Does your work sometimes feel like this?

Recognition is the fuel that keeps us going.

A lack of recognition is one of the top demotivators at work.

When employees are recognized, the business performs better.

In fact, “high-recognition companies have 31% lower voluntary turnover than companies with poor recognition cultures.” Deloitte 

Recognition is one of the most basic strategies for strengthening the employer & employee relationship, yet it is too often overlooked.

Now, do you feel you are being recognized enough for what you are doing for the company by your bosses?

What about recognition from your peers?

Have you recently voiced your appreciation and recognition to your teammates?

Why aren't you going the first step?

Don’t miss out on a huge opportunity and all the benefits you could be getting by showing appreciation instead of waiting to be appreciated.

For many employees, the most meaningful recognition often comes from colleagues and teammates.

And it cuts both ways. Imagine the impact using positive words to appreciate another person could have on your own mood. Remember these feel-good-buddies ‘Oxytocin and Serotonin’?

You engage at a higher level

While the whole corporate world is frantically trying to figure out how to engage employees, not many of us are asking how to further increase our own engagement.

We should.

A recent study shows that when employees (at any level) give recognition, their own engagement score increases by 26%. That’s a sizable increase considering how easy and enjoyable it is to recognize someone at the office.

When employees regularly give each other shout-outs for making it easier for the team to serve the customers better, such gratitude becomes infectious and creates a deeper sense of communal purpose.

Peer recognition can truly compensate for a lack of "Boss Recognition".

Apparently, peer recognition is 35.7% more likely (SHRM Survey) to have a positive impact on financial results than manager-only recognition.

Mobile Technology Enables Peer-to-Peer Recognition Across Locations

There is a challenge though for those of us who work on-the-go or remotely and thus might not have direct face-to-face contact with too many of our peers.

Technology is here to help us widen our peer network across locations, shifts and even languages.

The right mobile-first technology that offers social and peer-to-peer recognition can play a critical role in helping organizations make recognition more consistent and meaningful. Especially for those organizations with a high share of a non-desk workforce.

That's why we at Beekeeper Communication are excited that our Beekeeper Digital Workplace App enables peer recognition to become truly social and fun by making praise public and interactive.

That’s continuous motivation driven by technology-enabled peer-to-peer recognition.

From Peer-Recognition to Boss-Recognition

Let’s not stop at peer-to-peer recognition. Let’s include the leaders among you. Many of you might not be aware of the available technical options and as a result, only recognize employees in an ad hoc way or mainly top-down.

Don’t.

Let’s take recognition outside of the “soft skills” box and enshrine it as the management discipline it should be (HBR).

Start with this simple 3-step guide:

1) Recognize a specific ACTION or BEHAVIOR that you are recognizing someone for.

2) Link it to a FOCUS AREA. Make sure to connect the action to a core value or something else that is important to the organization’s success.

3) Share the IMPACT with all. Ensure the employee and the team know how their action positively helps the organization. It shows clearly what kind of work you admire. And, when everyone is clear about what great work looks like to you, they’re likely to produce more of it for you and with you. In fact, they’ll likely even try to do it better than the last time.

Go ahead. Inspire greatness in others and improve your own mood along the way.

There’s something intrinsically nice, and good, about recognition and appreciation that just screams, “it’s the right thing to do.”

People bring their heart and souls to work. I’ve seen the emotional impact appreciation has on people — often years (!) after the recognition moment happened.

So give it a try. Appreciate, and you’ll inspire some smiles.

In the meantime, take a look at our latest eBook to find out more about 15 additional Best Practices for Higher Employee Engagement: