How to Reduce Turnover with Employee Recognition and Appreciation

Employees need to be recognized and appreciated for their hard work and diligent efforts. They are the backbone of a company and can be the reason behind success or failure. The lack of employee recognition and appreciation in the workplace is one of the reasons millennials have higher turnover rates. If you are an employer and you’re experiencing higher turnover than expected in your industry, it might be time to tweak your employee recognition and appreciation strategies.

Employee recognition and appreciation have a psychological effect on people. Morale is often boosted by providing small incentives for workplace accomplishments. A business that offers service awards and incentives often sees better solidarity and increased work performance across the board. Let’s take a look at some effective strategies to help attract and retain top talented employees.

Make Incentives About More than Closed Sales

Making sales incentives based solely on closed sales performance can be stagnating. Forward-thinking organizations reward behaviors that will increase growth and drive future sales. Employee recognition awards should also consider behavior by recognizing groups and individuals who influence consumers. It’s just as important to pus leads through a sales funnel as it is nailing the final sale. Some effective strategies for incentives include:

• Include recognition awards during your sales training and for staff or groups who focus on following up on leads.
• Consider offering a series of incremental awards that recognize staff who help develop new leads, not just those who close on them.
• Provide rewards to key players like support personnel including admins, marketers, and managers.

Include Employee Recognition and Appreciation for Millennials

Many incentive programs focus more on their senior staff members. Millennials who start working at a company often step into a more casual work environment with flex scheduling and free snacks. Incentives and employee recognition and appreciation need to recognize their hard work and dedication too. The lack of recognition is a driving force behind a huge annual millennial turnover across the board.

According to one Gallup poll, millennials have a more fluid job rate and are most likely to switch jobs frequently. They are a social generation and need to be praised more and challenged more. They easily disconnect if they don’t receive these perks. Remember they are online. They are connected and communicating with people all around the globe and are likely to hear about plenty of other job opportunities. To attract and retain millennials try these strategies:

• Offer programs for mentoring, coaching, and training.
• Provide verbal rewards and praise while also promoting them inside the organization.
• Invite millennials into discussions and leverage their proficiency with social media.
• Also, include social recognition into your strategies.
• Give them plenty of challenging projects and then reward their accomplishments and behaviors.

The thing to remember about the millennial workforce is that they have are influencers and they are connected with other influencers on a global scale.

Recognition and Appreciation Outside an Annual Banquet

Many employee recognition and appreciation efforts are only conducted once or twice a year. With the abundance of social media and online activities, more employees see how other companies are honoring their employees. They get to view other more casual work environments and how they recognize and show appreciation to their employees. They see how fun other workplaces can be and it can affect them adversely psychologically. 

According to some psychologists, a happy employee is more productive. Why is that? Being happy in the workplace comes out as contentment, joy, enthusiasm, satisfaction, and a sense of belonging. By honoring staff, you can help to reduce stress and burnout in your employee population. This helps staff function optimally. Day-to-day ways to recognize and appreciate staff ideas include:

• Reward strong leadership at annual awards ceremonies
• Provide a more relaxed environment with free coffee, sodas, and snacks
• Provide an employee lounge where they can regroup, relax, and connect
• Schedule offsite training or self-improvement sessions and invite guest speakers
• Start or join a sports league, attend sporting events or concerts as a group or volunteer together
• Ask your staff for ideas on recognition programs

Let Suburban Custom Awards Help YOU!

At Suburban Custom Awards, you’ll find a group of professionals with the experience and expertise to help you with employee recognition and appreciation awards. We can help you select trophies and stellar awards for your most outstanding employees or volunteers. If you need help with wording to engrave on the award, we can help with that too. Give us a call today and let us help you reward your prized millennial and senior staff members and all those in between who help make your company or organization run smoothly.