Frequent turnover is a major concern for many organizations. In fact, that’s why some will turn to a staffing agency to ensure new hires are both qualified and invested in their company. But even though hiring the right employees can decrease turnover attributed to poor cultural fits or unqualified applicants, it won’t necessarily keep the right people around once they’re there. Once you staff your company with the best of the best, you’ll need to provide them with encouragement and recognition so that they stick around.
How Employee Recognition Can Counteract Turnover
As we mentioned, staffing your team with the right people can alleviate extraneous turnover. But that’s not the only piece of the puzzle. Consider that 86% of companies with employee recognition programs cite an increase in worker happiness. The more satisfied your employees are with their jobs and with the company as a whole, the more pronounced their loyalty and emotional investment will be. And ultimately, that will help immensely if you do need to work with a staffing agency in the future. After all, your staffing agency will have a much easier time highlighting your organization for future employment opportunities if they know your current staff is being recognized for a job well done.
Don’t currently have a formal employee recognition program or want to improve on the one you’ve established? Keep reading.
Tips For Better Employee Recognition
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- Recognize quickly and frequently: To be most effective, employee recognition efforts should be performed soon after the action or behavior in question occurred. Essentially, that means it’s way better to recognize an employee immediately (say, a few days to a week after) than it is to recognize employees once a month or once a year for their efforts. Recognition needs to reinforce the efforts made by the employee; if they happen too sporadically or too late, it really doesn’t do much good.
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- Don’t be selective: Employee recognition should not be a popularity contest. Although the sheer size of your business may prohibit you from recognizing the efforts of every single high-achieving employee, that doesn’t mean you should get to pick and choose which employees to highlight. Ultimately, this will be seen as favoritism and could make the effort lose all meaning. You can choose eligible employees in a random drawing or via customer feedback. Regardless of the process you choose to recognize employees, make sure that it is not exclusive to staff favorites.
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- Be specific: It’s not enough to recognize employees for their general efforts or their ability to “go above and beyond.” You’ll need to be specific about what’s being recognized — not only to encourage future behavior from that specific employee but from all others as well. You need to clearly communicate the criteria you’ve set in place for this recognition in the hopes that everyone will want to meet (and exceed) this standard.
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- Match effort with reward: While it’s important to recognize efforts of varying sizes, it’s not necessary to recognize smaller contributions with a huge fanfare. The praise you give should be appropriate to the effort in scale. If the recognition is substantially bigger than the effort put in by the employee or fails to capture the time and attention required, your recognition program may be seen as ineffective. This balance can be tricky, but make sure to give this some thought when designing your recognition program.
- Be authentic: Above all else, your recognition efforts must be genuine. This is one reason an automated employee recognition tool isn’t nearly as impactful as it might seem. Make sure that when you recognize employees, the message is personal and heartfelt. It should be done in person when possible, rather than through electronic communications, and should make the employee know you truly care — and not that you’re simply trying to fulfill an obligation to recognize employees.
A staffing agency can help bring the most qualified employees your way, but your recognition efforts can make all the difference when trying to retain them. Be sure to prioritize implementing or amending your own recognition program to fit the criteria above so that members of your staff will stay for the long haul.