Recognize Your Top Performers

Does your company recognize its top performers?

Employees are motivated by many different things and they vary from person to person. But one thing that everyone appreciates is being noticed for a job well done. It doesn’t have to be extravagant because even a simple pat on the back can go a long way with one of your employees. It’s a great feeling when your supervisor makes a comment on your hard work and recognizes you. That’s why, as an employer, you should be looking for any and every opportunity to boost your employee’s job confidence. But how do you keep track of everyone’s accomplishments? And whens the best time to recognize them?

First, keeping track of your employee’s accomplishments is easy as long as you stay on top of it. Whenever you notice someone staying late, raising their sales or so on take a note of it. Whether you have HR software or you keep a notebook it’s important that you WRITE IT DOWN. You may think that you’ll remember it later but memory is tricky and things are easily forgotten, especially when dealing with everything else that comes with running a company or a department. So take a note and make it specific. When you are relaying your compliment on a job well done it’s nice to hear that you really saw what they did and how it helped the company or you personally.

Second, anytime you decide to recognize your employee is fine. But it is better to do it soon after the accomplishment occurs. If you sit on it for too long it may not have the same affect. There are so many ways to bring an accomplishment to your employee’s attention…

1. Shine a Spotlight. Each week have a little bulletin on a great job that one of your employees did. This could be through a company wide email or on a bulletin board in the office.

2. Company Meeting. If you have weekly or bi-weekly meetings, you could have an announcement during one of them. Draw the attention to one or two employees.

3. Make it Personal. You could also keep it in between you and the employee. Write a card or send a simple email saying how you appreciate what they’ve done.

You can do one, two or all three of these things; it really depends on your personal preference. Better recognition within a company sets your employees up for higher engagement and can increase business productivity.