271: Boost Performance and Retention with Employee Recognition

Aoife O’Brien [00:00:03]:

When was the last time you felt truly seen, heard and understood at work? And if you’re thinking it’s been a while, maybe you’re not the only one, and in today’s episode, we’re going to be addressing exactly that, we’re looking at recognition at work. This is the Happier at Work podcast. It’s the podcast for global leaders who want to drive engagement, retention and performance in their teams. I’m your host, Aoife O’Brien. I’m a career and culture strategist for global leaders and teams,

Aoife O’Brien [00:00:35]:

and welcome to today’s podcast. I want to start by saying that if you find that you haven’t created a culture of recognition in your workplace, it’s not your fault. We are all so busy. And oftentimes things like recognition fall to the bottom of the list, a long list, I might add. And it’s worth noting that in today’s podcast episode, I’m going to look at why it should move back up to the top of the list. And it’s such a powerful thing to do. It doesn’t have to take an extra amount of time, it doesn’t have to take extra energy, and it doesn’t certainly doesn’t have to take money to do recognition really, really well.

Aoife O’Brien [00:01:33]:

Typically recognition is done in kind of a haphazard way, so it can be very sporadic, or it’s just done once a year. For example, at the annual review, you’re receiving information about how you’re performing and you’re getting, hopefully, praise from your manager about how you’re performing and the kinds of things that you’re doing. And oftentimes it can be generic. It can be just good job or, you know, you did great. But it’s not very specific about what it is exactly that you did well, what you need to do well to get that praise again in the future. And the impact that whatever it is that you’re being praised for had, whether it’s on the team or, or on the organisation or towards your objectives. And the example I always think of this, and I’m kind of showing my colors a little bit here, is from Below Deck, which is a reality TV show about a group of staff on a luxury yacht., and they have their clients come for two or three days, but you see all of the behind the scenes with the staff.

Aoife O’Brien [00:02:52]:

Now, the captain on one of the yachts was called Captain Lee. And when he was calling someone out who is doing an exceptionally good job, all he did was say, great job. He didn’t say anything beyond that. He just said, I just want you to know you’re doing a really great job. And I’m using that as an example of what not to do. We need to be really specific with people. And sometimes the feedback or the recognition that we’re giving people can be biased as well.

Aoife O’Brien [00:03:25]:

So if I think back to my corporate days and we ran this, you know, the perception was that it was a really positive thing to do. We ran a recognition program called Values in Action, where we called out people’s behaviours or their accomplishments or their contributions towards projects and recognise them for living the values in a very specific way. So it was very specific, but what we found over time was it was the same people being recognised again and again because the kinds of projects that they were working on had really high visibility. And so it may have been a little bit biased because the ones that had the highest level of visibility were the ones who were being recognised all the time rather than the ones who didn’t necessarily have that level of visibility. So playing kind of a more of a background role in operations rather than being client facing or in the sales teams. So just something to bear in mind as well. The other thing as well that we need to keep in mind is it makes it much more difficult when we’re working in remote setups,

Aoife O’Brien [00:04:33]:

so when we’re in a remote or a hybrid work setup, it makes it more difficult to give that recognition, to really see the effort that people are putting in and the achievements they are getting. And I talk about this a lot on the podcast, but it makes it even more important to make sure that we have really clear expectations. This is what I expect of you in terms of time, in terms of quality. These are what the deliverables are. And if you want to share, you know, this is what going above and beyond looks like. And this is an example of what that looks like, but also being really clear about the outcomes that you expect. We can praise people and we can recognise people for the effort that they put in, but it’s even more important if we recognise them for the outcomes, and especially if those outcomes have a specific impact that you’re trying to make, which is part of your OKRs, your KPIs, the objectives that you have at a team level, at an individual level, at a departmental level, or at an organisational level. So making that really obvious link for your people.

