Often we hear the term employee recognition being discussed in various forums. Time and again, the best strategies for effective employee recognition have been debated and various theories have been brought about. This entire buzz around employee recognition happens because most organizations and HR professionals do realize the value and impact that good employee recognition can create.
Having recognized the importance and impact that positive employee appreciation can create, many organizations device various sorts of employee recognition plans that they think will best suit their organization. They spend a lot of time and resources in defining how each type of recognition should take place and also painstakingly define a process around it. Although it is good to have a well-defined set of rules on how and why appreciations should be given to employees, many a time, the true sense of purpose for which recognitions are meant to be are lost in the haywire of tedious processes.
Organizations who spend so much of time to define ‘how’ and ‘why’ recognition should take place, often fail to address one another, yet very important dimension of “when” the recognition ought to be done. Thus all efforts spent towards the meticulous planning usually end up as a bad recognition plan and the positive outcomes sought after employee appreciations are never realized. Due to this many organizations who enthusiastically sought to derive recognition plans often lose their interest and the whole process silently withers away.
Timely appreciations are a true key to trigger those positive outcomes desired by many organizations. When an employee receives appreciation right after he has done a great job, the joy he experiences on receiving this note of appreciation or recognition is manifold by many times and so does his motivation to repeat similar behavior or perform even better. While he might still be happy to receive a delayed appreciation, the zeal is lost and so it becomes difficult to reinforce the desired behavior of excellent performance.
Highly motivated employees are true assets to any organization. They create a positive energy that is contagious in the work sphere and thus serve as catalysts to motivate the entire workforce to achieve positive outcomes. Thus, timely appreciations, recognition and rewards are a sure shot to build and promote top notch performance and a positive attitude among the workforce in organizations.