20 Dec Creating a Culture of Recognition

Studies show that employers can experience a rise in engagement, productivity and retention when employees are recognized for their work. Continue reading to learn how you can create a culture of recognition.

When employees are recognized for their work, employers can see gains in engagement, productivity and retention.

But such efforts must be more than a one-time event; to really enjoy the benefits, employers need a culture of recognition, experts say. This has to start at the top and include clearly defined company values.

Live the culture you want

“A purposeful, positive, productive work culture doesn’t happen by default — it only happens by design,” S. Chris Edmonds, founder of The Purposeful Culture Group, told HR Dive via email.

And while HR can influence culture, a recognition culture must start at the top, experts say. And it must be part of an employer’s performance management strategy.

Management can signal what’s important, what it needs employees to care about, Scott Conklin, VP, HR at Paycor, said. “You have to live your words,” he told HR Dive, adding that “if not seen at all levels, people aren’t going to do it.”

Senior leaders must create credibility for these “new rules” by modeling valued behaviors and coaching on them every day, Edmonds said. Coaching means senior leaders must praise aligned behaviors everywhere they see them and redirect misaligned behaviors in the same way. Only when senior leaders model these behaviors will others understand that these new rules aren’t optional, Edmonds said.

In addition, Edmonds said, the organization must measure how well leaders are modeling the valued behaviors. This measurement often comes in the form of a regular values survey, generally twice a year, where everyone in the organization rates their boss, next-level leaders and senior leaders on the degree to which those leaders demonstrate the company’s valued behaviors. Only by rating leaders on valued behavior alignment can values be as important as results, Edmonds said.

And only when everyone — from senior leaders to individual team members — demonstrates valued behaviors in every interaction will the work culture shift to purposeful, positive and productive, Edmonds said.

Create an industrial constitution

Many employers don’t communicate their values well, Conklin said.

The path to great team citizenship can be clearly defined by creating an organizational constitution that includes a servant purpose statement explaining how the organization specifically improves quality of life for its customers — and defines values and measurable valued behaviors, strategies and goals, Edmonds said.

If company values don’t explicitly define exactly how you want people to behave, they’ll struggle to model your values, Edmonds continued. If an organization values integrity but doesn’t define it in measurable terms, people won’t know exactly how they’re supposed to behave, he explained.

Find what works

Traditional models of employee recognition are good, but they’re becoming outdated in some cultures, Conklin noted. Your recognition program has to fit your culture, he said.

SOURCE: Burden, L. (26 November 2018) “Creating a culture of recognition” (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.hrdive.com/news/creating-a-culture-of-recognition/542845/