presenta plaque rewards and recognition

How Recognition Programs Build a Positive Workplace Culture

by Presenta Plaque | on Oct 23, 2012 | No Comments

In recent blogs, we’ve discussed the importance of recognizing your employees’ performances and recognition activities you can incorporate into your practices, but one detail we haven’t stressed enough is the impact a recognition program can have on your overall business culture. Regardless of the business you’re in, workplaces can be a hotbed of negativity; all it takes is one unhappy person to bring others down. It’s crucial to your business success that you foster an environment that helps your employees thrive. This means building an open, positive atmosphere in which people are given due credit for their accomplishments. After all, employees function better when they know that they will receive praise for any praiseworthy actions, and they won’t be as quick to develop bitterness about any perceived slights.

According to Inc.com, an online news resource for entrepreneurs, simply saying a regular “thank you” to employees may help them accept constrictive criticisms better. Rick Maurer, a business consultant interviewed by Inc.com believes that “if you make it clear that you are trying to make employees better at what they do, positive and negative feedback become a regular part of the conversation.” So tell your employees that their work is noticed and thank them when it’s actual quality work, but don’t just hand out “thank yous” like cheap candy. Maurer states, “If you say thank you all the time, even when people do mediocre work, you won’t build an environment where people handle criticism better.” By offering both positive and negative feedback to your employees, you send the message that they are a valuable part of the team, and you are improving their skills for their own professional development and for the sake of improving your company. Many employers believe that cash bonuses are the most effective way of thanking employees; however, Inc.com reports that employees prefer an in-person thank you and having their accomplishments displayed to management. Surely, “it’s easier to hand out a bonus than to create a culture in which saying thank you is a regular occurrence,” but cash bonuses can send out the wrong message to employees. Namely, one that says all accomplishments have their price, whereas a culture that supports honest and sincere appreciation sends the message that your staff is a team aiming to better themselves and the company.

Below is a list of tips we’ve seen across a myriad of sources who all agree these practices will help turn your business culture into a breeding ground of positivity:

  • Actively listen to your staff. Don’t brush off lower level employees or a colleague you don’t feel is worth your time. You never know when you’ll hear something important, or who will say it when you do.
  • Walk around the office and always know what’s going on. Great accomplishments won’t always make it through the grapevine, so walk around and recognize achievements first-hand.
  • When you see an employee succeed at something, tell their supervisor. Their skill may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
  • After telling the supervisor, reinforce all successes by vocalizing it to everyone. Tell coworkers, managers, and anyone else you can think of when someone accomplished something noteworthy.
  • Acknowledge progress too. Don’t just praise someone for a well-finished project. Applaud them for the road they took to get there.
  • Encourage coworkers to share their talents with others. Build a community where everyone can benefit from someone else’s greater skill or knowledge for the benefit of all, and make your employees proud to be an expert at something.
  • Be consistent in these practices to effectively direct your business culture into a positive and constructive place that will make employees happy to be there.

For more information on how Presenta Plaque can be a part of your daily recognition program that will transform your business culture, give us a call or visit our website!

Tips for Implementing a Recognition Program

by Presenta Plaque | on Oct 16, 2012 | No Comments

It’s a nice thought to imagine that implementing a system that supports recognition is as easy as giving credit to the most valuable employee, but executing such a system takes creativity and careful thought. It’s not just about awarding the shining star who does something particularly spectacular. It’s about recognizing the strengths of each individual supporting your team, making sure that their distinct merits don’t fade away behind the glow of team effort, and telling someone just how much you appreciate them in the day-to-day. It’s not just when they do something exceptional; showing appreciation for someone for any reason can be very motivating.

