Improving Informal Employee Recognition: How to Do It?

Imagine the following scenario: you are hired in a new company. You love your job and do every job that is entrusted to you brilliantly. However, despite your good work, no one talks to you about your skills or efforts.

Over the months, task after task, the lack of recognition for your dedication and good work becomes frustrating. Any attempt to please your manager and your employer seems futile. Demotivated, you finally decide to quit this job which has become a source of stress for you. Yet, a few words of encouragement from your manager would have motivated you to stay.

Did you know this scenario applies to multiple employees? Indeed, the CoCoworker study shows that 76% of employees consider informal recognition as the first factor impacting their well-being at work. This is a must-have for retaining your talents, especially during their first months in your company!

How can you improve informal employee recognition at work? What impact does recognition have on the motivation of your staff? Here are ten concrete examples to show your employees that you appreciate them, to help you learn more.

The importance of informal employee recognition

Informal employee recognition has many benefits on the psychological health, social integrity and motivation of your employees. In addition, taking the time to recognize the good work of your employees allows them to:

• Feel recognized and appreciated by your company;
• Make them want to excel;
• Feel valued in the face of the work done;
• Be less anxious, stressed and irritated at work;
• Feel included and appreciated by their co-workers;
• Reduce their absenteeism rate by 41%;
• Improve the reputation of your qualities as an employer through positive word-of-mouth;
• Diminish their desire to turn to a competing company.

It is crucial to show your teams how much you notice their good work. A few words of gratitude, a short meeting to celebrate the successes of the last month, a team outing: every opportunity is good to express to your employees that their efforts are noticed. Rely on our best examples of employee appreciation to better motivate your staff at work!

The four types of workplace recognition

There are many ways in which a lack of recognition can affect an individual’s work. This can result in the gap between an employee’s efforts and the respect, job security, pay and/or appreciation received in return for the work performed. Be sure to regularly and informally recognize the good work of your employees!

There are four forms of work recognition:

Il existe quatre formes de reconnaissance au travail :

• Existential recognition: The recognition of the employee for their human qualities, personal challenges and qualities. In order to show your employees that you appreciate them as humans, take the time to learn about their lives, their current challenges and their mood. Be flexible to better recognize your employees informally – they will be grateful!
• Recognition of practice: The appreciation of an employee’s professional ethics, projects, skills and good practices. To recognize an employee’s practice, thank them for their initiative and recognize their good work and skills in team meetings.
• Recognition of investment: Recognition of an employee’s efforts, contribution and initiative in relation to their work. To celebrate such efforts, celebrate your employees’ investment through posts on your social networks or at your team meetings.
• Recognition of results: An employer’s gratitude for the productivity, effort and results of your existing teams. To improve informal employee recognition, organize events, team-building activities or offer bonuses to your teams based on their performance this month.

These authentic forms of recognition will help you improve your work environment and motivate your staff. Remember: informal employee recognition is a great way to differentiate yourself as an employer while optimizing the performance of your existing teams!

How to improve informal employee recognition?

Ten ideas for improving informal employee recognition

Employee recognition can occur in a number of ways. Team meetings, outings between colleagues, social media posts, small attentions: the list is long!

How can you improve your employee experience by regularly highlighting the good work of your teams? To help you, here are ten examples to follow to show your employees’ appreciation for a strong and motivated team at work.

1. Showcase your employees on your corporate social networks

As a first step, a great way to show informal recognition for your employees is to recognize their successes and their initiative within your company. What better way to do this than to promote their good work on your social networks?

To achieve this, write publications to introduce your staff to your social community. These publications will allow you to add a human touch to your online presence, but also to demonstrate your positive organizational culture to your potential talents.

Here are a few things that can be included in your post when showcasing your employees on your social networks:

• Their background within your company
• Their position;
• Their field of expertise;
• Their achievements;
• Their human qualities;
• Their skills as an employee;
• And more!

Such publications will be beneficial to the motivation of your employees: they allow your staff members to see that their efforts are recognized. Remember this valuable tip to better motivate your employees while strengthening their people-to-people ties within your company!

2. Recognize good work in group meetings

How can you motivate your teams at work? During group meetings or colleague meetings, take the time to express informal employee recognition. Express in detail and in all sincerity how some of your colleagues have stood out over the last few days. This little thought will certainly please your employees: they will feel that their efforts are recognized and, above all, very appreciated.

Why not schedule a monthly meeting to celebrate the successes of your colleagues? For example, before a meeting, ask your managers to think about the employees who have stood out in recent weeks. Then, at the meeting, encourage them to share and recognize the great work done by your teams. This great informal employee recognition will certainly encourage your employees to give their best, in addition to solidifying their relationships among colleagues. 

3. When giving positive feedback, be specific

While it is important to practice informal employee recognition, it is also crucial to be specific in your comments. While a specific and detailed feedback will make your colleagues feel accomplished and noticed, very vague or out-of-context positive feedback can create an insincere sense of gratitude.

To avoid giving your employees that impression, take the time to describe in detail how you appreciate their good work. Inform them of their qualities as humans and colleagues, and then highlight how exceptional their work is. Positive feedback, accompanied by warm and sincere compliments, will soon make your employees smile and motivate them in the face of the tasks to be performed. This is all the more true in a context of welcoming and integrating new employees. Your accurate, authentic and informative feedback will help them better integrate into your teams while constantly improving!

Also, did you know that our software has an employee performance measurement solution? With this tool, you will collect individual employee performance reports based on feedback from your customers. By having the facts about the services provided by your colleagues, you will be able to offer accurate and informative comments, which is particularly relevant in the context of an evaluation meeting.

4. Share customer highlights

Informal employee recognition is not just a matter for managers: feedback really has to come from feedback that has been provided by your clients.

