Are Your Employees Thriving, or Just Surviving? Here’s What’s Missing.

Employers are at a crossroads. The tactics that once helped organizations retain talent no longer apply. The pandemic heightened shifts in the employer-employee dynamic as more businesses navigated a hybrid or fully remote workplace—but the shift goes further back than that.

Human resources has been notoriously stuck in processes, including annual reviews, town halls, onboarding meetings, and exit interviews. Organizations stuck in these cycles have less-engaged employees who may not feel like unique individuals bringing something special to the table. As you might expect, that can lead to turnover, as during the Great Resignation, when many employees demanded more from their employers after years of feeling invisible.

To fix this issue of disengagement, many organizations are scrambling to create more positive work experiences through office happy hours, gym stipends, pet benefits, and other flash-in-the-pan efforts that often leave employees where they started: disengaged and searching.

Taking a Cue from Childhood Norms

From the moment you’re born, you’re celebrating milestones and life moments, including birthdays, graduations, a good grade on a paper, and hitting a home run on your Little League team, among others. The people around you join in, making individual wins community celebrations.

But once you enter the workforce, these moments seem to fade. Most organizations only recognize professional accomplishments, not personal ones. That shouldn’t be the case, but many professionals come to expect that progression and achievements are just part of a traditional process.

By accepting this is how work is, we’re missing out on the regular recognition—for moments big and small, professional and personal—that motivates us. We’re left searching for the same humanity and acknowledgement at work we’ve had throughout our lives.

This is why recognition, validation, and gratitude are paramount in creating a workplace where people are interested and engaged and want to show up every day. How can organizations make the celebration of milestones more of a priority?

Being Human-First

The pandemic drove many businesses to become more intentional about employee engagement, retention, and acquisition. Filtering work through a screen meant blurring the line between personal and professional lives—and seeing others’ humanity quickly became the norm in the workplace.

However, even with this shift, feeling appreciated and valued in the workplace is not unanimous.

Nearly a recent survey revealed, and 18.2% of respondents say they put in more work as a result. But while employees’ fight to be noticed might result in short-term increased productivity, it will also likely lead to burnout, resentment, “rage applying,” “quiet quitting,” and overall attrition.

There’s a simple way companies that want to create a more positive and contented working environment can keep employees engaged: recognize people. The simple act of recognition can go a long way in making employees feel valued, heard, and seen—and more motivated to contribute to and actively participate in the company’s success.

Creating a Culture That Sticks

One of the largest financial institutions in the U.S., Citizens Financial Group, saw firsthand the power of implementing a modern recognition program to drive engagement and retention.

Citizens understood the importance of investing in the team members who were fostering those customer relationships most pivotal to the success of the organization. The leaders determined that traditional ways of showing recognition were outdated and very manual; for example, sending a gift card for strong performance is a nice gesture, but delays in delivery time often mean employees lose sight of why they are receiving them.

With a strategic recognition program, the team created more meaningful connections with employees in near-real time, elevating the experience from a one-time “job well done” to a trackable timeline and celebration of the professional and personal moments that matter to the employees.

After implementing the program, Citizens saw more than 168,000 recognition moments across 96% of its employee base. And as the company continues to generate more recognition moments, it can better understand the social networking across the organization.

Balancing Business Goals with Human Needs

The annual cost of voluntary turnover is $1.61 million for every 1,000 employees, with increased responsibilities on the remaining team and increased pressure on the bottom line. Against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, the opportunity to both reduce cost and avoid turnover is hardly one to overlook.

Why do you think the Securities and Exchange Commission started requiring businesses to report on human capital metrics? Now that employee happiness affects organizations’ bottom line in a tight labor market, CEOs must rethink workplace culture and invest in the people who help their businesses succeed. Especially in times of economic turbulence, your employees are your most important asset, and a recognition program is a strategic lever to help retain and develop your people.

Recognition solves a problem work has created for itself by meeting humans’ expectations throughout lifetimes of congratulations, celebrations, and acknowledgements. A company’s success hinges on the employee experience. Building the foundation for employees to elevate their own experience and that of their colleagues through greater recognition can be a game changer.

Learn how Workhuman’s Social Recognition software can help your organization retain talent, improve productivity, and enhance culture

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