As Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like continue to pervade our personal lives, it would seem to be an obvious step to utilise such tools within the workplace to recognise employees. Perhaps because social media is low-cost, wide-reaching, and because so many people use it to connect with not only friends, but also colleagues, it seems to be a no-brainer for employers to interact with employees where they tend to ‘hang out.’
Friends and peers could potentially see, comment and congratulate a member of staff, while employers could give a ‘shout out’ via Twitter to a person who has gone the extra mile that day. It’s all good stuff, but is it the most effective way to recognise a person?
There is a strong argument for retaining the personal touch in employee recognition schemes. A manager that takes the time to leave their desk or work station to give a spontaneous personal word of thanks may find that it has a much bigger impact on the employee than a 140 character tweet. Similarly, a handwritten certificate, presented in person, is likely to be far more memorable than a short email. It is easy to underestimate how important it is to many employees to be praised by the boss personally, especially in front of colleagues, with a short thank you and a round of applause doing wonders for morale and engagement.
Personal moments are very important in employee recognition, but there is a use for social media in addition to reinforce the face-to-face messages of praise, and broadcast it to even more colleagues and contacts within the organisation. For these reasons, it is important that a blend of the two is maintained.
Kuljit Kaur
Head of Business Development
The Voucher Shop
