In today’s workforce, recognizing employees isn’t just part of good company culture – it’s a critical component of retention, productivity, and employee engagement.
Sound like fluff? Consider the fact that Gallup’s analysis shows employee recognition is one of the simplest ways to attract and retain top performers. Which begs the question, why aren’t companies doing it more?
Whether it’s a pat on the back, a personal note, or a public-facing announcement, giving recognition for behaviors that matter is easier than you think and benefits everyone involved.
And because managers in today’s workplace are either busy or not aware of employee behaviors they could quickly call out, Kazoo has created a list of 50 common behaviors anyone can easily recognize and reward.
50 Employee Behaviors to Recognize and Reward
Key Performance Indicators
- Sales accomplishments and performance
- Reach a department, team, or personal goal
- Complete a project under deadline or budget
- Perfect safety record
- Perfect attendance or a certain % attendance goal
Rewarding employees for hitting KPIs is a fun and effective way to motivate them to stay-on-top of their goals! Engaged employees are also 17 percent more productive and have 41 percent lower absenteeism than disengaged employees, according to Gallup’s State of the Workplace.
Learning and Development
- Attend a training session
- Get a specific score on an exam
- Attend a lunch and learn
- Shadow a coworker in another role
- Go back to school for a degree or industry-specific certification
- Learn a new language
- Serve as a mentor to others
The best employees are always learning – what better way to encourage growth than by incentivizing learning and development opportunities?
Recommendations
- Employee referral and hire for job vacancy
- New customer referral
- Receive a positive customer review
- Share a great idea for new product or service
- Recommend a new process to boost efficiencies
The most credible recommendations come from the people you know. Utilizing recommendations as a Behavior Bonus turns your employees into champions for your company.
Workplace Etiquette
- Brew the morning coffee
- Take out recycling or trash
- Empty dishwasher
- Run dishwasher
- Restock the coffee
- Clean the break room
- Bring a plant to work
- Bring in donuts
We spend a lot of our time at work, which is why it’s essential to treat our workspace with respect. This Behavior Bonus is brimming with good karma (and points)!
Health & Wellness Related
- Walk to lunch
- Run a 5k with a coworker
- Work out at the gym 4x in a month
- Quit smoking
- Get annual physical
- Get dental checkup
- Attend an exercise class
- Teach office yoga
Studies show that employee health, well-being, and engagement are increasingly interrelated. Plus, a healthy workforce is happier, more productive, and takes fewer sick days.
Be the Brand
- Share the company’s social media via personal accounts
- Train a new hire
- Attend meetings prepared and on time
- Live out company core values
- Show a new coworker around
- Help someone out
Your branding is in more than just Facebook Ads or a snappy website design – it’s in your people. Treat your employees to points each time they advocate for your brand.
Corporate Social Responsibility
- Volunteer on the weekend
- Volunteer with a coworker
- Donate blood
- Donate to a charity
- Participate in a fundraiser
- Start a philanthropic effort
- Organize an Earth-friendly activity
Many people already volunteer outside of work – why not reward them for being a good humanitarian? (There’s no shortage of kind-hearted people in the world!)
Tenure/Celebrations
- Reach company milestones
- Years of service anniversary
- Employee birthdays
Go shawty it’s your birthday! Or your anniversary or some other super awesome thing you did that deserves to be rewarded with points – and a lot of confetti. 🥳
(Note: The Kazoo platform can be set up to award these automatically!)
Recognition Starts at the Top
At Kazoo, we’ve seen firsthand how an employee experience platform can benefit managers while creating an overall culture of appreciation. Give your managers these tips to ensure you see effective employee recognition across the company.
Tip: Remember that effective recognition helps managers directly.
A third-party ROI study of companies using Kazoo for employee recognition found:
- Teams using Kazoo see a 10 percent increase in project delivery
- Managers see a time savings of 5 hours a month with employee recognition and performance evaluation
- 100 percent of teams studied see employee engagement increase
Tip: Keep these employee guidelines in mind.
When sending a piece of recognition, use these guidelines to make it simple yet effective:
Make it specific: What did they do, and how was it impactful?
Make it timely: The sooner, the better!
Make it personalized: Tag or mention the skills and core values exhibited.
Make it consistent: Over time, consistent recognition creates a culture of recognition.
Example: Creating effective recognition for day-to-day work:
Are you ready to increase employee engagement, amplify company culture, and improve bottom-line results with Kazoo?