4 Tips To Maximize Employee Recognition Time

As a leader you’re probably getting pulled in a million different directions and your time is in short supply.  But the time you spend really being present in a sincere, mindful and purposeful way when interacting with your employees and recognizing them for their efforts and contributions is time well-spent.
With a bit of effort you can break some bad habits and start embracing some new practices and ways of thinking that can help boost morale (and ultimately your bottom line). Read on for straightforward ways to maximize employee recognition time.

4 Tips to Help Maximize Employee Recognition Time

1.  Put away your smartphone
HR Dive explored the impact of bosses taking calls and checking their phones while in face-to-face exchanges with employees and not surprisingly, employees dislike being treated in this dismissive way, in fact 75% of employees who were surveyed on this issue said that it led to a lack of trust and decreased engagement. There is even a term for this phone snubbing –  “boss phubbing.”
Bottom line, it’s disrespectful and the trickle down effect on management can increase stress if managers feel they must also immediately respond to texts, emails and calls on their phones.HR Dive sums it up: “Smartphones, like most technologies, have made it easier for people to connect with each other, organize their lives and access information. But smartphones also have minimized the face-to-face time that remains essential to building trust among colleagues and between managers and employees.”
2.  Spend a little compassion
A Harvard Business Review article on how power can corrupt leaders but compassion can save them, discusses how power impairs mirror-neurological activity which is our ability to understand and associate with others.  A survey of CEOs indicated awareness that more compassion in their roles was needed, but they also admitted uncertainty on how to achieve more compassion.
HBR suggested these strategies: apply compassion to any engagement – start asking yourself “How can I be of benefit to this person?” and use this as a mantra when you interact with clients, colleagues, family and friends; seek opportunities to show compassion like John Chambers of CISCO who is notified within 48 hours when an employee suffers a severe loss or illness so he can extend his support through a letter underscoring his care and compassion; and do a daily compassion meditation – the article includes step by step prompts that can help you rewire you brain to be compassionate through meditation.
3.  Just be nice
In an HR Dive article, Cord Himelstein reveals that the “big secret to employee engagement” is simply – be nice!  He suggests that the correct answer to these typical employee engagement questions is – you guessed it – be nice:  How do I get people to respect me? How do I get people to work more efficiently? How do I get people to work more efficiently? How do I get people more excited about work?  How do I motivate a team? How do I increase profits? How do I change my corporate culture? How do I make genuine connections with people?
Himelstein explains, “…you can always squeeze and cajole a little more work out of someone but there’s no cheese at the end of that tunnel. You have to make it a rule from the top down to always be nice and stick to it. Everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, will work harder for someone who is nice to them and work less hard for someone who is mean to them.”

Some Bonus Tips If You’re Feeling Inspired

More strategies you can try include: learn to have more meaningful conversations with staff, pursue values-based recognition, don’t buy into Silicon Valley workaholism, and embrace usefulness and gratitude.

Why Are These Tips Key?  

With 1 in 5 employees leaving their jobs due to lack of support from management (according to HR Bartender’s poll), it’s time to confront this issue and reflect on your current approach.  If you could benefit from incorporating some (or all of these tips) then try a mini-makeover on the way you interact with employees.

Celebrate Your Employees’ Contributions Now

July is National Ice Cream Month so you still have time to plan a fun event to mark the occasion with an ice cream social, sundae buffet or ice cream gift certificates.
Check out more celebrations that can make your workplace more lively and help with opportunities to engage and recognize employees by downloading gThankYou’s handy and free,  “2018 Day-to-Day Employee Celebration Calendar”.
gThankYou’s annual calendar is full of useful information – insights into the latest HR trends, how-to tutorials for engaging and thanking employees, case studies to inspire you, examples of holidays to celebrate each month, and research statistics to help you make the business case for appreciation. We hope it inspires you and your colleagues.
Download yours FREE now!