Increase Productivity Through Recognition

Make your employees happy, make more money.

Is it really that simple? Pretty much so: employees who feel valued, recognized and engaged at work tend to work harder and produce more (and more accurately), thus helping you sell more product or service more clients.

There are several ways to make employees happy, however for this post we’re going to discuss just one: employee recognition.

When an employee feels recognized for her hard work, for her extra effort, for her successes, she becomes ever more engaged and increases her commitment to working hard for you. In other words, done well, employee recognition acts as a kind of positive feedback loop: The employee works hard, you recognized that hard work, the employee is energized to continue to work hard (or harder), you recognize the hard work, and so on.

Recognizing employees for their efforts not only is a nice thing to do, it’s actually a communication tool and reinforces the actions you want your people to repeat most often.

The best type of employee recognition program? One that is immediate and surprisingly simple:

• Make sure all employees are eligible for recognition, from line workers on up to the C-suite.
• The recognition you give must ensure that both the manager (who supplies the recognition) and her staff members know exactly what types of behavior and results from that behavior will be recognized.
• Anyone – and we mean anyone! – who meets the criteria for recognition must be recognized/receive a reward.
• Recognize employees as quickly as possible after the performance of the actions that created the results or when desired results occur. This helps reinforce behavior and encourages employees to continue the behavior.
• Aim to not have managers choose employees for recognition. This could come to smack of favoritism. Instead, set clear parameters for when recognition is warranted and be sure to recognize any and all employees who meet or exceed those parameters.

Recognition needn’t be elaborate: have a pizza party once a month for the team with the fewest accidents, for example. Offer employees gift certificates to a movie theater, an inexpensive restaurant, a nearby coffee shop, etc.

As for the old Employee of the Month award, be careful. Since managers typically get together to name a candidate, the award could be construed as a popularity contest, instead of a reward for true excellence.

If you’re looking for workers you can reward with well-deserved recognition for producing real results in your insurance company or department, call upon the recruiters at Insurance Relief™. We have a database full of experienced insurance professionals looking for new opportunities and we’d love to match these skilled pros with your firm’s needs. Contact us today.