Many workplaces feature an employee of the month, give a shout out to a staff member who went the extra mile, or offer year-end bonuses along with annual evaluations. We might take it for granted that these are just things that businesses do, but it’s important to stop and think about why we do these things, what kinds of behaviors we reward, and how that recognition fits in with our overall business goals.
We all like to be recognized for a job well done, but recognition and a culture of recognition are two different things. When you build a culture of recognition and appreciation, the outcome is more than good vibes, though it can certainly help to create a positive atmosphere. It’s about getting everyone on the same page and working toward a clearly defined set of goals. It’s about being intentional in the kinds of work and behavior you show appreciation for.
Business owners might find themselves assuming that their employees know what’s expected of them, and employees might assume that they’re doing fine—not bad, not great—unless they get direct feedback telling them otherwise. A culture of recognition and appreciation goes further than shouting out individual employees. It helps direct employee energy toward strategic goals and reinforce your desired company culture.
Be Strategic With Your Praise
You don’t want to just recognize good outcomes. Implementing clear processes and frameworks that support your goals is how you enact your strategy. Why the right process is the right process isn’t always clear to employees, especially if they’ve been doing things one way for years and don’t see a reason to change. Recognizing employees who do their job not just well, but in the right way, reinforces the importance of process, which brings their performance more in line with the business’s goals. If your goal is to grow, you need scalable processes in place before you start growing, and you need employees proficient in those processes before they start to get overwhelmed.
For example, you might have an employee who has their own way of entering data into a spreadsheet. Their work is always good, but it takes them all day to do it. Another employee might struggle to get it right every time, but they are at least learning and improving at the approved process for entering data, which, when done right, will only take a couple of hours. The more time-consuming approach might work now, but what happens when your business scales up? There will be more work to do, and the employee doing things their own way will fall behind.
If you were to praise the product rather than the process, they might not see any reason to change, and they might be confused when you’re finally forced to confront them about it. Recognizing the employees who are putting in the work to learn the more efficient method puts praise into the context of your goals. When recognition is tied to a specific strategic goal, you can offer clear, consistent recognition that builds a team all focused on the same thing.
Creating and Reinforcing Company Culture
Building a culture of recognition also helps you build the kind of culture you want to see by reinforcing the kind of behavior you want to see. Culture doesn’t come out of nowhere, and it doesn’t just live in an “Our Values” statement. Culture arises out of the interaction between the company’s stated values, the example set by the owners or managers, and the individual personalities of the employees. There will always be a little give-and-take, but you can reinforce the values, ethical behaviors, and interpersonal communication styles that will lead to success by recognizing them when you see them.
If you want to build a culture of clear, open, and timely communication between teams, for instance, make sure that goal is clear to employees. Make sure they know what success looks like. It’s even better if you can tie specific metrics to success, but that isn’t always possible. Either way, when you see progress being made toward that goal, you can show your appreciation in a message, email, or team meeting, which reinforces the importance of that goal to everyone.
Happier, More Effective, More Focused Employees
Employees often check out mentally when expectations aren’t clear or when their hard work isn’t being recognized. Building a culture of recognition will go a long way to creating the kind of workplace that engenders job satisfaction and a sense of competency and accomplishment. When each staff member knows what success looks like, knows their importance to a company’s success, and knows they will be recognized and appreciated, they’ll be happy to come to work every day and give it their all.
