more of to improve engagement, 58% of respondents said, “give recognition”.
- 50% of employees believe that being thanked by managers not only improved the relationship overall, but it built trust with higher-ups, too.
- 79% of people who quit their jobs cite ‘lack of appreciation’ as their reason for leaving.
When done right, recognition is one of the biggest drivers of positive corporate culture – it is essential for influencing relationships and increasing happiness at work. Plus, it boosts employee morale, which definitely plays a role in retaining top talent.
So, How Can You Recognize Your Employees?
It’s important to put employee recognition front and centre within your organization in such a way that your employees feel valued and recognized for their contributions. Here are 2 ways that Workplace from Facebook (Workplace) can help you to make recognition an everyday part of your corporate culture:
#1: Workplace Helps to Automate the Process of Recognition
With bots, many things are possible, and Workplace has utilized bots in many creative ways. One such bot that is popular is the #Thanks bot, accessible via Groups or Workplace Chat. If an employee @ mentions a colleague to recognize a job well done, the #Thanks bot will instantly notify the person who’s being recognized, and, simultaneously, send a notification to that employee’s manager so they can also see what’s been said. The bot also collects the number of times someone gives, and receives, a #Thanks mention, so you can easily incentivize how many times employees recognize their peers, and further build that culture of recognition within your organization.
This quick, frictionless, and public way of recognizing an employee’s contribution is available via the Workplace Integrations Directory – just search for ‘Recognize’ and you’ll find it! Not sure how to implement it? Give us a shout, and we’ll walk you through how to add it to your Workplace platform!
#2: Workplace Can Provide Internal Groups for Recognition
If you don’t want to automate the process, or if it sounds overwhelming, never fear – another option is to simply create an open Group within your Workplace platform and add everyone in the company to it. Creating a Group and calling it a catchy name, like “Winning Wednesdays”, or “Top Performers”, or even just “Kudos” encourages all employees to get in on the action of recognition.
LineZero’s employee recognition Group is called “Internal Kudos”, and it’s a place where every employee, regardless of their position in the company, can go and recognize a colleague or direct report for a job well done. Internal Kudos gives the team the ability to either post kudos to someone and tag them in the body of the text, or we also utilize the “Go Live” feature via a quick recorded video calling someone out for when they went above and beyond.
Employee Recognition: A Quick Case Study
Delta Air Lines set up an open Group within their organization called #deltaproud. All 80,000 employees are able to log into Workplace and navigate to that group to include recognition, like or comment on posts, and more. Delta receives over 15,000 posts and comments per week, sharing stories of how fellow employees made an impact, excellence in action, and gratitude towards colleagues, managers, and more.
“Workplace helps us break down silos and drive appreciation and recognition – not just from the top down, but from peer-to-peer, from people that normally don’t get a chance to speak and interact,” says Rachael Steegar Rensink, Head of Employee Engagement at Delta Air Lines. “It’s a good reminder that this is why we do this.”
Employee Recognition Starts with the Platform You Choose
As you’ve seen in this blog, employee recognition can go a long way in employee retention and employee job satisfaction. Ready to see how to take your organization to the next level for employee recognition? Let’s have a chat!
Already Using Workplace?
If you’d like to learn how to include employee recognition in your current Workplace platform, we’d love to chat! Give us a shout and we’ll help you create a strategy that will put employee recognition at the centre of your Workplace platform!
Not using Workplace Yet?
Want to further explore how Workplace could take your corporate culture to the next level & provide a great platform to recognize your employees’ valuable contributions to the organization? Give us a shout! We’ll help you to brainstorm ideas on how to utilize Workplace to achieve your organization’s goals and objectives.
From this brainstorming session, we’ll help you to see a visual blueprint that will show you how your existing technologies and Workplace from Facebook can integrate to help close the gaps between your business goals and objectives and your technology capabilities.
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