“People may take a job for more money, but they often leave it for more recognition” – Bob Nelson
In the contemporary world, businesses are majorly shifting their focus to workforces to ensure that they are engaged in the workplace. Business leaders have realized that in order to make their business successful, they have to have their employees engaged.
The formula is simple, the more your employees are engaged, the harder they will work for the growth of the company. As per the report, employers who increase their workforce’s engagement even by 10%, can boost their profits by $2,400 per employee every year.
This is the reason employers are investing all their sweat and blood in implementing different tactics or strategies to maintain the engagement of employees in the workplace.
If you are an employer, recruiter, or HR, you might also agree with the fact that out of all the employee engagement strategies, recognizing employees is the most loved one from the employees’ side. In fact, if we look at the report from Forbes, 79% of the resignations occur because of a lack of recognition in the workplace.
This stat is pretty evident that recognition has a major role in keeping employees engaged in working towards the growth of the company. But now the question arises is exactly how recognition benefits the organization by boosting employee engagement? So let us dive right into the blog without further ado.
5 Essential Ways Recognition Boosts Employee Engagement
- Enhances Sense of Belongingness
A sense of belongingness is one of the crucial factors that determine the engagement of employees in a workplace. To define, a sense of belonging is the feeling of being accepted in a social group. When an employee feels a high sense of belongingness in a workplace, it encourages them to get more engaged in their work and hence, enhances their engagement.
Now think of it in this way, whenever we get awarded something, we feel accepted in a social group. Similarly, when you reward your employees for their hard work and determination for performing well, it will make them feel accepted in the workplace.
This sense of acceptance will make them feel they belong in the workplace. If the sense of belongingness in your employee is high, they will relate the company’s success to their own growth. When employees measure their success in terms of the company’s success, it will enhance their engagement in performing better.
In fact, if we look at the statistics, employees with a strong sense of belongingness will bring 6 times a better version of themselves and perform their best. This will ultimately lead to better engagement that will result in higher growth of your organization.
- Leads to Job Satisfaction
Satisfaction is the major factor that decides the engagement of employees in a workplace. If your workforce is not satisfied in the workplace, they will not be interested in going the extra mile for the benefit of the company. On the other hand, if employees are satisfied with the company they are working with, it will boost their commitment and zeal to go beyond their capabilities in working for the growth of the company.
This highlights another tremendous benefit of recognition in the workplace that it can boost the job satisfaction of the employees. To elaborate, when employees feel recognized in the workplace, they tend to feel that their efforts are paid off well.
Besides, this feeling of satisfaction will encourage them to even perform better to earn recognition again. This way, in order to earn the worth of their efforts and experience the feeling of being satisfied, the employees will engage themselves better in the workplace. This way, your recognition will lead to better job satisfaction for employees which will boost their engagement in the workplace.
- Boosts Motivation and Morale
Motivation is the ultimate key to keeping employees going in working towards the growth of the company. If the employees at your workplace are motivated enough, then they will do anything to take the success of your business to the next level.
Moreover, we all know that the ultimate goal of recognition is to motivate the employees to work better. And this also highlights the biggest benefit of recognition in enhancing the engagement of your employees. When you appreciate your employees who performed well, it boosts their confidence that they are doing something right. If they feel that they are on the right track, it will even motivate and engage them more in working towards the growth of the company.
Moreover, recognizing employees does not only motivate the employees who have been rewarded but also motivates others to perform better in order to get the desired rewards. The urge to get the desired rewards will boost the engagement of employees altogether.
- Fosters greater optimism in employees
Remember how happy you were the last time you got rewarded? This is exactly how recognition works. When you reward employees for performing better, it makes them feel better and positive about themselves. All this together complements their optimism in working for the success of the company.
When employees feel optimistic in the workplace, it reflects in their attitude. Optimistic employees will see the opportunity for growth as a challenge that they can face. On the other hand, if employees do not feel positive about themselves, they will think of every task as a burden that they have to bear until it’s time to go home. To validate, data revealed that optimistic employees are 103% more inspired to give their best to the growth of the company.
Hence, recognizing employees is crucial because it keeps them positive about their work and themselves which ultimately will result in better engagement in the workplace.
- Better working relationships
As Henry Ford correctly quoted, “Coming together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is a success.” This quote highlights how important working together is for achieving the ultimate SMART goals of your business.
But, it is important here to note that working together is only possible for your employees if they have good working relationships among teams. This is where recognition can help you and this is the last benefit that you will get from appreciating your employees through various forms of recognition.
To elaborate, when you recognize employees for their brilliant performance for the growth of the company, it will enhance their trust and confidence in the team. When employees trust each other, it will lead to better collaboration among the team. In fact, as per Harvard Business Review, workers in high trust companies tend to show 76 percent higher engagement. This explains the reason why fostering trust in the workplace is highly important.
When employees have better relationships with each other in the workplace, it will assist them in engaging better in the workplace.
To encapsulate, the engagement of employees is one of the crucial factors that determine the growth of any business. And recognition is one of the crucial factors that can enhance the engagement of employees in the workplace. Moreover, seeing all the benefits recognition brings in for enhancing employee engagement in the workplace, it is high time that you should start appreciating your employees to avail of all the above-listed benefits.
You may also want to read,
