There are many indicators that you're not communicating your Employee Rewards and Recognition Program effectively. Here are some of the most frequent signs.
Want to energise your employees, increase engagement and raise productivity? Look no further than an Employee Rewards and Recognition Program. According to a study conducted by employee values company Disco, non-monetary rewards programs anchored in core company values have the highest return on investment and impact on long-term employee engagement.
However, even the best-structured rewards programs that offer great incentives fall down at an important hurdle - communication. If you're not marketing your rewards program effectively, you'll never get the employee buy-in anticipated. But how can you tell if it's time to rethink your rewards program's communication strategy? There are several warning signs to look for:
1) You've noticed a drop in engagement
The number one sign that you need to start communicating your rewards program differently is that a lack of engagement has begun to set in. You can measure this in a number of ways. For example, the best rewards programs will have a dedicated website that employees use to track how many points they have and to access their rewards. An excellent measure of engagement is therefore how frequently they're logging into that website. If this number has gone down over time, you may need to reconsider how you're communicating your rewards program in order to increase this engagement.
2) Employees are slow to collect rewards or aren't collecting rewards at all
Another clear indicator that there's been a drop in engagement is how employees are claiming their rewards. Are people winning points, but taking a long time to claim the rewards they've qualified for? Or are they not actually claiming their rewards at all? If so, this may mean there's an issue with the value employees see in your program, and suggests you could need to find new ways of reinforcing this worth to your team.
A reduction in peer-to-peer recognition is often indicative of a lack of awareness about the program itself.
3) There's been a drop in nominations for rewards
Many of the best employee rewards programs incorporate an element of peer-to-peer recognition. Getting employees to recognise each other's achievements is often much easier than winning top-down buy-in for a rewards program - people generally want to praise each other for the great things they do on a daily basis. So if you begin to see a drop in the number or peer-to-peer employee nominations, you know something has definitely gone wrong with your program and the way you're marketing it.
4) There's a lack of awareness around the program
A reduction in peer-to-peer recognition is often indicative of a lack of awareness about the program itself. After all, employees won't nominate each other if they don't know there's a rewards program in the first place. You'll often know if there's a problem with awareness just by spending time in the office - if people are talking about the program regularly that's great. If, however, you mention it to people and they ask "what's that?", it shows there's an issue with program exposure.
To measure this more accurately, consider including a question in your engagement survey regarding awareness and attitudes towards the rewards program. Alternatively, sending out a regular questionnaire entirely dedicated to measuring people's engagement and satisfaction with your rewards program is a great idea.
Create your own Employee Rewards and Recognition Program with Power2Motivate
If you're thinking of introducing an Employee Rewards and Recognition Program, consider engaging the experts at Power2Motivate. We have years of experience creating rewards and incentive programs that continue to get engagement time and time again. To learn more, reach out to the team today or request a demo.