rec·og·ni·tion - Noun
1. an act of recognizing or the state of being recognized.
| 2. | the acknowledgment of achievement, service, merit, etc. |
| 3. | the expression of this in the form of some token of appreciation: This promotion constitutes our recognition of her exceptional ability. |
| 4. | formal acknowledgment conveying approval or sanction |
Let's not forget heading into this new year how important recognition really is. The need for personal recognition is innate in all humans, and is something unique to our species. When a fawn walks for the first time, it does not look to it's mother for approval, rather it starts frolicking on its new found sturdy legs. Humans, when striving to achieve, look to others for approval and use this approval to motivate them to try harder. Kids who play youth sports may not necessarily seek the recognition, though the more they get recognized the more they strive to try harder and be their best. A game winning home run would not be nearly as special if the kid who hit the home run touches home plate with no one there to congratulate him. When he looks into the stands, its his parents approval he is seeking, and when he sees he is being recognized it touches him in a way that has a lasting effect throughout the rest of his life.
And this can be said for people at any stage of their development, throughout their adolescence through adult hood. At work, a deadline may just be a deadline, but when you are working for a company you believe in and a company that does a good job of recognizing achievements; naturally you are going to try harder to meet that deadline than if the company had a boss who ignored the need for recognition of their employees.
How you recognize people is just as important as the recognition itself. Some managers give gift cards to a restaurant that the employee may or may not like, and they give it to them on a lunch break when they are passing each other in the halls. This is not an effective way of recognizing achievements. When someone has been busting their tail for their boss, working double overtime to meet a project deadline and they are recognized like that, it will alienate your employees and not convey how important they really are to the success of your organization.
Let's reverse this scenario and look at the proper way of recognizing all the hard work that went into this project. A team of employees has just put in three weeks worth of work in a week and a half time to meet the deadline for the project. Realizing the need to recognize the employees for the hard work put into the project, the manager decides on some unique crystal awards from their local awards retailer that meets his budget. The manager then prepares the presentation of the awards in a way that is unique to the situation by gathering the team and the other employees during lunch and presents the team with their awards while citing the importance of their hard work and showing them how much it was appreciated.
The effects of this presentation is two-fold. First, the team feels the business they work for really does appreciate the work that they do, which is often taken for granted in many business and the corporate world. This method of recognition helps build employee loyalty and also keeps the team motivated do perform at a high level on the next project. Second, the employees who saw the recognition ceremony will see how upper management does care about their employees and therefore they will strive for the same level of recognition as the team.
Happy employees make an organization more efficient, and efficiency leads to profitability. So a good recognition program leads to higher profitability in many organizations. Bux-Mont Awards helps organizations with their recognition event planning to maximize benefits for both the employees and the employer, helping organizations to achieve their goals in the process.
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