Who among us—other than those who work in Internal Communications—hasn’t rolled their eyes at an “All Hands Meeting” invite? Or chaffed at having to stop what you’re doing and take yet another internal survey about your workplace mental health?
Though the pandemic should have been a boon for internal programs focused on keeping employees up-to-date and feeling included, the new pandemic work-life seems to have created an even further divide between introverts and extroverts in the workplace, with neither group completely happy with the rigors of the remote work situation.
Employees who tend to be more outgoing miss the spontaneous and organic interactions that happen more naturally in office settings. Employees who tend toward introversion and privacy love the intimacy of working remotely, but studies show that, lacking face-to-face interactions, many of them are getting lost in the shuffle. Personality types aside, one thing is clear: employee engagement is down across the board.
The 2022 Global Culture Report by OC Tanner revealed that a full one-third of employees feel “disconnected” from leadership. Forty-five percent said they interact with fewer people on a daily basis and, in their personal lives, 57 percent said they engage in fewer activities.
While there’s not much employers can do about employees’ personal activities (or rather, shouldn’t try to do), there is something we can do, at work, to help reconnect employees with each other and with their work.
I spent a great deal of time during the holiday break looking for employee engagement programs. If you’re willing to spend the money, you can build an employee engagement and rewards program that pays out thousands in rewards points that employees can cash in for gift cards, merchandise, or experience activities. I’ve included a shortlist of a few companies I spoke with personally, at the end of this article.
But if you don’t work for a large company, or budgets are tight, your options are fewer. But maybe you don’t really need all of the bells and whistles found in big SaaS engagement solutions. Maybe all you really need is to help people feel valued; make them feel that their employer recognizes their value and that their peers respect the work they do.
What Makes an Employee Engagement and Recognition Solution Great?
Social recognition is a phrase you’ll hear a lot of as you research engagement solutions. Social recognition is the idea that when you publicly thank someone for something they did on the job, it makes that person feel valued and necessary. It’s also a great way to make sure everyone in that employee’s management chain sees their good work.
While there are some who do crave the attention such public accolades create, others are just as happy with a more private “thank you.” The challenge with email-based “thank yous” however, is that it rarely gets to the attention of management, which means that while it may make the person receiving the appreciation feel good, it’s not building value with that person’s manager.
Today, ensuring employees’ good works reach the eyes and ears of those making decisions about workforce sizing is critical. One study during the early heights of the pandemic showed a correlation between unemployment and recession concerns and internet searches, supporting, “…the idea that the labour market impact of this crisis is more pervasive, at least in people’s minds, which might heighten the risk of unemployment hysteresis in countries most directly affected by the pandemic.”1
At the top of most recommendation listicles for boosting employee engagement is the manager-employee 1:1 meeting. Regular one-on-one meetings are a valuable tool to ensure employees understand the expectations managers have for employees. It can also, in the right environment and with the right manager/employee relationship, offer a “trusted space” where employees can speak openly about their challenges without fear of reprimand. For the vast majority; however, this is not the norm.
Read ANY article by an independent writer and you’ll uncover the truth that HR-focused media don’t want to share publicly: most employees hate 1:1s (examples here and here).
They’re awkward. They too often devolve into status updates rather than honest feedback. No one enjoys them and most people not on the manager side of the table dread them.
I’m not espousing getting rid of the 1:1, but I am saying that it should not be your primary vehicle for gathering or doling out praise and recognition.
A better solution for recognizing employees and boosting inter-office engagement is a tool that allows employees to recognize and reward someone for something, while also ensuring the recognition is shared with the employee’s manager. Whether or not you, or the employee receiving the praise, choose to post the recognition to a more public forum, such as a Microsoft Teams channel, is entirely up to you.
Below, is a simple program for employee recognition, that will make introverts and extroverts happy. And depending on your organization’s size and budget, you can scale this program up or down, depending on your situation.
Requirements:
- An intranet portal or access to some kind of shared document storage
- Someone in HR or Marketing or Communications who will own the program
- Tracking spreadsheet
- Updated org-chart
- Templated communications – If your company uses Microsoft Teams/Sharepoint, check out the PowerApp called “Shoutouts.” It is an automated PowerApp that integrates with your teams and lets employees send pre-built “Thank You” notes to others in the organization.
