What Criteria Are Present in the Most Successful Recognition Programs?

The most effective, motivating, and sustainable employee recognition systems are:

SIMPLE - for everyone.  They must be simple for upper management to administer and easy for participants to use; 

EMBRACED AND SUPPORTED by leadership - not just "on paper" but also in practice;

TIMELY!  You must recognize and reward the behavior as closely as possible to the behavior occurring.  This is why ongoing recognition is so much more effective than an "employee of the year" type program.  If an employee thinks he has a one in 4000 chance of being recognized, that's certainly not as aspirational as knowing your manager might stop by your desk and award you on any given day;

RELEVANT - both in the behaviors being recognized and in the awards themselves. CHOICE is vitally important due to varied demographics, locations, buying behaviors, and wants and needs;

REINFORCING.  The program or platform must reinforce your specific key performance indicators - those goals you want to achieve in safety, sales, health and wellness, extraordinary customer service, upholding company values, etc.  Whatever those KPI's are for your organization, your recognition program must align with those goals and reinforce them on an ongoing basis.

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