Show the love: Recognition is an essential part of employee experience

Recognizing milestones and achievements within a workforce may seem more complex — and sometimes impossible — now that employees are rarely under the same roof. But with digital tools specifically designed to enhance employee experience, employers can go beyond the birthday cake in the breakroom and acknowledge workers from anywhere all year long.  

Paying tribute to important moments or a job well done goes beyond making employees feel warm and fuzzy; it has a direct connection to their productivity, commitment and retention, according to Zippia. Their recent findings show that strong employee recognition programs reduce turnover by 31%, 37% of employees say the best way to increase engagement is through manager recognition, and 92% of workers are likely to repeat an action if they are recognized for it. There is a lack of this positivity being demonstrated in the workplace, however, as 80% said they would work harder if they felt more appreciated, and one in three reported they have not received recognition for good work in over a year, if at all. 

"How can companies navigate the shift to hybrid and remote by bringing in the positive elements of the pre-pandemic world?" says Thomas Kunjappu, founder and CEO of employee experience platform Cleary. "Getting everyone together is just not as practical."

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Cleary's various products integrate with an organization's HR management system, making it easy for employers to promote company-wide acknowledgement of their individuals and teams. The People and Culture offering, focused on enhancing connection and company values, brings meaningful moments to light throughout the workforce with categories such as celebrations, shoutouts and badges. When a recognition is made public at meetings or through digital announcements, all members who receive it can offer their positive feedback directly to the recipient.    

"We have a concept of shoutouts, where any employee can shout out another employee for a moment they went above and beyond," says Kunjappu. "It becomes the most practical way that company values are translated on a day-to-day basis, because they're showing up in the form of gratitude from one employee to another."

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When these kinds of programs are integrated into a company's system, it makes it easy for employees to connect across the company and can be programmed to nudge recognition of coworkers with whom they frequently work or meet. With clients such as DoorDash, Shippo and Square, the focus on highlighting workers is clearly on the rise. 

"Internal communications is something companies typically don't invest in in terms of full-time headcount until at least 500 employees," Kunjappu says. "It's just a side job for HR before that. People think of asynchronous communication as writing Slack messages or documentation, but there's an art to it." 

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By creating a variety of ways and reasons to reach out to employees, employers can offer some of the positive elements from pre-pandemic office life to their workforce, Kunjappu says. Not only does this help shine a light on everyone at points throughout the year, including those who may otherwise stay behind the scenes, but it allows leadership to "walk around" and get a feel for what is happening on the ground, he says. 

"Leaders [need to] figure out how they can still connect people in a world where the natural human touch is just not possible because you're not in an office," says Kunjappu. "We help to scale up a connected culture, get the right message to the right team at the right time, and [create] an ongoing approach that permeates this background level of what's important."