How to Set Up An Employee Recognition and Engagement Solution
The Guidelines
- Each employee is awarded a set of “Kudos” points for the month or year or however you want to set it up. Managers, or those above a certain level in the organization, can get more.
- While you don’t have to give out all of your points each month, it is recommended to ensure everyone is engaged.
- You cannot give more than one point to the same person in any given month.
- Employees can save up their points, but they cannot carry them over year-over-year. This not only fosters a feeling of gratitude when they cash in, but it also helps clear the books of outstanding balances so your budget doesn’t take a big hit at any given time.
- Depending on your organization’s budget, you set “points goals” for merchandise. Maybe it’s 5 points for a $5 coffee gift card. Or maybe it’s 10 points for the same value.
- That was the easy part. Now comes the more difficult part—Administration.
- An employee wishing to “award” a point to someone, accesses the “Kudos” award document wherever you have it stored.
- They fill out the form with the pertinent information: The name of the person giving the reward, the recipient’s name, date the “good job” occurred, and a short explanation of why they are being awarded a Kudo point.
- This form is then emailed to an email address of your choosing. I recommend a generic email rather than having it sent to a specific person. Something like CompanyX_Kudos@companyx.com.
- Your job as the administrator is to track how many points a person receives, how many they redeem and when, and to forward the “Kudos” email on to the recipient’s manger to ensure they are also notified.
That’s it. Of course, you’ll also have to have some rewards mechanism set up. For most, a simple gift-card option is easiest. But, if you have a trusted supplier of branded merchandise, you can work with them to create a catalog of merchandise people select from.
You can also have your Executive team select one or more Kudos rewards each month to publicly acknowledge on a team call or All Hands. The possibilities are endless once you have the basic groundwork done.
The point of recognition programs isn’t to give employees great gear—that’s just a bonus. The real “win” is how it makes employees feel. A study by WorkHuman showed that 84 percent of those polled said that social recognition measurably and positively impacted engagement. And because that engagement directly influences the quality of their work, the organization benefits too through better retention.
When you consider that an employee engagement program helps with retention, and even if you help prevent one person from leaving the company each year, even a modestly-priced rewards program costs nothing to run and maintain. Knowing that, there’s no reason not to get started today!
Additional Resources
Fully-built out SaaS solutions – these SaaS solutions have one-time setup fees and annual licensing costs, usually on a per-user basis. Features range from email automation, point rewarding and tracking, merchandise catalog setup, multiple programs (e.g., one for employee recognition, one for onboarding new employees, etc.). Once set up, they mostly manage themselves.
DIY-based, but still has automated fulfillment backends – these solutions primarily offer a user interface and a backend fulfillment solution. Much of the week-to-week management is still up to you. For instance, you would need to upload a weekly spreadsheet of points rewarded to each person. You would also probably need to set up the internal email templates that people would use to send a recognition email to another person. The benefit is a lower up-front cost and lower maintenance/licensing fees.
About Chris Souther
Chris is a prior telecom and security engineer trained in the U.S. Air Force and serving the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the DoD before moving into the private sector as a telecom engineer for companies like MCI, Nortel, Concert, and Quest.
The dot.com crash, while ruining the careers of many, actually helped Chris. Realizing his love of writing, Chris pivoted into Marketing Communications. In the 15 years since, Chris has served as a marketing and communications leader in some of today’s hottest software and SaaS industries. His deep strategic and tactical experience drives both corporate and marketing communications in the areas of branding and messaging, public relations, executive communications, product marketing, content marketing, events, analyst relations, crisis communications, and digital marketing.
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn
See Chris’ Portfolio at MarcomToday
1. Fear and employment during the COVID pandemic: Evidence from search behaviour in the EU. Salvador Barrios, Wouter van der Wielen 30 September 2020. https://voxeu.org/article/fear-and-employment-during-covid-pandemic
Marcom Today - Portfolio site of Chris Souther 