50 Employee Behaviors to Recognize and Reward

In today’s workforce, recognizing employee behavior isn’t just part of your reward system – it’s a critical component of company culture, 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. So that begs the question, why aren’t companies doing it more?

Whether it’s a pat on the back or a personal note, it’s easier than you think to recognize behaviors that matter. Plus, it benefits everyone involved.

Managers in today’s workplace are busier than ever. Or not aware of employee behaviors they could quickly call out! So that’s why Kazoo has created a list of 50 behaviors anyone can easily recognize and reward in a company reward system!

50 Employee Behaviors to Recognize in Your Reward System

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! Because engaged employees are 17 percent more productive, according to Gallup’s State of the Workplace. And they have 41 percent lower absenteeism than disengaged employees.

Learning and development

• Attend a virtual training session
• Get a specific score on an exam
• Attend a digital 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

Because the best employees are always learning. So what better way to encourage growth than by incentivizing learning and development opportunities?

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Recommendations and professional growth

• 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. So utilizing recommendations as an Incentive in your reward system turns your employees into champions for your company.

Workplace and remote workplace etiquette

• Clean up a shared team digital workspace
• Proactively communicate a new project or issue to the team
• Introduce a new meme or emoji to your shared chat program
• Address ergonomics in home workspace
• Be mindful of time zones when scheduling
• Have an inspiring or funny Zoom background
• Send gifts or treats to coworkers
• Clean and disinfect home office

We spend a lot of our time at work — and now that more of us are working from home, “workplace etiquette” looks a little different. Which is why it’s essential to treat our home offices with the same respect we would treat our physical offices. So consider this Incentive brimming with good karma (and points), even while remote.

Health and wellness

• Go on a walk, 15 minutes or more
• Get annual physical
• Run a 5k
• Get flu shot and other vaccinations
• Break a sweat by working out at least 30 minutes
• Enroll in a tobacco cessation program
• Get annual eye exam
• Teach office yoga, pilates, or other fitness class

Studies show that employee health, well-being, and engagement are interrelated. Plus, a healthy workforce is happier, more productive, and takes fewer sick days.

Be the brand

• Share company content and job postings on personal social media
• Train a new hire
• Attend meetings prepared and on time
• Live out company core values
• Show a new coworker around
• Design a new company T-shirt or name a product

Your branding is in more than just Facebook Ads or a snappy website design — it’s in your people. So treat your employees to points each time they advocate for your brand.

Corporate social responsibility and giving back

• Volunteer on the weekend
• Coordinate a voter drive
• Donate blood
• Donate to a charity
• Participate in a fundraiser
• Start a philanthropic effort in the office
• Organize an Earth-friendly activity

Many people already volunteer outside of work. So why not reward them for being a good humanitarian? (Because there’s no shortage of kind-hearted people in the world!)

Tenure, birthdays, and celebrations

• Reach company milestones
• Years of service anniversary
• Employee birthdays

Because everyone loves a birthday! Or anniversary! Or some other awesome thing you did that deserves to be rewarded with points — and a lot of confetti. 🥳

(Remember, the Kazoo platform can be set up to award these automatically!)

Celebrating daily wins with Kazoo

Recognition tips

At Kazoo, we’ve seen firsthand how an employee experience platform can benefit managers while creating an overall culture of appreciation. So give your managers these tips to 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:

1. Teams using Kazoo see a 10 percent increase in project delivery.
2. Managers see a time savings of 5 hours a month with employee recognition and performance evaluation.
3. 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. So, make your recognitions:

Specific: What did they do, and how was it impactful?

Timely: The sooner, the better!

Personalized: Tag or mention the skills and core values exhibited.

Consistent: Over time, consistent recognition creates a culture of recognition.

Example: Creating effective recognition for day-to-day work:

Make your reward system a winner

We hope these ideas on behaviors to recognize and reward are helpful! And if you like what you hear, we should talk.

Because at Kazoo, we’re passionate about bringing together all the tools you need to make work work better for everyone. That’s why the Kazoo Employee Experience Platform brings performance management and recognition and rewards — including Goals, Feedback, Conversations, Recognition, Incentives, and more — into one simple, easy-to-use platform.

If you’re ready to align, connect, and engage your workplace, check out our Kazoo overview. Or, schedule a personalized demo today.

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