Empower Employees to Recognise Each Other

While managers play a prominent role in employees’ performance and growth, the reality is an employee’s colleagues are often more knowledgeable about their fellow employees’ contributions, behaviors and achievements than senior leaders. That’s why it’s important to provide employees with the power to recognize, praise and appreciate one another in meaningful ways. According to the Employee Experience Index, 83 percent of employees report a positive employee experience when they feel recognized through awards and other means for the good work they do. Fostering coworker relationships is one way to empower employees to recognize each other. In fact, when those relationships are present in the workplace, employees report a much more positive employee experience than when that support is absent (77 percent compared to 35 percent).

Coworker relationships start with common connections and similarities between colleagues, but can be amplified through company outings and social events, and even company wide celebrations. Years of service anniversaries, for example, offer the opportunity for an entire company to take part in celebrating their colleagues’ contributions, creating powerful moments of inspiration, gratitude and recognition. Organizations should also strive to build a culture of learning and growth by crowdsourcing performance feedback and conducting regular check-ins, as opposed to just the traditional annual review. By widening the performance review circle from a one-dimensional, manager-only conversation into a company-wide celebration, companies can significantly enhance the frequency of employee recognition and help encourage peers to recognize a colleague for their achievements