It's essential for an employee rewards programme to include top-down as well as peer-to-peer recognition. Find out why here.
An Employee Reward and Recognition Programme is essential to increasing engagement in the modern workplace. But what works best, peer-to-peer or top-down recognition?
The answer is both of them! Each type of recognition has different benefits, and you should ensure you are incorporating the two into your programme to make it as comprehensive (and therefore effective) as possible.
The advantages of peer-to-peer employee recognition
1) Helps to recognise activities a manager might not know about
It's easy to view recognition as a top-down affair. After all, it's managers who really know how an employee is performing, right? Not exactly.Often, it's the employees on the ground who see what their peers do on a daily basis. They know all the little things that an employee might do to help others or to go the extra mile, things that might not always reach the bosses.
But with a peer-to-peer recognition programme, these things can get noticed by the bosses. Employees can nominate each other for going above and beyond, or for performing any other action that might be appropriate. Not only does the employee get recognition for this, but it also serves as a platform for managers to see things they may not have previously been aware of.
2) Contributes to a positive working environment
One of the more obvious benefits of peer-to-peer recognition is its ability to create a happier working environment. Think of the morale boost if people know their colleagues understand how hard they work, and have gone to the trouble of nominating them for a prize to recognise it. This will help to improve working relationships, teamwork and the amount of collaboration occurring in your company.
In addition, while it's often expected that a manager will give shout outs for a job well done, employees know that their colleagues don't have a "duty" to recognise their peers, so it can feel all the more special when they do get nominated.
The advantages of top-down employee recognition
1) Makes a programme more effective
Peer-to-peer recognition certainly has many benefits, but it shouldn't be the only type of recognition your company offers. Top-down recognition is just as important. Indeed, just like many other company initiatives, if your recognition programme doesn't have buy-in from the bosses, it's likely to end up failing.
The first reason for this is that ultimately, it's the bosses that decide where the budget goes. If they don't see the value in a recognition programme, they may cut it at some point down the line.
But the reasons go beyond this. Put simply, you will never get company-wide buy-in for a programme if employees can see that their managers aren't interested in it. Employees will know that their bosses don't see the value in it, and this will impact their own perceptions of the programme.
When a manager rewards an employee, they can see directly for themselves how that has made the employee feel. This is much more the case than if they are just viewing peer-to-peer recognition and aren't directly engaging with the programme themselves.
2) Makes the employee feel more valued
An employee recognition programme can do wonders in helping your team feel more valued. When you as a manager praise an employee for a particular task or project they've worked on, they will know that not only are you fully aware of the hard work they are putting in, but also appreciate it enough to offer them a reward for it. In a time when millennials are changing employers every one to three years (according to Jobvite), your ability to make employees feel appreciated is essential to increasing job tenure.
Interested in introducing an Employee Rewards and Recognition Programme at your company? Power2Motivate can help. Contact us today for more information or request a demo.