Employees who are recognized for their hard work are much more likely to remain with their employers and continue to do good work. That’s why many businesses implement an employee recognition program.
To understand whether your recognition program is successful, you need to be able to measure the impact it is making. But how exactly do you measure employee recognition?
Here are six metrics you can use to measure the success of your employee recognition and how to collect the data:
- Participation rate
Your participation rate is the percentage of team members who are taking part in your recognition program. If at least 80 percent of your employees are participating, you are running a great program.
What qualifies as participation will depend on the specific elements of your recognition program. If, for example, your program is centered on nominations and shout outs, your participation rate will be based on the number of staff members shouting out or nominating others. If you use a point-based system, participation will be the number of people who handed out points over a period of time.
Team building activities are a fantastic way to grow an engaged team that is confident and happy to participate in all aspects of company life.
- Percentage of budget used
If you have an employee recognition program, you likely have a budget for rewards, treats and gifts. If you are using most of your budget each month, it means the program is making an impact and you may want to consider expanding it. If you have a large portion of the budget left over at the end of the month, you likely aren’t getting the level of participation and impact you were aiming for. This is a good sign that you need to take steps to increase engagement.
- Employee turnover
One of the main reasons employers implement recognition programs is to reduce employee turnover. Employee turnover is the number of employees who leave an organization over a specific period of time.
To calculate employee turnover, divide the number of employees who left by your average number of employees. To find the average number of employees, add the size of your workforce at the beginning of the period to the size of your workforce at the end of the period. Take the sum and divide it by two.
The lower the number, the better your retention rate is. If you see the employee turnover rate going down after implementing a recognition program, then this is a good sign the program is working as intended.
- Employee satisfaction
Increasing employee satisfaction is another reason that employers will implement a recognition program. One of the best ways to determine employee satisfaction is to use a satisfaction survey. The shorter this survey, the better. Consider asking a single question, such as “On a scale from 1 to 10, how happy are you working at [COMPANY]?”
If you see an increase in satisfaction, you know you are doing well. If it is stagnant or decreasing, you may want to reanalyze your strategy.
Holding charitable events that promote giving back to the community are a great way of improving employee satisfaction.
- Productivity
There’s a ton of research that shows happy employees are more productive. That’s why you can expect to see an increase in productivity if you are running a successful recognition program.
How you measure productivity will depend greatly on your business and each employee’s role. For example, productivity in a customer service department may be measured by the number of tickets closed each day.
Productivity can be improved by increasing collaboration between team members and departments. Here's a selection of team based activities that encourage participants to work together.
- Absenteeism
High rates of absenteeism are most often seen at workplaces with unengaged and unhappy employees. Tracking how often employees are absent before and after you launch your recognition program can be a great way to measure the success of employee recognition.
Did you know that you can dramatically improve employee morale and satisfaction by hosting a teambuilding event? Get in touch with Teambonders today to find out how.
