Employee Recognition and Social Media: Creating Solidarity

Employee recognition is nothing new. The employee of the week/month is one of the oldest office traditions in the book.  However, in today’s digital world employee recognition programs have become more important than ever.

Social media doesn’t just allow your employees to connect with and vouch for your company online.  It also enables you to hear employee suggestions, boost engagement and enhance collaboration. Combing social media and employee recognition can bring your team together in new ways.  Additionally, it’s a great way to drive bottom-line results.

Employee Recognition: Giving Employees a Voice

When an employee approaches you with an idea, you don’t just shut the door in their face. On social media, the same rules apply: your door needs to always be open.

Feedback, whether positive or negative, is always better than no response at all.  Keeping quiet shows a disinterest, or unimportance in interacting with your employees and their ideas. Responding, however, shows that you appreciate employees’ contributions and respect what it is they have to say. In recognizing, even briefly, the ideas, suggestions, and questions of your employees you give them a voice. They feel heard and appreciated.

With social media, employee recognition is easy. You don’t need to wait for a weekly meeting or daily brief to give feedback; your employees can be reached at the click of a button. Take the time to listen to your employees, and make an effort to respond.  In making an effort you open the door to a happier, more collaborative, and motivated workforce. They will be increasingly willing to engage with projects and ventures you promote on social networks.

Using Social Media to Create Unity…

Recognition should involve both individual and team achievements.  All employees appreciate being congratulated on personal performance.

But when they are also rewarded for collective successes, you create a sense of unity and foster an innovative workplace culture.  Additionally, one of the best things about social media is the opportunity for employees across the board to support, congratulate, and encourage each other. In order to keep employees engaged on social media, they need to be kept up to date. The more information you make available on social media, the more your employees will learn about all company activity.

Engaging with social media content allows individuals to place what they do in a broader, more informed context and to understand how their work is impacting overall company goals. Employees also need to know exactly what you’re asking of them. If your expectations on social media are vague and inconsistent, you can’t reasonably expect them to make valid contributions!

Defining clear performance goals from the outset boosts productivity and leads to behaviour that feeds into departmental and/or organizational objectives. No matter how you outline your employee recognition and social media strategies, you need to establish a regular method of applauding your employees’ online engagement efforts. Doing so will not only encourage their engagement with company content and coworkers, but it will also help drive bottom-line results.

Employee’s engagement online is proof of their commitment to your company; by rewarding this, you highlight their importance and value.