“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
Many people try to shut down their feelings at work to appear professional. But feeling is such a critical part of our human experience. We feel everything. The cold air on our skin, a warm hug, a personalized thank you from a colleague. Every interaction we have with someone results in a feeling. And every experience we have makes us feel a certain way. Most of us would rather feel great, motivated, and recognized, rather than feel bad.
A recent HR.com study found that, “Listening, praising and maintaining a positive work culture are linked to highly engaged organizations.” (Hr.com p. 27). But only half of employers are measuring engagement, and that is typically done with surveys.
So, what if companies and leaders tapped into the powerful force that feeling creates by fostering an environment where their employees are valued and recognized by their colleagues, leaders and the company?
Below I have outlined a few areas your company and leaders can focus on to create an environment of recognition that will have your employees engaged at every moment.
Areas To Focus On To Create Engaged Employees
Company Culture
An employee wants to feel like being with your organization is it a good cultural fit for the goals they want to achieve. They want to feel aligned with your purpose and vision. So, it’s important that you share that vision with them. Shout it from the rooftops! Spread your message, your purpose, your why with them joyfully and get them onboard.
Leadership
There’s a saying in business that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. When you stop for a moment to think about your journey in the workforce, is that true? The leaders in your organization play such an important role in fostering an environment of support, recognition and motivation. If your leaders are not serving their workforce then you’re likely to see a much higher turnover in your organization. Employees want the opportunity to grow and have mentorship in your organization. If they feel like their leaders care about them, they are more likely to care about the company and share your vision.
Employee Wellness
In the last 10 years there has been a huge shift to focusing on wellness in both work and life. Employees (especially millennials) are no longer settling for jobs where they are overworked and undervalued, nor should they. Your health and wellness is too important! In fact, I would argue that it should be the #1 priority in your life. Without your health where would you be? That is why companies need to make the health and wellness of their employees a huge priority. And I’m not just talking about food and nutrition and exercise. I’m talking about overall well-being and especially mental health. If you’re a leader, ask yourself, ‘have I connected with my employees and team beyond the job they do’, ‘do I care about them as a person, do I know about their family, what is going on in their life and how I can support them through their challenges to reach their goals’.
Purpose Driven Work
No matter what industry you are in, it’s so important for your employees to feel like their role within it is making a difference in some way. Do your employees feel good about what they do each day? Getting to this place of feeling will depend on what motivates each individual employee, what they feel that their purpose within the company is, and how the company and its leaders support them achieving their purpose. Each person needs to clearly understand and envision their purpose within the organization and know how their purpose affects others on their team, workgroup and beyond. That is, how they specifically contribute to the internal service cooperation within the organization. When everyone knows and feels deeply what their specific purpose is, they will know how fulfilling their purpose can and will have an effect on others. That feeling of purpose can drive and motivate them to continue delivering high quality service to both internal and external customers.
A Few Ways Total Recognition Can Get Your Employees to the Feeling of Engagement
A total recognition program can help you to formally implement some of the ideas above and create a culture of recognition in your organization. Some of the ways it will help to achieve this include:
- A commitment to ongoing recognition (not just once a year)
- Driving behaviour change with campaigns
- Getting ongoing feedback from leaders and peers
- Having a commitment from leadership to recognize and reward good work
- Given the ability to drive peer-to-peer recognition and acknowledgement
- Having fun, and being playful with challenges and rewards (driving healthy competition)
- Setting expectations
- Rewarding for good work –keeping employees motivated to achieve good results
If you would like more information on how you can start to create a culture of total recognition in your workplace, you can check out our offerings here or drop us a line to a get a demo of our services. I look forward to helping you achieve your employee engagement goals in 2019 and beyond!
Get in touch with me at: 855-231-8407