The Link Between Employee Recognition and Retention

According to HR Technologist, 63% of employees who are recognised are very unlikely to look for a new job. Additionally, lack of recognition and engagement is driving 44% of employees to switch jobs.

In the workplace, appreciation matters a lot. High staff turnover rates cause headaches for HR staff; no one wants a revolving door policy when it comes to recruitment and retention.

In this article we’ll explain why employee appreciation is important and how you can use it to keep your employees for longer.

Why is Employee Appreciation Important?

A National Employee Research Survey revealed that 72% of employees would work harder if they felt they were appreciated by their employer. Additionally, over 90% of respondents said employee recognition is important to them. Despite this, 62% stated that they hardly ever or were never appreciated by their boss. Furthermore, 68% of employees were also unhappy with their current benefits package.

If someone doesn’t feel appreciated when doing something, they’re unlikely to be motivated to do that task again in the future. Lack of appreciation can lead to staff members becoming demotivated, which can spread to other employees and reduce productivity.

Unappreciated employees can start a cascading sequence of events. If they feel underappreciated, they will be less productive, which costs the company money and other employees their time and effort.

Additionally, the rise of using online platforms to voice concerns, such as Glassdoor and Work Advisor, means that internal issues can quickly be made public.

Some employees can even revert to more harsh measures and use social media platforms, which can gain traction much quicker, increasing the damage to that company’s employer brand. No company wants to be trending on Twitter for the wrong reasons.

Having negative reviews on the internet can prevent a company from hiring a replacement for the person who wants to leave, as well as other future employees. As much as companies do due diligence on prospective employees, employees do the same. The internet has made it much easier for someone to get a good idea of what it’s like to work somewhere before they ever set foot in the office.

Current employees may also be inclined to look elsewhere if the reputation of the company they work for starts to take a hit. After a while, even the most stubborn employees will begin to feel some sort of shame or embarrassment if their company brand becomes tarnished beyond repair.

Employees that are appreciated are generally happier, and will produce better quality work.

Appreciation is part of investing in an employee. In order to get the best out of them, you have to put some things in. What are those things? The next section will explain.

How to Retain Top Talent Through Employee Appreciation

The CIPD’s Good Work Index, highlights seven dimensions of job quality:

• Pay and benefits
• Employment contracts
• Work-life balance
• Job design and nature of work
• Relationships at work
• Employee voice
• Health and wellbeing

Each of these factors is an opportunity for employers to show their appreciation of the work their employees are doing.

In a similar way that everything a company does is marketing to attract potential new hires, the seven dimensions are also crucial to keeping those same new hires around once they’re in the door.

There is of course more nuance needed depending on the company and specific circumstances. For example, the above list will rank differently depending on the person, their role and the company that they work for.

Some people will happily sacrifice work-life balance for pay and benefits, others value health and wellbeing above everything else, some need employee voices to be taken seriously.

Their personal and professional goals will have an impact on where each aspect ranks for them. Also, it won’t be static, as a person’s priorities can change throughout their lives, e.g. when an employee is younger and single they might be happy to work longer hours for more money. However, once they settle down and start a family, work-life balance and health are more likely to be their top priority.

Being able to grow with employees means they are less likely to look for a new job when they have new circumstances. This is great news for your retention strategy.

As a result, businesses need to know their employees well, and adapt to their needs. To do so, employees need a way they can communicate clearly to each other and their employers.

The effective application of empathy at scale is crucial to the success of any business. Thankfully, the Trickle platform helps you to do that, and much more.

How do you attract, recruit and retain top talent? With Trickle

Recruiting is difficult. You’re often up against endless competitors. You all have the same objective: hire the best people and keep them for as long as possible. Our employee engagement platform helps you to do that, well.

Get detailed employee insights in real-time and empower your staff to improve their holistic health.

Click on the link below to get your free demo today.