Make a Pledge to Employee Engagement

Employee Appreciation Day is this Friday, March 7. We’re continuing our theme of how to build a satisfied and motivated workforce throughout the year. Today, we’d like to share our five keys to employee engagement. These keys can unlock the real potential of how an engaged and energized workforce can make an indelible imprint on an organization and its profitability.

The Five Keys to Employee Engagement:
1. Build a “Culture of Appreciation” Year-Round: Use Employee Appreciation Day to kickoff a new, year-round employee recognition effort or energize your existing one. By recognizing and rewarding employees throughout the year, it creates a culture of appreciation and a highly motivated workforce within your organization.
2. Create a “Recognition Moment” through Meaningful Rewards: Giving employees the generic company watch or one-size-fits-all “gift” is an uninspiring – and often meaningless – way to say thank you. Rather, award your employees by giving them a choice of meaningful, self-selected rewards such as gift cards, quality merchandise or travel vouchers. When employees redeem their award, it will create an important “recognition moment” – with impact.
3. Empower Everyone in the Process – From the Board Room to the Mail Room: Employee recognition should not reside solely on the shoulders of management. Every person in the organization should be empowered to acknowledge their peers and co-workers for a job well done. This enables frequent recognition and engages the entire staff – not just the top 10 percent – in the process.
4. Tie Rewards to the Bigger Picture for Bigger Results: Employee recognition should be directly linked to the company’s vision/mission. This aligns the entire workforce toward achieving critical company milestones.
5. Communicate, Again and Again: Frequent program communication raises awareness, increases participation, boosts performance, and most importantly, helps develop that important culture of appreciation.

For more information, see our white paper, “Recognition: The ‘Tipping Point’ in Building Employee Engagement.” And, remember, it’s not too late to recognize your employees; begin on Friday and make it a year-long celebration of hard work and productivity.