Employee Recognition Programs and Morale

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Employee burnout and boredom are significant impacts to employee morale. A good employee recognition program can alleviate some of these impacts and boost morale significantly. Only a well-designed program will have this effect.

A poorly-designed recognition program can have the exact opposite effect, so invest in the design of your program to gain maximum return on time and money invested.

One of the most effective and no-cost employee recognition tools available to the leader is the simple verbal "pat on the back". The use of positive words to let an employee know when they have produced something of exceptional quality works wonders as a morale building tool.

During high-stress periods of heavy overtime or low morale, having the highest level leaders visit the workplace and recognize employees by name, expressing gratitude for their hard work, can result in renewal, refreshed points of view and greater enthusiasm.

By designing an employee recognition program that recognizes employees through multi-level recognitions can be a big morale booster. Letters of Appreciation, Employee of the Month, Division Employee Performance Award, and other levels allow more employees to qualify for some level of recognition.

If the recognition is too rare or too difficult to obtain, the employees won't feel that a little extra effort might qualify them for recognition.

Pay for performance compensation increases and bonuses are another great way to ensure employee morale, loyalty and productivity remain high. If an employee knows they will receive a flat percentage increase each time raises come around just because they showed up and did the minimum to get by, you can be certain most of the employees will do just the minimum.

If pay increases are backed up by employee performance appraisals, with those employees who performed best receiving the largest pay increases, the performance of all employees will increase. The employee performance appraisal process can also be used to determine which employees qualify for the more coveted employee recognition awards.

Copyright © 2006 by Bill Roche.  All rights reserved.  All material on this site (www.TopResults.com) is protected by U.S. Federal Copyright law. It may not be reprinted in any form, or hosted on any Web site, without explicit permission.

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