Aoife O’Brien [00:05:46]:

And then when it comes to recognition, it makes it so much easier to say you had this impact. And there is not a lot that is more powerful than being able to say that your contribution had this impact on the organisation. When it comes to the steps that you can take or the considerations that you need to have when it comes to recognition, number one, and I think I’ve emphasised this quite a lot, is being really specific about it. So be really clear about what you’re recognising someone for. And again, an example that I can think back to my corporate days when I was sitting in on a presentation of one of my team members and the client was asking questions, she was able to respond really well. She had the answers for anything she didn’t have an answer to. She was able to say, let me follow that up for you, and then followed up with the client. So being able to recognise her rather than just saying the presentation went really well, I was able to say the presentation went really smoothly.

Aoife O’Brien [00:07:06]:

And despite the fact that the client was interrupting throughout and asking questions, you handled the questions really, really well. And when you didn’t have the answers, you were able to follow up with them separately to answer their questions, rather than trying to kind of, you know, pretend that she knew all of the answers. So I was able to be really, really specific about what it was that she was doing and how she was contributing. So it may take a little bit of extra time to do that thinking of like, how does this relate back to what we’re trying to achieve? Or how can I be more specific in this feedback Rather than just saying, you’re doing a really good job, but it’s really, really worth it when people can see and they know what it is that they need to repeat in order to get that praise again. The second area then is about timeliness. So there’s no point in seeing something in someone and then saving it for a few weeks later or a few months later to let them know, then it’s much better to share in the moment,

Aoife O’Brien [00:08:09]:

this is what I’m seeing. because you will see that behaviour repeated again and again if you’re specific and you give it in real time. Another thing to bear in mind is recognising the unseen. I think this is something that happens a lot, that you get to senior levels and you’re able to anticipate problems in advance and you’re able to avoid problems because you know that you can address it in advance, you can anticipate it, and so it never becomes an issue. So maybe even for ourselves, we don’t even realise that we’ve avoided an issue. Or there could be someone else who’s saying, well, I avoided this issue and that issue, or this issue came up and I solved it. But actually you’re the kind of person who is able to anticipate it to make sure that it never became an issue in the first place. As individuals, we need to communicate those kinds of achievements, those kinds of accomplishments, so that our leaders know that we are able to anticipate that, that we have avoided those.

Aoife O’Brien [00:09:13]:

So that’s the first thing. But also leaders need to be aware, need to be watching where are the issues happening and who is doing the behind the scenes work to make sure that things don’t get flagged up as issues, as problems, as challenges further down the road. Another consideration is thinking about how people like to receive feedback. So I’m the kind of person, I’m happy to get it privately and then in a follow up email, but I also love for other people to know. So whether that’s at a team level or at a department level, whether it’s an email send or in a town hall, I love other people to know that I’m doing a really good job. But not everyone is like me. So really understanding how does each member of your team like to be recognised and using those means to actually recognise them and think about different ways. You know, it could be a voice note, it could be a text message, it could be a slack message, it could be within the team meeting, it could be an email, it could be a one to one.

Aoife O’Brien [00:10:23]:

Whatever it is, think about all of the different ways and don’t be afraid to do it multiple times. So tell the person multiple times. You can do it privately, publicly, if they’re open to that. So think about those different kinds of channels that you can use to communicate the recognition and the praise that you want to give them. I mentioned this already when I talked about the importance of setting clear expectations and making the impact really clear, but when you’re talking about the recognition that you’re giving someone, making that connection back to the objectives, back to the impact that what they did had, whether that was on other members of the team, whether it was on objectives, it could be a contribution towards a departmental goal, for example. So really making it explicitly clear a connection between specifically what they did, their behaviors, their achievement that they had, and the impact that you’re trying to create within the team. So making that link really explicit for them to let them know, to communicate that their work really matters, that their work is really, really important.

