How To Celebrate Wins at Work?
It is the time of the year when many begin to wind down, in which some companies started to throw parties to celebrate Christmas and New Year Eve to welcome 2022. Regardless of the reasons you throw a party, celebrating the wins is essential – particularly for employees who made a difference during the pandemics. It is crucial to recognize your workforce’s accomplishments, and celebrating successes is a great way to increase their morale.
It encourages your employees to look forward to more successes in the future. Furthermore, it rewards them for achieving the milestones together. It gives them a small break to recognize their achievements before proceeding to the more extensive project. They want to know whether they impact the project, and they also want to know whether their contribution is recognized and appreciated by their leaders. Based on Social Cast’s research, almost 70% of employees would work harder if they felt their efforts were more appreciated. Hence, it explains the importance of rewarding employees as it helps build a happier workforce.
Highlight on Social Media
As more Gen Alpha individuals grow up immersed in social media, social media usage has gradually become an inextricable part of their lives. How they use, social media is different from their parents and favor Instagram and TikTok versus Facebook and Twitter. Therefore, leaders may choose to talk about Gen Alpha’s win through its official social media accounts if it aligns with its social media policy. Validation is the secret recipe for the popularity of social media, as the younger generation is eager to gain the approval and attention of their peers based on the impressions and engagement received from them, such as likes, comments and discussions. Therefore, Human Resource (HR) should start creating content highlighting excellent work to acknowledge their dedication to going the extra mile.
Financial Bonuses
Recognition and appreciation don’t have to focus on personal achievements. For individuals, it is best to incentivize employees to reach their individual goals, such as sales targets. On the other hand, team bonuses are recommended when your workforce is divided into teams with defined plans. On a larger scale, company-wide bonuses reward those with solid yearly performance. Enticing your team with performance-based bonuses and motivating them to work towards a shared goal can help inspire them to contribute and collaborate more effectively and spark some friendly competition.
Self-Development Incentives
One of the rewards that managers can provide to their employees is to run an employee incentive program to improve their learning agility, as the ability to self-develop is a desirable skill. Necole, an AI-powered content learning platform, is an excellent tool for leaders to reward their employees’ for developing such desirable skills. It is bite-sized learning that can be accessed anywhere and anytime. So, the learners can better use their time, such as their commute time to learn on the go.
Several factors determine the success of employee incentive programs. Firstly, leaders must establish the recipient’s rewarding valuable outcomes, such as completing agreed development goals. Secondly, leaders must ensure that the employees are motivated to change their behavior for rewards they genuinely want. Thirdly, the incentives must be realistically achievable. Eventually, inspired and passionate employees about their missions are more inclined to self-develop. Hence, employee engagement programs can help build self-development programs while adding value to the employees.
Put A Spotlight on the High Achiever
As a manager, you can highlight the win and the individual or team contributions to it. However, if you are not a manager, you can mention how they worked towards success to express your appreciation for their dedication, whether it’s a project or an event. After all, people love validation, particularly the younger generation, as they value public recognition.
One of the ways is to award the high achiever as an employee of the month or year, which can help boost employees’ morale and increase engagement. Such introduction also helps promote healthy competition and motivates the workforce to cultivate good habits and work to the best of their abilities. Validation is part of management, and it is visible, especially during the pandemics, as many employees want to be reassured their contributions would be recognised. As Navarro Codex once said, “Failure to validate a person invalidates their humanity.” Whether or not remote working is here to stay, human beings crave recognition and validation. Leaders should set aside some time to listen to their employees by saying thank you or a small token of appreciation such as a gift or meal voucher.
Final Thoughts
Monetary reward is not the only motivating factor in the workplace, particularly the Millenials and Generation Z. They are looking to gain experience, fulfilment, growth opportunities, value-adding and a sense of belonging. After all, recognition and appreciation are ingrained in our culture, and therefore leaders and HR should consider what matters to their workforce the most.
Regardless of celebrating your employees’ life events or implementing a peer-to-peer recognition program, leaders and HR should provide a fantastic selection of monetary and non-monetary reward options for their employees to choose from. Employers could also consider leveraging technology, such as the Happily app, an Employee Engagement app, to help create a reward system tailored to their business goals, whether to express their gratitude and appreciation to the employees quarterly or annually.
References
Bright HR Limited 2021, Employee Bonus Schemes, viewed 2 December 2021, <https://www.brighthr.com/articles/pay-and-benefits/bonuses/employee-bonus-schemes>.
Bright HR Limited 2021, Employee Self Development, viewed 2 December 2021, <https://www.brighthr.com/articles/training/self-development/>.
DVV Media HR GRoup Limited 2019, 5 Reasons Why Reward is So Effective, viewed 2 December 2021, <https://employeebenefits.co.uk/5-reasons-why-reward-is-so-effective/>.
Firstup 2021, Shining the Spotlight on Employee Sharing, viewed 2 December 2021, <https://firstup.io/blog/employee-recognition-social-sharing/>.
Indeed Editorial team 2021, 22 Ways to Celebrate Wins at Work, Indeed, viewed 2 December 2021, <https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-celebrate-wins-at-work>.
Joe Navarro M.A. 2021, The Importance of Validation, Psychology Today, viewed 2 December 2021, <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/202106/the-importance-validation>.
Neil Patel 2021, Who is Generation Alpha, and Why are They Important to Marketers? Neil Patel Digital, LLC, viewed 2 December 2021,
People Value 2021, Why Employees Need Both Financial and Non-Financial Rewards, viewed 2 December 2021, <https://peoplevalue.net/why-employees-need-both-financial-and-non-financial-rewards/>.