Recognising Employees: How To Better Support Your Managers
Managers play a pivotal role in employee recognition and ensuring people feel valued and connected to the business. They often act as the frontline heroes, directly impacting their team’s mood and performance.
Our whitepaper, The Heart of Workplace Engagement, revealed that 51% of employees think getting direct recognition from their managers most positively impacts their morale and engagement.
However, are managers getting the credit they deserve and receiving enough support from business leaders and HR teams?
Unfortunately, our research shows that more needs to be done. While managers tirelessly recognise their employees, their own hard work isn’t acknowledged enough. Plus, they’re also receiving a lack of assistance in distributing employee recognition.
In this article, we explore why managers need to be celebrated and share top tips on supporting their role in recognising employee achievements.
Why should you celebrate your managers?
Managers hold a lot of power and can significantly impact how employees and the wider business perform. If they feel valued, they’re more likely to be motivated and engaged, leading to a positive ripple effect throughout their team.
That’s why managers’ contributions must be celebrated. As a business leader, you can’t expect your managers to excel and recognise other employees’ efforts if they don’t have the right tools and support.
By supporting your managers, your organisation can benefit from the following outcomes:
- Helping managers to regularly acknowledge their team’s milestones sets a standard for consistent and meaningful recognition. This can be rolled out across the whole business, improving workplace morale.
- Your managers will get to know their team members personally, tailoring recognition to staff that resonates more deeply. Other leaders throughout the business can then use this to offer a more personalised approach to their recognition efforts.
Not all heroes wear capes! Celebrating and supporting your managers could unlock a happier workforce and huge business growth.
How to better support your managers in recognising employee achievements
Fortunately, there are ways business leaders and HR teams can celebrate managers and ensure they are supported in recognising employees. Here, we provide tips on how the right training, tools and acknowledgement can help.
1. Implement comprehensive training programmes
Being able to oversee effective recognition starts with education. Training, such as workshops and scenario-based learning, will help your managers to identify noteworthy achievements and equip them with the confidence to acknowledge employees in the right manner.
Training will develop managers’ emotional intelligence and communication skills, so they feel prepared with their newfound knowledge and ready to act.
Example: This could involve a workshop on how to deliver feedback constructively in the workplace or training on how to use your digital employee recognition system.
2. Provide necessary tools and resources
It’s all very well providing training, but without access to the right tools and resources, managers will struggle to deliver recognition effectively. Having the right systems in place will remove barriers by making recognition a natural part of a manager’s workflow.
With Boostworks’ employee reward and recognition solution, you’ll benefit from services that facilitate real-time feedback, peer nominations and easy integration with existing systems. This will help to empower managers with the right tools in place for keeping recognition at the front of their minds.
Example: Boostworks’ solutions are delivered from one web platform and mobile app, making it easy for managers to recognise employees in just a few clicks.
3. Recognise and celebrate managers
As we’ve mentioned, it’s important to remember that managers also need to feel valued and respected. They regularly deliver praise, but their efforts should also be recognised. Recognition of managers should be visible and consistent, which will encourage them to model the same behaviour for their teams.
Boostworks’ employee recognition platform includes schemes that are also appropriate for recognising managers, such as milestone awards and personalised rewards.
Example: Is one of your managers reaching a significant milestone at your company? Boost their momentous day and reward their loyalty through Long Service Awards.
4. Foster a culture of mutual recognition
Recognition should flow in every direction. When everybody contributes to a culture of gratitude, it reduces hierarchy and builds connections. That’s why managers should never feel excluded.
With a peer-to-peer recognition programme, like the one we offer, you can build a culture of appreciation across your business, so managers are both givers and receivers of praise. In doing so, you’ll drive engagement, collaboration and productivity.
Example: Introduce an interactive social wall that’s easily accessible and makes recognition visible to everyone.
5. Ensure managers see the value of employee recognition
For your managers to fully embrace the power of recognition, they need to understand its impact. Utilise data and research that showcases the impact employee recognition can have on engagement, productivity, and employee attraction and retention.
Whether it’s stories/testimonials from your organisation, case studies or examples from other businesses, managers are more likely to prioritise recognition if they see true performance value.
Example: Encourage a well-respected employee to share their experience of how recognition has helped them.
6. Regularly check in with managers
Do you organise regular check-ins with your managers to address challenges and encourage feedback? If not, then you should. Ongoing conversations and support are essential if managers are to feel heard. It’s also an opportunity to discuss ways of improving recognition best practices.
In these meetings, you can assess how successful employee recognition schemes are and check if your managers are facing any barriers in delivering them.
Example: Organise a monthly or bi-monthly meeting with your managers to address their concerns and ensure they feel supported.
How Boostworks can help support your managers
Creating a culture of recognition across your whole organisation isn’t necessarily easy, but if you are to succeed, you’ll need your managers to not only get it, but be engaged and buy into the process.
If you’re ready to celebrate and empower your managers effectively, Boostworks can help.
With a tailored employee recognition scheme, not only will your managers benefit from receiving recognition, but they’ll also have easy-to-use tools to successfully recognise their team in the moment. For fostering a motivated, thriving workforce, we’ve got you covered.
Get in touch with our experts today to see how we can help.
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