Cut Through Zero-Sum Thinking to Weather Uncertainty
Employee recognition has a big part to play, right now.
The business media have lately been telling stories about tension between employees and employers. In this unusual economy, companies are squeezed between a worker shortage and rising prices. Employees always feel more powerful when jobs are plentiful, and they’re asking for more flexibility as well as more equitable compensation. Employers cite economic headwinds and unprecedented disruptions as they hedge on long-term change.
This is an unnecessary tension. When both sides see a zero-sum situation – your gain is my loss – they lose sight of ways to create mutual gain. Uncertainty is an opportunity to break out of old thinking and make win-win changes. This is a great moment to commit to a more human workplace, which inexpensively raises job performance and job satisfaction. Employee recognition has a big part to play, right now.
The recent study by Gallup and Workhuman shows how employee recognition transforms the workplace. In previous columns I’ve discussed how recognition drives core results, saves money, creates loyalty, and prevents burnout. Employee recognition systems can provide deep data about the mood and effectiveness of the workforce.
The data are impossible to ignore, and yet even after 20 years of advancing the technology and culture of the human workplace, I’m struck by how basic, even primitive, the average executive’s view of recognition is. People think a yearly “you’re doing fine” is recognition. That’s nice but not sufficient to elevate employees.
You need a basic understanding of what makes solid, 21st-century culture management through recognition. The study described five ways to do it, right now.
The Five Pillars of Recognition
Start by thinking of recognition in the same way you see quality or innovation. Like them, recognition is a full-featured cultural imperative. There are five pillars of recognition found in the Gallup study, and each drives home the message that this is a human practice enabled by technology, not created by it. The five pillars are that recognition must be fulfilling, authentic, equitable, embedded in culture, and personalized. Here’s what that means for you and your employees:
Fulfilling: Humans have a basic need to feel valued and appreciated, and more than 40% of employees in the survey said that the “right” amount of recognition is more than once a week. Frequent recognition has measurable benefits, including employees’ emotional attachment to the organization, elevated trust in managers and peers, and a sense of satisfaction at work.
Authentic: Recognition is powerful when it’s a genuine expression of appreciation, and all but meaningless when it’s inauthentic. Consider the last time someone thanked you – in that moment you felt gratified because the person giving it spoke from the heart. Today, only about a third of employees strongly agree the recognition they receive is authentic; that represents an easy opportunity to make recognition more meaningful. Employees who strongly agree the recognition they receive is authentic are six times as likely to feel connected to the organization’s culture.
Equitable: Employee recognition has a lot in common with compensation. Employees need to feel it’s fair and equitable. The impression that certain people receive recognition, while others are slighted despite equal performance, triggers cynicism. Gallup found that only 26% of employees feel recognition is given purely on performance. For Black and Hispanic employees that number drops to 19% and 21%, respectively. A robust recognition system monitors its fairness through data gathering and analysis.
Embedded in the culture: Think of recognition as more than another HR program: in a human workplace it’s more a cultural movement. Employee recognition reflects organizational values; it’s customizable to promote innovation, winning, ethics, reliability, caring – whatever matters most.
Personalized: A little personal attention is simple and yet powerful. A personalized message of recognition is satisfying because the recipient feels understood. Someone took the time to craft a personal message like, “Your solution to the customer’s problem was both creative and caring!” A peer-to-peer recognition system (not just manager to staff) is especially effective because it leverages the trust peers have in each other. When you empower employees to award just 1% of payroll to each other individually, all kinds of benefits shoot up: engagement, satisfaction, retention, performance and more.
Think holistically
When faced with uncertainty, it’s natural for any business or employee to be cautious. However, resisting change in this business atmosphere guarantees you’ll miss the opportunity in uncertainty. Both employers and employees need to think holistically about making positive change. For employers, a smart move is to implement the peer-enabled employee recognition that builds culture. For employees, it means participating fully in building a strong, committed human workplace (and learning peer recognition is a great way to do this).
The world’s best economists can’t say for certain where these unprecedented economic times will lead. The world’s best organizations create their own future, employees, and employers working together to make a more human workplace.
