Sprucing up your performance appraisals with the effective Employee Recognition Program 

There are multiple benefits of making employee recognition of a part of your work environment. . You can make your recognition process easy by implementing an effective employee recognition program at your workplace. The first and foremost advantages being: employees are happy when their efforts are appreciated. It gives them an intrinsic incentive to keep on performing better and approach all problems more creatively

Although apart from helping employees get better, recognition can also be beneficial to the company. In a workplace, where recognition is practiced on a regular basis, companies experience higher employee engagement, which means increased employee morale and productivity. An effective employee recognition program can help your organization to recognize your employees in a meaningful and engaging way. Aspects that give that company an edge over its competitors and increase their value in the market.

Employee recognition can also be leveraged in another of the company’s process:

Performance appraisal process

Performance appraisal is an important process as it helps to improve workplace efficiency by making sure that all employees are performing as per their expectations, are developing their potential and earn remuneration that matches their skills, expertise and contributions.

Despite this, performance appraisals are largely viewed by employees and employers as a major hassle that they have to go through, no matter how cumbersome it is. This is largely due to the fact that very little efforts are actually put in to the whole process. As most often they are a part of the annual performance reviews, the entire bit is done at the end of a year. This much time is not sufficient to review performance for the entire year. Imagine the plight of managers who have a large number of team under them where they have to conduct individual reviews for each one of them. You might also like to read How to build a successful recognition program 

It can obviously be a headache, not to mention, it can be nearly impossible to keep track of everyone’s achievements and contributions throughout the year.

By integrating an effective employee recognition program with your performance appraisal process, you can avoid most of the above mentioned problems. Here’s how it can help you:

Do not rely only on completion of tenure:

In most workplaces, employee recognition is synonymous with completion of tenures. Employees are mostly rewarded and recognized for completion of certain tenures such as 1 year, 5 year or whatever the company decides as a major milestone. These programs fail to appreciate contributions of an employee and focus only on how long they have been associated with the company.

Recognition for individual achievements and contributions:

Some of the newly joined employees may display exceptional talent and help the company achieve significant milestones, they should be publicly recognized for their efforts. In addition, the company should also consider these accolades during the performance appraisals of these individuals.

If the average employee is been given X% of rise in their salary, then these achievers definitely deserve a significantly higher number as compared to their team members. The increase in salary should be proportionate to the efforts and results. If everyone gets the same amount then the achievers will have very little to no motivation to keep giving their best to the company.

Document all recognition and appreciation:

There are many instances wherein high performers are publicly recognized for their achievements yet no records are maintained. Or they are maintained inefficiently through spreadsheets.

Thus, managers may not recollect these achievements at the time of performance appraisals which could affect the ratings and remuneration to a great extent.

It is recommended that the company make use of an efficient system that stores information about all the achievements and accolades in a centralized database that can be accessed by everyone relevant to the process.

Justifying performance appraisals objectively:

Another problem during appraisals is managers playing favourites. Those who are in the good books of these individuals generally receive better ratings and hence higher increments. On the other hand, employees who performed exceptionally well but are not on the right terms with their manager may receive comparatively lower scores. This can increase dissatisfaction due to which they will start looking for better opportunities where their efforts are appreciated and valued.

Once the above information is made easily available during performance appraisals, managers can take informed decisions. Plus, since there is actual proof of an employee having performed well, it will help to eliminate subjectivity to a large extent.

Implementing an effective employee recognition program at your workplace can help you to increase engagement with your employees. Engaged employees are more productive, more profitable for your organization. Employee recognition is a low cost high returns concept and can easily help you with other processes as well. Performance appraisals is just one of them.