What Does an Employee Recognition Platform Do?

Employee recognition is a buzzy issue — for a good reason. A significant portion of the workers who made an exodus during the Great Resignation cited a lack of recognition as the reason for their departure. Business leaders have neglected to appreciate their workforce for too long, and now they suffer from low engagement, low performance and high turnover rates. To combat this issue, many organizations are investing heavily in platforms to help them improve employee recognition — but what do those platforms do, anyway?

Reduce Abstraction

The issues associated with employee recognition tend to be frustratingly abstract. What is employee satisfaction? How does an organization measure employee relationships? What counts as employee recognition? While humans might intuitively understand the answers to these questions, they are difficult for businesses to put into words, which makes it all but impossible to develop actionable programs to improve the employee experience.

Thus, the primary objective of most employee recognition software is to reduce abstraction. Employee recognition tools help to define the issues surrounding recognition using metrics that businesses can measure and analyze. Then, business leaders no longer need to fret about what certain concepts associated with recognition mean; they only need to utilize the information available to them to engage, satisfy and retain their top talent.

Improve Feedback

Another essential service provided by employee recognition platforms is in facilitating feedback between leaders and workers. A company should run on feedback; feedback helps businesses better understand their consumer market, their workforce, their resources and more. Yet, many leaders ignore or misuse the feedback they receive from their employees, which has several negative consequences for an organization. Improper use of feedback will result in dissatisfaction and disengagement from workers, and it can cause business processes to remain inefficient, hampering business growth and success.

Fortunately, employee recognition software can help. Employee recognition tools make it easier for leaders to provide employees with positive feedback — i.e., recognition for their effort and achievement in the workplace — regularly to improve engagement and fulfilment. Likewise, some employee recognition software helps collect input from the workforce, so leaders can analyze workers’ thoughts, opinions and ideas and act on them with ease.

Offer Features

Employee recognition platforms will vary in terms of which features are offered, and most include features in the following categories:

Engagement Analytics

Among the most valuable features of employee recognition services is the analytics regarding employee performance. These tools give leaders insight into which workers are exhibiting high performance in various areas of importance, such as customer service, cooperation, communication and company values. The software can award employees at the top of the pack with badges, prominence within a Hall of Fame or leaderboard and certificates for workers to display in their workspace. Most importantly, leaders can use these metrics to identify top talent and select candidates for leadership development programs.

Recognition Programs

Employee recognition platforms make it easier for leaders to create and manage formal recognition programs, like point programs that reward hard-working employees with gifts and prizes. Additionally, these platforms can organize nominations for monthly, quarterly and annual awards, and they can track employee milestones like anniversaries and birthdays. Some employee recognition platforms offer social networks for employees to recognize one another’s hard work and accomplishments.

Management Tools

Many employee recognition services are automated, which helps reduce managerial workloads. For example, business leaders can benefit from automated reports on employee recognition and engagement, as well as automated emails and notifications to workers regarding recognition program participation.

Integrations

To give employee recognition software access to the workforce, these platforms integrate with other digital tools across the company. Then, managers can quickly offer recognition pertinent to a worker’s current activities, improving the effectiveness of the praise.

Customization Opportunities

Every organization is different, so it is imperative that employee recognition platforms allow business leaders to add and subtract features to create a program that perfectly suits its needs and wants. Importantly, platforms should continue to be customizable because businesses grow and change over time.

To better understand which features come with a top-tier employee recognition software tool, business leaders can contact the customer service team at a respected employee recognition platform like Workhuman.

The Great Resignation has no end in sight, according to many economists and employment experts, so business leaders need to find solutions that improve their ability to recognize worker effort and achievement. Employee recognition platforms offer the solutions and services businesses need to help their workforce thrive.