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ADVISOR: Recruitment
Recognise to retain!
Excel Recruitment’s annual Salary and Sentiment survey shows that over 50% of respondents have considered quitting their jobs because they were not being recognised for their efforts. With that in mind, Barry Whelan offers advice on how to ensure your staff members feel valued within the team
BARRY WHELAN managing director of Excel Recruitment
www.excelrecruitment.com
E
mployee recognition is as important for employee retention as renumeration. Employers should be making every effort to recognise their employees as often as possible. People are much more likely to stay loyal to a company if they are constantly appreciated.
Feeling valued Salary is obviously one draw that impacts job satisfaction, but our own surveys show that more and more, employees want to feel valued. We asked this question as part of our annual Salary and Sentiment survey and found that 58% of workers say that the feeling of being valued is extremely important. We also found that over half of our respondents have considered quitting their jobs because they were not being recognised for their efforts. That means recognition has become an essential ingredient in the recipe for retaining employees. Managers should also understand that recognition is not just about praise, it is also subtle and can even involve adjusting your management style or an office set-up. For instance, try to accommodate employees’ preferences
and work styles in order to improve performance. For example, if a person is very talkative, they may want to have less privacy from other people in the office and vice versa.
Recognition Employee recognition is important for employee retention. However, how a manager provides recognition can either help or hurt retention. Managers should consider three things when creating a recognition programme: How do you recognise an employee’s performance? Everyone is different in how they want to be recognised. Not all employees want to be recognised publicly. You must make the effort to get to know your team. Before you recognise an employee’s performance, ask your employees how they want to be recognised. How often to recognise an employee’s performance? Don’t overdo it. If you over-recognise, your employees will become numb to the recognition. Who can offer recognition? While our survey shows that employees prefer to be recognised by leadership (49%) or direct management (43%), getting recognition from the boss is great, but so is getting recognised by your peers. Make sure you give the team the ability to recognise each other.
Different approaches Recognition can come in many forms; here are just a few approaches:
One way of helping employees to feel valued is to “create an internal system that allows managers and employees to give a shout-out to each other for a job well done”
ShelfLife January 2022 | www.shelflife.ie
Communicate via video. A simple way to show gratitude is with a personalised video message via text. In addition to the message itself, it also shows an investment of your time. This can be used when employees reach a milestone, celebrate progress, or get promoted. Personalise rewards. This is an excellent method to demonstrate to
employees that you appreciate them and that they are valued employees. It shows that you’re interested in everyone. For example, if an employee’s birthday is approaching, consider interviewing their co-workers to find out what they are most interested in and what they would likely appreciate as a gift. Assume, for example, that they adore Italian food. Instead of a generic birthday card and cake, give them a voucher for an Italian cooking class or reserve a table for them and their family at the best Italian restaurant. Play games. “Gamification” is the approach that keeps employees engaged while making them feel valued. For instance, certain tasks could be assigned point values, which each employee would receive upon completion of said task. These points can then be redeemed for anything ranging from work-from-home days to a fully paid gym membership. It is a great strategy to keep the morale high and make employees feel like they matter. Run an ‘internal props’ portal. Create an internal system that allows managers and employees to give a shout-out to each other for a job well done. It doesn’t have to be anything custom — you could just use an existing Teams feed. Recognising employees in a public forum goes much further than something in just their individual team. Introduce opportunities for growth. If the person who deserves recognition is also someone who deserves more opportunities for career advancement, one last suggestion is extending an invitation to coffee (in person or virtual) to talk about their career goals or to connect them to someone in your network for a mentoring conversation. In the virtual world, you can easily invite the person to attend a high-level meeting with you to learn about a new area. ■
