Setting goals

Like any other people and culture initiative, it’s important to set clear goals for your recognition program.

Having defined, measurable objectives will help you to gauge whether your program is having the impact you expected, and to demonstrate this impact to your leadership.

So, where do you start? Here’s a few tips to help you define goals for your program.

Start with the Why

It’s always best to begin with the bigger picture. Understand what’s driven your organization to implement a new recognition program in the first place, and set a goal that reflects what you are trying to achieve. From that larger goal, you can define more specific goals to help you get there.

However, keep in mind that if you’re tackling a larger organizational problem like turnover or low engagement, recognition should not be the only solution you’re implementing to fix the problem.

Rather, it should be part of a larger action plan to bring about a change in your culture.

Depending on your objective, your other strategies could include anything from revamping your vacation policy, to introducing more staff social events, to bigger changes like reviewing your compensation structure.

Demonstrating what role recognition plays in helping you achieve these kinds of goals will be difficult, as it can be harder to show its direct impact. And if there are other issues causing the problem that the organization isn't addressing, recognition won’t ultimately solve it, even if your program is making a real difference to your employees.

Which is why you need to…

Set goals you can be accountable for

While you can’t control what happens in other areas of your organization, you can take responsibility for ensuring the recognition program itself is successful. This is why you should set clear, measurable objectives for program performance.

That way, if you’re introducing the program as part of an action plan to achieve a larger objective, you can be accountable for ensuring that it holds up its end of the bargain.

Set appropriate benchmarks for your program and company

There are no standard benchmarks for success in recognition programs. The goals you set will vary depending on:

The size of your company
How many people are participating in your program
What kind of budgets you’re allocating (and to who)
Whether you’re using monetary and non-monetary recognition (or a combination of both)

For example, a company running a program with just 10 managers might see a participation rate of as high as 80% as a benchmark for success. But a company running a Shoutouts (non-monetary peer-to-peer recognition) program with hundreds of employees might be happy with a 25% participation rate.

Where your company is in its recognition journey can also be a factor. If you’ve been using recognition for years and are simply switching to a new provider, you're probably going to set your objectives for program use much higher than if your company is new to recognition.

Set the bar low, then grow

On that note, it’s important to remember that it can take time for your program to really take off, and you should set lower targets for the first few months after you launch it.

For example, you might aim for a 40% participation rate in the first 90 days of a budgeted manager recognition program, but look to get to 70% within the first year.

Check in and change course regularly

While it’s important to set clear goals, you also need to be flexible. Review how you are tracking against your goals at regular intervals, and put plans in place to help boost adoption if you find you aren’t meeting your targets.

Your objectives themselves might also change over time. For instance, your budget might be reduced, which might affect participation and impact. Alternatively, your program’s success might lead to your budget being improved, or to more team members being allocated budgets. If that’s the case, review your goals and adjust them to reflect the new reality of your program.