Real-time employee recognition the new norm
At a time when everything happens in microseconds on the internet, companies too are rethinking employee recognition strategies to make them feel appreciated. It is no longer relegated to the year-end to reward staff who have served five or ten years with the company but is now real time, personalized and aligned with the business objectives, says David Sturt, Executive Vice President of employee recognition and engagement company O. C. Tanner.
As organisations value innovation to maintain differentiation amongst peers they don't want employees to do their job well but want people who think about what they can do differently. Recognition has a disproportionate high influence to attract talent to the organisation which affects productivity, retention, work, amount of innovation. Research by OC Tanner Institute shows that companies that recognise employees get 5.3 times more innovative ideas than the average. Several studies have shown workers leave an organisation when they are not valued or feel taken for granted.
This is why engagement is much more relevant in today's times because people give that extra creative discretionary effort only when they are motivated, says Sturt. This change in approach requires a better way of leading. The managerial focus of the 1990s and 2000s to get processes in place, ensure consistency and standardization is no longer enough because if someone is going the extra mile and investing more time and effort, companies must pay attention to it, and celebrate it to ensure they send the message across to ensure everybody knows how valuable it is.
The over 100-year old Tata Steel, which is known for its culture is now acknowledging that culture can't be static and is reworking its HR policies to attract millennials to bring in innovation, says Sturt who visited the company's campus before this interview.
Another instance is of Taj Hotels. At the 100th anniversary they did an internal exercise where employees were asked to drop notes of appreciations in sealed envelopes on their colleague's desks. Receiving such notes prompted people to acknowledge work of peers, says Zubin Zack, MD, OC Tanner. The entire exercise went on for a week after which they accumulated 1.8 lakh notes which brought to light all the great work people did across levels, adds Zack.
For recognition to be an integral part of culture, top down is no longer relevant where a manager complements team members. It is now peer to peer where it can go up and down and sideways, says Sturt. To do that, organisations are leveraging technology. Some are making it a part of their intranet or mobile app where employees can nominate an employee and get it approved from leaders making the entire process happen in real time and also transparent.