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Are you looking for ways to improve employee engagement and utilization levels to help your business reach its goals more easily? Have you created an employee recognition plan? Improve morale, engagement, and utilization in your office by creating an employee engagement strategy & boosting your employee incentive programs.

 

How do you do that? First you must setup your goals, budget, and rewards for your recognition program to be successful. 

 

In order to execute a successful employee recognition program, not only do you need to setup SMART Goals (SMART Goals template) for your team, you should set up SMART Goals for your employee recognition program as well. Write them down and keep track of them, just as you would with any SMART Goal, in order to measure your progress and success.

 

What do you hope to accomplish specifically by employing your recognition program? How will this help the overall success of your business? Are your goals attainable? Are they timely?

The recommended budget for an employee recognition program is 2% of your annual payroll, here are some ideas from Inc. that may help you get by spending even less than that. This budget is used for awarding employees when they complete SMART Goals and receive recognition awards. We recommend awarding unique rewards to keep your employees engaged. Some ideas include: Amazon gift card, iTunes gift card, casual dress day, and work from home day. 

 

One way to motivate your employees to constantly learn and improve their professional skills is by setting up SMART Goals for them. The goals you set for your team should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time framed. SMART Goals examples include: Customer Service Surveys, Zero Overdue Tickets, Employee of the Month (for the MOST engaged employee)

 

Come time for your employee reviews, you can reference employee SMART Goals and measure your team's progress. Check out these performance review examples and this employee review template to help you improve employee reviews.

Another way to improve morale, engagement, and utilization in your office is by using recognition awards (one of many employee incentive ideas). Recognition awards are micro rewards used to recognize great work. There are two types of recognition awards: Peer Awards and Manager Awards.

If you are trying to improve the effectiveness of your employees and their work, setting up an employee recognition strategy is in your best interest. Executing employee engagement activities (made easy with employee recognition software) will motivate your team to continue working hard. Try our employee recognition strategy template to help you get started if you want more structure for your program. Setting up goals and routines for your employee recognition program will help you make your business goals into a reality.