Are you doing enough to recognize your employees? You may think you’re doing enough to show employee appreciation, but perhaps your company lacks a formal employee recognition program.

In a competitive talent market, it’s important that your people strategy includes everything from succession and workforce planning building a positive workplace culture. A big part of that workplace culture is employee engagement, which leads us to employee recognition. (Everything is connected!)

Before you set out to build a robust, successful program that hopefully will inspire your employees for years to come, what do you need to keep in mind?

Obstacles and opportunities

At the outset, it’s hard to imagine any downside to showing your team that you value their work.

After all, these are the people with whom you spend most of your days. It’s only natural to want to show them you appreciate their efforts. In so doing, you may encourage them to stick around.

Yet truly successful recognition efforts aren’t as simple as rewarding performance with a gift card or saying “Happy Birthday.”

Failing to align the programs with company values can cause your best-intentioned efforts to fall short of your goals.

It’s critical to clarify terminology around the awards program concept at the outset.

Employee recognition vs. appreciation

Employee appreciation and employee recognition may seem like the same thing at first glance, but there’s a nuanced difference. And it’s helpful to have a mix of them, since both types of programs contribute to the creation of a positive culture for your employees. There’s more to appreciation and recognition than meets the eye. Let’s take a closer look at the differences.

Employee appreciation programs

At root, these programs are designed to help employees feel good.

They tend to mark milestones, such as:

• Employment anniversaries
• Birthdays
• Holidays

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