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Why employee recognition is so important – and what you can do about it

To be really effective in your job, you need to know why and how to praise others for their good work. This popular article explains how you can give great employee recognition, and is available to you in a special Kindle collection of 13 top articles for only $11.99 including tax. Click here to buy.

Employee recognition is the timely, informal or formal acknowledgement of a person’s or team’s behavior, effort or business result that supports the organization’s goals and values, and which has clearly been beyond normal expectations. To be fully successful in the workplace at any level, you need to understand the psychology of praising others for their good work, to apply the principles of employee recognition yourself and to encourage others to initiate it in their working relationships.

Appreciation is a fundamental human need. Employees respond to appreciation expressed through recognition of their good work because it confirms their work is valued by others. When employees and their work are valued, their satisfaction and productivity rises, and they are motivated to maintain or improve their good work. Gallup studies show employee recognition is the key factor influencing employee engagement, and therefore organizational performance.

Employee recognition is the principle of social proof in action, a term pioneered by social psychology professor Robert Cialdini. He defined the principle in this way: “We view a behavior as correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.” Employee recognition embodies the principle by showing to others in a tangible way that a person’s efforts have been outstanding.

Research by

Yet Gallup analysis in 2016 found only 1 in 3 US workers strongly agreed they had received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past 7 days. Gallup consultants recommend that recognition should be given weekly in broad terms to those who deserve it – and in a timely way so the employee knows the significance of their recent achievement and to reinforce company values.

See opportunities and act on them

There are two aspects to employee recognition:

1. The first aspect is to actually see, identify or realize an opportunity to praise someone. If you are not in a receptive frame of mind you can easily pass over many such opportunities. This happens all too frequently.
2. The other aspect is, of course, the physical act of doing something to acknowledge and praise people for their good work.

You can read the full article in a special Kindle collection of 13 top articles on employee recognition for only $11.99 including tax. Click here to buy.

If you enjoyed this article, we recommend this book

Employee Recognition: The secret to great team performance

About the author Kim Harrison

Kim Harrison loves sharing actionable ideas and information about professional communication and business management. He has wide experience as a corporate affairs manager, consultant, author, lecturer, and CEO of a non-profit organization. Kim is a Fellow and former national board member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, and he ran his State’s professional development program for 7 years, helping many practitioners to strengthen their communication skills. People from 115 countries benefit from the practical knowledge shared in his monthly newsletter and in the eBooks available from cuttingedgepr.com.

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