19th Jan 2022
What are you recognizing?
A common question when it comes to inventor recognition can be: “What do I recognize for?”
Recognize for things you’d like to see them do more often, or for something you would like to see others doing.
Understanding why recognition works is helpful. It’s about how people react to praise and how they can learn from observation as well as firsthand experience. It all comes down to how the human mind works, and how public recognition taps into a person’s natural tendencies and influences their behavior. When an employee sees or hears about a co-worker being recognized and rewarded for specific conduct, they are more likely to internalize the lesson that the recognized behavior is rewarded. As a result, they are more likely to engage in similar conduct in the future.
“Employees who feel a sense of belonging in the workplace are 5.3 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work.” O.C. Tanner
Recognize something that helps your company achieve its mission, vision, or goals.
Sometimes your companies’ values, its mission, vision, and goals are easy to overlook and can be difficult to connect with day-to-day work. Whenever you can recognize activity that directly relates to those values, mission, and goals - you should.
Don’t make recognition harder than it needs to be. The most important part is doing something rather than nothing. No matter what you are recognizing, or how (for the most part) your employees will feel seen, heard, and valued. Feeling acknowledged and recognized will inspire all the positive reinforcements you want to create for your team and company, and the culture will flourish.
See some of our other helpful articles…
- How to attract, retain, and engage inventors