Regardless of the stage of your business, employee recognition is vital. According to a Deloitte study, employee recognition increases business productivity by 14%. The same study found that an improvement in employee engagement could enhance profit margins by 2%. Given these numbers, it is unsurprising that most companies pay close attention to investing in employee recognition apps.
Moreover, recognizing a team member for a job well done, perfect attendance or other good deeds might inspire them to achieve even greater things. Likewise, celebrating a team member’s success can motivate the team to work harder and achieve business goals. It’s also worth noting that team member recognition can impact positive engagement. By praising your team members, you can keep them devoted to their jobs, resulting in increased productivity and profitability for your company.
Similarly, appreciating a team member’s efforts and hard work can reduce turnover and improve retention. When you award your team members, you can encourage them to stay with the company and do better at work. Consequently, you can retain the best talents and consider them significant assets of your organization. Remember that the happier they work with you, the more money you save on recruitment and onboarding costs in the long run.
However, you might wonder how you’ll implement an effective recognition process despite these benefits. This is where team member recognition and performance apps come into play.
This article will discuss the importance of employee recognition apps and how you can leverage these apps to enhance your workplace.
What are Employee Recognition Apps and Why Do You Need One?
An employee recognition app is a technology solution that automates the process of employee recognition. Simply put, these apps help businesses manage performance recognition or give rewards and special perks.
Employee recognition can become more complex and stressful as you expand your business and increase your workforce. This is because you would need to keep track of more workers and offer personalized recognition. Employee recognition apps remove the bulk of this burden, as these operations are automated.
With this automation, employee recognition apps can enhance workplace culture and make employees feel seen. A 2018 survey found that employee engagement programs help companies attract talent and reduce voluntary turnover. Essentially, while employee recognition programs generally benefit your company’s profitability, employee recognition apps help you properly execute the programs.
How to Transform Your Workplace with Employee Recognition and Performance Apps
- Acknowledgement Cards: Employees like to feel seen. They want to understand that while they are hard workers, their employers are equally aware of their contribution to the business. Through your employee recognition app, you can implement simple ‘Thank You’ card features that will help communicate that you see and acknowledge an employee’s efforts. The cards could be prompted by something as little as a customer’s positive comment or much more significant accomplishments like successfully executing a project. Whichever it is, it fulfills the primary purpose of recognition.
- Real-Time Rewards: Milestones and performance metrics are a norm in many companies. Employees also tend to get bonuses for accomplishments like securing a new client. With employee recognition apps, your employees can claim these rewards in real-time. The rewards could range from spa sessions to salary bonuses. This real-time effect helps boost employee morale during the workflow process.
- Special Access to Development Opportunities: The commercial world has become more fast-paced. Hence, regardless of your business’s industry, employees are seeking ways to improve their skills and capabilities. One way to reward employee performance is by offering special access to development opportunities. You can leverage your employee recognition app by integrating an instant payout for a professional course. This will demonstrate your recognition of hard work and also benefit your business in the long term.
- Feedback Requests: One of the most important benefits of employee recognition apps is that they provide a seamless way for companies to conduct employee surveys. You can utilize this feature to understand the general acceptability of your recognition programs and where you can make changes. This will help improve your employee recognition initiatives and, by extension, your company’s culture.
- Peer-to-Peer Recognition: The chain of recognition does not only flow from the company to its employees; it also flows among employees. Essentially, you can leverage your employee recognition apps to encourage your employees to regularly drop positive comments about their working experience with fellow employees. This can be a viable strategy to help reduce friction and enhance the workplace environment.
- Annual Awards: Annual awards are a great way to show your employees that you are observant of their personality and working style. A rule of thumb with employee engagement is that most employees do not want to be seen as mere productive robots. They often want to feel like they belong in an environment where their personality resonates. Virtual annual awards can help achieve this. Moreso, since the awards can be given on the employee recognition platform, costs are reduced.
- Birthday Celebrations: Employee recognition is not only limited to work milestones. You can demonstrate employee recognition by giving a shout-out on employees’ birthdays or organizing a virtual happy hour to celebrate. These gestures go a long way in showing that you care about your employees.
- Integration with Workflow Apps: Many employee recognition apps enable integration with workflow apps like Slack, Trello, or Microsoft Teams. Activating this integration feature is beneficial because it expands the reach of your employee recognition programs and also increases awareness that your company rewards productivity. Aside from the workflow software mentioned earlier, you may also integrate several recognition apps with software for employee time tracking. This integration can be beneficial, especially if the recognition pertains to team member attendance and productivity. It allows your HR team to streamline the recognition process more quickly with the availability of attendance records and performance data.
Next Steps for Companies and Business Owners
There is no doubt that employee recognition apps offer numerous benefits. However, your company needs to seek informed advice on the recognition app suitable for your operations. However, businesses often prefer a 360 employee recognition platform. This is because 360 recognition platforms are usually more flexible and enable customization. This way, you can easily integrate features aligned with your workforce.
However, with several team member recognition apps in the market, finding the right one can take time and effort. In that case, conducting thorough research is essential to ensure you choose the best recognition and performance app for your organization.
Final Thoughts
As the labour market becomes increasingly competitive, companies will need to devise strategies that will help attract top talent and reduce attrition. Employee recognition apps are a viable strategy for achieving this.
