10 No-Cost Ways to Recognize Employees
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Turn on any nightly newscast and you will hear the doom-and-gloom predictions of an economic recession just around the corner.
Reactions inside organizations run the gamut from “Things are great. Go Team Go!” to “Stop all spending now!” based on manager leadership styles and their comfort level with potential high-risk changes. One of the first places you will be asked to curtail expenses often affects the very people who keep your business going…Team Members.
The manager who can balance the bottom-line without sacrificing the spirit of the team is the manager who will weather economic highs and lows effectively. Your team members are doing their job and performing well, and it’s only human nature for them to want acknowledgment of those efforts. Here are my 10 ideas that don’t cost a cent.
10 No-Cost Recognition Ideas
- Use praise. You know this one yet many team leaders find it hard to do in-the-moment. Download a helpful Tip Sheet now.
- Increase team member visibility. Write an article about their contribution, send a group email, let your CEO know, or announce it during a staff meeting.
- Give information. Employees crave accurate information so communicate often and early. It will stop potential rumors and increase their trust in the company direction.
- Increase team member involvement. Create ways to solicit individual opinions on issues facing your organization. Where practical, allow them to have a voice in the final decision.
- Offer interesting work. Create opportunities for the individual to work on a special project team – a plum assignment that encourages their professional development.
- Give feedback on performance. Report back more frequently what you see the team member accomplishing, and how they are meeting your expectations. This may lead to a mentoring relationship.
Listen, Really Listen! Consciously practice deeper listening to understand and connect with the individual. Pay attention and stay focused to what your employee is saying.
- Allow flexibility. If it’s not critical to customers, can you allow the individual freedom in establishing their work hours and time off?
- Recommend independence. Offer in-house training that allows the individual to learn a new skill. After the training, give them a project to use the new skills and allow them the autonomy of how the task should be completed.
- Play. As adults, we aren’t often allowed to “play” at work yet it relieves stress and improves morale. Consider lunchtime walks, team stretch breaks, Joke of the Day challenge, Silly Socks Day, or whatever your team brainstorms.
BONUS: 3 Low-Cost Recognition Ideas
- Recognition Box. Keep box filled with small supplies (cards, colorful post-it notes, smiley paperclips, assorted page flags, stickers, markers, coupons, etc) that an individual can select when you’ve observed them doing something great for internal or external customers.
- Certificates of Recognition. Create awards for individual performance – anything from a customer interaction to a hidden talent can be recognized. For more ideas, checkout Baudville and Successories.
- Celebrations. Acknowledge birthdays, company anniversary, safety milestones, and production goals. You might begin just by eating lunch OUT! There is something satisfying about connecting with others through the sharing of a meal.
It doesn’t take much to recognize team members even during harder economic times. It does, however, take consistency for you to get the most impact for your efforts.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Team leadership expert Marjorie Treu, CEO of Team Fusion, works with Fortune 500 companies as well as small businesses to help leaders create collaborative, cohesive, and conscious teams.
If you liked this article, you’ll love her FREE reports, Leadership Adventures, Coaching, and other resources to help leaders at all levels develop themselves and build ultimate success. When visiting, be sure to sign up for the FREE monthly Tip Sheet downloads and FREE e-zine “Team Talk Today”!
Learn more now at http://www.teamfusion.net
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Comments
I love this post Jim! I have featured your post in my weekly Rainmaker ‘Fab Five’ blog picks of the week (found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_retention/2009/04/the-rainmaker-fab-five-blog-picks-of-the-week-2.html) to share these great ideas with my readers.
Be well Jim!
I love it! I’ve heard from so many managers and leaders that they are “scared” to recognize their employees with small praise because they feel like it’s cheesy or awkward. I couldn’t believe it!
I recently posted about recognizing your employees over Twitter. Talk about low cost! And, it’s public. Who wouldn’t love their followers to see a message from their boss recognizing them for a great idea.
Great ideas, I’m printing this and posting it on my wall.
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I love the sentiment of this post! Great timing given the environment. To compliment the content, it’s worth considering that these methods primarily attempt to increase the motivation level of staff. However, employee motivation and employee demotivation are not necessarily two extremes on the same continuum. Organizations may also benefit from implementing additional measures that reduce demotivating factors among employees. Job security, the physical work environment and the relationship employees have with management are examples of areas that may be focused upon to reduce demotivation. The most successful management teams are those that partner techniques to both increase motivation and reduce demotivation in their workforce recognizing the importance of both for achieving optimal employee retention and performance.