Employee recognition is one of the most important aspects of employee culture. Through employee appreciation, leaders encourage, uplift, and motivate employees to do their best. And, the best employee recognition involves peer recognition and team celebrations.  It’s no secret that employee recognition, when done correctly, creates a strong company culture with increased employee engagement, happiness levels, and higher revenue. Here are a few of our top articles on the benefits of employee recognition.  Employee Engagement Improves Employee Retention – Learn about when employees u ..read more

Employee recognition awards aim to show employee appreciation and make them feel valued. When recognition is done correctly, it builds the team’s sense of community, improves performance, and increases loyalty and longevity.  But, sometimes, recognition gifts need to be revised. Some awards can negatively impact employees’ perception of the company and harm performance. This article will look at recognition awards that do more harm than good. 1. Gift Cards To Stores Employees Don’t Visit According to a study by SHRM, gift cards to stores that employees don’t visit are among the worst re ..read more

Years back, I witnessed an employee recognition gone wrong. A manager, wanting to recognize an employee, “John,” handed him a couple of $5 gift cards to Starbucks in passing. It doesn’t sound bad, but John didn’t drink coffee, and Starbucks was fairly out of his commute.  John felt pretty “meh” about the experience. It didn’t motivate him or engage him in any way. The gift card almost joined the 3 Billion dollars in gift cards that go unused each year, except for another recognition experience I witnessed.  John had a coffee-loving colleague, Lexi, help him with a project problem ..read more

When the O.C. Tanner Institute measured the effect of awards on employee response and increased engagement, researchers found that gifts that were between $50 and $250+ had the greatest effect on employee morale.  But, even low-dollar prizes ($5 or $10) can have a disproportionately positive effect on employees when those prizes are symbolic. Symbolic prizes have the power to connect employees deeper into the company culture and increase the worth of lower-cost prices.  This article will discuss how employers can incorporate symbolic awards into their recognition programs to elevat ..read more

It’s been termed the Great Resignation, The Great Renegotiation, The Great Reevaluation, Quiet Quitting, The Big Quit, and The Great Reshuffle. But, no matter what it’s called, employers have been feeling the stress of filling open jobs and increased attrition.  While many guess at the reason for increasing job attrition, the community lies at the core of employee motivations; personal and family community, work community, and one’s purpose within the community. Covid Caused Employees To Reevaluate Connection When employees first went remote, work-related stress skyrocketed. Employees f ..read more

The employee role most at risk of attrition in the post-Covid world isn’t the bottom-of-the-rung employee roles in an organization. And, even though the Great Resignation is affecting employee attrition for entry-level positions, it’s lower and middle managers that are still struggling with increased stress at work- enough that it’s affecting their happiness levels in other areas of their lives. : Covid presented many challenges to employees. Across the board, stress levels increased as employees struggled to learn how to work remotely. But, that increased stress leveled off and dropped ..read more

In what has been termed the Great Resignation, employers have seen unprecedented rates of employees leaving their jobs. Not only are employees leaving their jobs, but higher percentages are leaving their professional fields for unrelated work.  As many as one-third of US employees planned to leave their jobs in mid-2022 (end-of-the-year numbers aren’t out yet). Worldwide, around 20% of employees planned to quit (source). The 2020 Covid crisis was blamed for the Great Resignation. Articles often blame employees for refusing to return to a 5-day office week.  Covid-19 is not the caus ..read more

How’s your employee retention? Are your employees happy and fulfilled at work? If you answered “yes”, your job is to keep your employees happy. But, if you weren’t sure how your employees feel, you aren’t alone.  Although most employers strive to create fulfilling, satisfying workplaces, their efforts don’t always translate into those results. Part of the reason for this is that some of the efforts are misplaced and don’t result in improving areas that employees care the most about. Others get lost in translation.  For example, although most employers (as high as 80%+ in some surve ..read more

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