There are limitless opportunities to provide recognition to those around you, whether it’s your employees, your class or your family. Below is a brief list of different activities you can organize to recognize the good in those around you:

  • Host an Olympics meet. This can be done in the office, at school, at home (family reunion, anyone?), at a neighborhood block party, etc. A friendly competition is a great team building exercise to use whenever you have a large group of people, and it’s a great way to assess and honor individual strengths within a team.
  • Hold an awards ceremony. Have classmates or co-workers nominate their fellows for special awards. This will be particularly sincere for the recipient because it’s not just management handing out an award, but the entire team reinforcing the acknowledgment.
  • Hold an award ceremony for your students to distinguish their achievements such as high grades, perfect attendance, and completing work on time. Don’t forget about the students typically labeled as the class failures – they have their successes too. Figure out what they’ve done particularly well or what weakness they’ve overcome during the school year, and let them know it didn’t go unnoticed. Reinforce the good rather than dwelling on the negative.
  • Give your employees an award when they turn in a project early or display advanced commitment to the company. The key here is to be consistent; don’t award one person for accomplishing something that you wouldn’t award someone else for performing with the same level of skill or difficulty.
  • Surprise a deserving recipient for no particular reason other than to say how awesome they are.

It’s important to remember when recognizing individuals for their talents that you are making the gesture special and memorable for them. Give them memories they can walk away with and something they can hold onto and look back at with pride for their accomplishments. Most of all, be creative in your recognition to make it all the more special. Take a look at this website that provides a list of reasons to recognize your employees (although, it works just as well for other people in your life!) that goes beyond the typical awards you would give out for attendance and performance. So what will you do to create a recognition program in your class, home or office? To learn how we can help you accomplish your goals to recognize the people in your life, give us a call or visit our website.

Rewards and Recognition: What It Means to Your Employees to be Recognized

by Presenta Plaque | on Sep 19, 2012 | 1 Comments

Many employers believe it’s unnecessary to reward employees for a job they are getting paid to do, but what employers need to understand is that materialistic reward systems are not at all the same as recognizing employees and acknowledging the effort and commitment they put into their work. Rewards tend to be a broad and impassive “high-five” to the employee for an overall job well done, but recognition is entirely about being noticed for a specific task or series of tasks undertaken especially well. In fact, the more precise and singular the task being recognized, the more effective the gesture is in motivating the employee.

However your company decides to recognize employees, what’s most important is that the gesture is meaningful to the recipient and lets them know that their performance is being noticed for its exceptional qualities. People want to feel like the work they are doing is making a difference, and that their presence and effort means something to their superiors. When recognition gives their efforts a sense of value, their morale is uplifted, and as anyone in the workforce knows, morale is infectious. When one person feels valued, chances are others feel the same. Likewise, if one person feels bitter and underappreciated, their negativity is likely a sentiment empathized by the entire team. When morale is high, the chain reaction begins: negative stress among the group and individuals is considerably reduced, absenteeism drops and retention rates go up, and all of this leads to higher productivity.

To give the gesture of recognition the greatest meaning to the employee, make sure that you’re acknowledgements are made public. If the employee is being singled out in front of his or her peers, the acknowledgement feels all the more unique and consequential. This also sends the message to other employees that with hard work, their efforts will be distinguished as well. Bear in mind that each employee has strengths and weaknesses, so don’t recognize only the achievements that are great for the entire company, but give credit to employees who excel beyond their usual skill levels or who overcome a particular personal weakness on the way to accomplishing something new.

“Thank you” is a phrase greatly underused in business, and as long as there is meaning behind it, it can never be said too much. Distinguishing your employees for their hard work and making them feel meaningful to the company shows them that you are invested in their success. When you’re invested in your employees, you’re invested in the future of your company. Check out our website or give us a call at 1-800-824-2930 or 480-966-1175 for more information on how you can show your employees just how much they’re valued.

Rewards and Recognition: Why It’s Meaningful to Recognize

by Presenta Plaque | on Jul 13, 2012 | No Comments

With good deeds happening in your community, great work done by employees or a challenging program completed by your child, recognition is a crucial part of our lives and others’ lives. Here at Presenta Plaque, we greatly value hard work and good deeds, which has led us to not only recognize the heroes in our community, but to be the go-to award provider for various needs of companies nationwide.  Therefore, we were inspired to begin a series on our blog regarding recognition, whether it’s ideas for how you can recognize someone, the positive benefits of those receiving it or even how recognition in the workplace leads to high employee retention.

With that being said, it’s important to understand why it’s truly meaningful to recognize others. It is human nature to want our actions to confirm that what we are doing matters.  In fact, recognition can be an easy but effective way to build self-esteem and confidence in an individual, especially when they are younger. In next month’s blog post in this series, we will delve more into the idea that recognition in the work place leads to happier employees, which also results in higher employee retention and a strong company structure.

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