When a customer thanks the business management team for the quality of the experience, it is important to share these messages with the rest of the team. This recognition will provide the motivation to redouble efforts and provide the best possible service. This is a must for optimizing the performance and well-being of your employees at work.

To this end, take care to regularly share with your employees the recognition of your customers. Positive reviews, warm comments, constructive proposals: these little attention from your customers will soon have a positive impact on the motivation of your staff.

Similarly, software such as InputKit allows you to automatically share positive feedback from satisfied customers with your staff. This feature will allow you to empower your teams while showing them the concrete impact their service has on customer satisfaction. Thus, the relevant comments and positive opinions collected during satisfaction surveys will motivate them to give the best of themselves in order to improve the quality of their services.

5. Plan recognition activities

Would you like to express informal employee recognition through another gesture than a conversation or a team meeting? If this is the case, we suggest you plan recognition activities to thank your teams for their good work.

Here are some ideas for inspiration:

• An individual dinner with a manager;
• A supper in the restaurant with colleagues;
• A team-building activity between colleagues;
• Draws for gift cards;
• Recognition meetings;
• A choice outing to strengthen links between colleagues.

These activities are an excellent opportunity to show informal employee recognition and also help your teams build trust with their co-workers and their managers. Remember this valuable tip to increase your teams’ motivation while building a culture of trust and workplace recognition!

6. Encourage peer recognition

It is well known that the quality of relationships between colleagues has a crucial impact on the motivation and well-being of your staff. According to a study by Psychology Today, 76% of employees are more motivated by the recognition of their peers than by money. In this regard, take care to build a climate of trust, mutual respect and recognition within your company.

During team meetings, encourage your managers to recognize the successes of your employees. During lunch hours, create pleasant discussions based on the qualities of your colleagues as humans. Finally, at assessment meetings, always take the time to let your staff know how much you notice and appreciate their efforts within your company. This organizational culture of recognition will definitely make your employees happier at work!

7.  Celebrate birthdays in the office

Whether it’s your employee’s birthday or a birthday related to the number of years they spent with your company, every opportunity is good to mark such an important date. In addition, a birthday is a golden opportunity to show informal employee recognition for their efforts and for their good work.

To that end, on a birthday, send a message internally to wish the party all the best. Give them a birthday card signed by their co-workers with little words to highlight their importance in your company. You could even give her a gift from the whole organization and decorate their office to celebrate!

If the budget allows it, why not celebrate the anniversary as a team? A restaurant outing or outdoor activity is a great opportunity to express informal employee recognition while celebrating this unique day. Follow this example of an employee recognition program to show your staff that their well-being is a priority. Your teams will be grateful!

8. Create a surprise effect by making small attentions

Beyond words, informal employee recognition is manifested in concrete actions and small, thoughtful surprises at work. With that in mind, during a particularly difficult period or a period of remarkable success, why not plan a little attention for your staff?

During stressful times, give treats to your employees. Special deliveries of lunch at the office, pizza supper, dinner at the local café: your teams will appreciate the gesture and will be able to resume work after filling up their energy.

To the same extent, surprise your employees with surprise days off as well as team activities to give them the opportunity to rest. These opportunities will allow you to improve their job satisfaction and give them the opportunity to get to know themselves better as human beings. Follow these examples of informal employee recognition programs to differentiate yourself as an employer and build your talent!

9. Share your positive customer feedback with all your employees

How do you motivate your teams at work? Share the positive feedback from your satisfied customers with all your employees!

During quarterly meetings or team meetings, take the time to highlight positive and recurring customer feedback. This valuable information will allow your teams to know the concrete impact of their services on the satisfaction of their customers while knowing that their good work is recognized. This is an indispensable strategy to better recognize the initiative and proactivity of your employees within your company.

In order to motivate your staff, why not put in place a recognition chart that highlights positive feedback and constructive proposals from your clients? At a glance, your teams will know how much their good service is appreciated. In addition, this tool will allow them to better understand the needs and expectations of their customers to offer a personalized and contemporary experience. This is an asset to improve your services on a continuous basis as well as expressing informal employee recognition at work.

10. Celebrate personal success

It is very important that your teams feel heard and validated in their workplace. After all, your employees are above all humans: they need colleagues to discuss, exchange and feel recognized, both at the professional level and from a personal perspective.

To this end, take the time to talk with your staff members on a regular basis in order to better understand certain issues affecting their motivation at work. Marathon, relocation, newborn, death and more: many factors can impact the satisfaction, energy and motivation of your teams. Talk with your colleagues to get to know them as humans and better adapt to their needs at the time. This proof of flexibility and empathy will make them feel validated and listened to: they will be infinitely grateful to you!

How can InputKit help you improve informal employee recognition?

Do you want to improve informal employee recognition at work? If so, InputKit’s employee evaluation and motivation solution is for you!

With our employee recognition software, you can share positive feedback from satisfied customers with your existing teams. This will allow them to better understand the concrete impact of their services on client satisfaction in order to improve the client experience on an ongoing basis. This is an asset to empower your employees while highlighting their successes at work.

In addition to empowering your employees, our solution also has a feature that allows you to automatically offer satisfied customers to write you a positive online review. This tool will allow you to increase the notoriety of your company, but also to show your staff that their good service is recognized and appreciated. This is a must to show informal employee recognition and increase their commitment to work!

Did you know that InputKit will soon allow you to send employee satisfaction surveys? With this valuable tool, you will be able to conduct personalized and automated monitoring of your employees’ satisfaction in order to better understand certain issues impacting their motivation at work.

A rigorous and regular monitoring of your staff’s motivation will allow you to better adapt to their current needs and show them that their well-being is at the center of your priorities. This is a must for you to stand out as an employer, especially when it comes to workplace recognition!

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