Aoife O’Brien [00:11:38]:

I wanted to share kind of a random example with you as well and non work related, just to see the kind of impact of this. So I have been to lots of weddings in my life and I have also introduced people, not intentionally necessarily, but I happened to bring people together who ended up getting married. And I went to one wedding where I had introduced the couple and there was absolutely nothing, nothing said about me. And I was kind of a bit like, oh, that’s strange. I thought they would have mentioned how they met or that they met because of me. And then I went to another wedding last year and my name was mentioned three times in three different speeches and people acknowledged me, they pointed over to me and I’m still kind of getting goosebumps from that now because of me, that couple met, but they told everyone about it and it made its way into the speeches of three different people as a thank you to me.

Aoife O’Brien [00:12:48]:

And just the feeling that I got from having been recognised in that way was just amazing. I wasn’t expecting it whatsoever, but it was just a really, really nice thing to happen, and obviously the impact of me introducing them was that they went on to get married and they’ve had a couple of children together as well, but it just felt so good to have been acknowledged in that way and so publicly. And people afterwards said, oh, you’re the person who introduced them. So just the power of that kind of recognition and what it does for motivation and what it does for how it makes people feel, makes them feel like they’re really, really important. So that was kind of a personal example. I thought that came to mind and I thought, I’ll share that as an example just to show how impactful it can be to recognise people in that way, in the way that they personally like to be recognised.

Aoife O’Brien [00:13:45]:

Now, I’m not one to kind of, bore people with stats, but I am really interested in research, and the research backs up all of this stuff that I’m talking about today. So Gallup says that you are 23% more likely to be engaged if you have recognition. If you feel like you’re being recognised in the role that you have. OC Tanner shows that there’s 31% lower turnover from organisations where there is recognition and mattering as well. So here are some things for you to think about. Have an audit of how you’re currently doing

Aoife O’Brien [00:14:41]:

recognition, you know, at the moment, is it sporadic? Is it very specific? Have a think about those things that I talked about in the episode today. Ask your team, how do you like to be recognised? Do you prefer not to be publicly recognised? Do you prefer it to be private? Would you like the whole team to know? Be really, you know, ask them those really, really important questions about how they best like to be recognised and start recognising them, how they want to be recognised. Build recognition into the rituals that you’re doing, so something that I introduced in my team when I was still working in corporates was this idea of values. So talking about other people and how you’ve seen other people show up and demonstrate the company values in the meeting on a day to day basis, it seemed kind of trite and it felt a bit awkward at first, but after a while it just became a really great way to recognise each other within the team. And the last thing I want you to think about is any bias that might exist in the current recognition, so whether that is recognition tends to go always to the same person or the same teams, have a think about how that’s currently showing up for you.

Aoife O’Brien [00:16:08]:

The other thing that I wanted to share is the idea that recognition doesn’t have to come from the top, it can flow in lots of different directions. So it can be peer to peer, it can be manager to direct report, it can go direct report up to manager, up to senior leaders. Recognition doesn’t have to flow from the top down,

Aoife O’Brien [00:16:46]:

so that’s something that is definitely worth bearing in mind as well. And I didn’t touch a whole load on the idea of mattering in today’s episode, but if you haven’t listened to my most recent episode with Zach Mercurio, I would highly recommend you go and check that out and I’m gonna ask you to do something. So the podcast comes out on a Friday. If you’re listening in real time or whatever time you’re listening in, I want you to give three very specific pieces of recognition to someone in your world so it doesn’t have to be someone in your team. It can be wider than that. It can be in your personal life, it can be in your professional life. But think about three people who you want to recognise and give them very specific and timely recognition in the next week.

Aoife O’Brien [00:17:45]:

That is my challenge to you and I would love to know what the impact of that is, so as always, feel free to get in touch with me. You can reach me on podcast@happieratwork.ie feel free to connect on LinkedIn. I’m most active there of all the social media. I’ll put a Link to my LinkedIn below in the show notes as well and I’m looking forward to hearing from you and what the impact of that is.