Recognition is a form of feedback and, unfortunately, something we tend to forget to provide to our employees on a consistent basis. Employees want to know that they are doing a good job especially when they have exceeded expectations, completed a task or project successfully for the first time or meeting expectations on a development goal. Some tips for giving recognition include:

• Make giving recognition a part of your daily routine - “When was the last time you gave someone recognition?”
• Give recognition in a timely manner - Don’t wait until your next scheduled one-on-one or a formal review with the employee; do it today.
• Make the recognition meaningful to the employee - If the employee doesn’t drink coffee they may not be interested in the lastest company’s coffee mug; for some employees they just need the accolades.
• Celebrate “big” and “small” successes - Consider giving recognition at critical checkpoints rather than waiting until the end of the project; this could be the encouragement the employee needs to keep driving forward.
• Use recognition and reward programs; (e.g., movie tickets, gift certificates, trophies) - Check with your human resources professional to ensure you’re meeting the company’s guidelines so that the form of recognition is proportionate to the achievement.

Remember, behavior that gets rewarded is behavior that is repeated!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.