Praise, Recognition and Employee Happiness

Employee recognition boosts satisfaction and retention. Systemize it.

Employee recognition turns out to be the second most powerful source of employee satisfaction — in the rankings, it comes after achievement but before the work itself and job advancement opportunities. Employees who are not properly recognized at work are three times more likely to leave the following year. As a result, employee recognition is an important practice that should be systemized to keep your employees from leaving.

You need an employee recognition process that occurs weekly, monthly, or quarterly — because, while you may have the idea to tell a colleague they did a good job on a project, you may also forget to execute the idea and quickly move on to something else. To improve your program, schedule an employee recognition day on the calendars of your entire team, among a variety of other tactics and tools to help you boost employee engagement.

Spending time planning and implementing an employee recognition program will allow you to promote greater happiness throughout your organization. Improved employee productivity, engagement, retention, motivation, and loyalty follow. Most effective leaders bring out the best in their teams. They understand how to use employee recognition to both motivate and boost morale.

Employees are encouraged when they receive praise for their achievements. They are inspired by the knowledge that they are on the right track. Similarly, when employees are praised for their efforts, dopamine is released. Dopamine influences the pleasure and reward centres of the brain and promotes creative thinking. Many executives and CEOs may believe that praise and recognition are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Positive feedback, on the other hand, carries a lot of weight for employees.

There is no doubt that employees who receive praise from company executives are happy. Nonetheless, a lesser-known fact is that employees who witness their colleagues' praise experience a boost in morale. Seeing a co-worker being praised or recognized accomplishes several things. To begin with, it sets a good example. It also shows employees what they can do to get recognized on their own merits. In the long run, this is beneficial to the workforce as a whole. Workers are not only happier when they know there is room for them to earn praise; they are also more motivated and more likely to advance within the company.

We should always be looking for new ways to improve ourselves. Understanding what is best for employees is a critical component of this. When employees thrive, excel, and are satisfied with their jobs, this energy is transferred to the company's success.