While getting your leadership and management on board is crucial for your program’s success, you shouldn’t forget that recognition is ultimately about your employees. You need them to find value in the program, and be excited to receive additional appreciation.
In this section, we’ll explore how to communicate the value of recognition to your employees, drive adoption in peer-to-peer programs, and build buzz and excitement across your whole organization.
Communicating the value of recognition to employees
When communicating the value of recognition to employees, a lot of companies make the mistake of focusing merely on the rewards. They’ll tell employees about how much they’ll love the system, and about all the great items and experiences they’ll be able to enjoy once the program starts.
But to really get them on board, it’s important that they see the value of recognition itself. Talk about how your company and their managers see them as your most important resource, and you want a way to show your appreciation for the work they're doing on a day-to-day basis, outside of bonuses and holiday parties and other employee appreciation initiatives.
If you’re running a peer-to-peer program, it’s also important that they understand the value of being able to recognize others. Employees can’t excel at their jobs on their own, and often need other people to go above and beyond to help them. Recognition provides room for collaborative and strong relationships to grow amongst employees.
Let them know that this is a tool to thank the people who make it possible for them to succeed. You can also emphasize that it is their chance to have a voice, and recognize the things that matter to them in their roles, and the behaviours they really value in colleagues.
Not only that, but it’s their chance to do it in a way that’s visible to their managers. There might be a person in one of your teams who regularly goes out of their way to help others, but does so in a way that your leadership doesn’t see. This gives their teammates a chance to let management know just how valuable these people are, and help them see the rewards they deserve.
Want to drive adoption for your peer-to-peer recognition program? You need to answer these questions in your employees mind: "What's in it for me? Why do I need to recognize people?"
Here are some answers that will help:
- Recognizing peers will help you build stronger connections with colleagues, and make you both feel more a part of the community.
- Recognizing peers will make them more likely to want to help you with your projects and achieve your objectives.
- Recognizing peers consistently will make you more visible to leadership as a contributor to building a strong culture. This will open more opportunities in the form of better projects and promotions.
- Recognizing peers will help you develop your leadership skills and prepare you for leading teams, as consistent recognition will provide you more space to also provide constructive feedback.