9 July, 2024
Why Recognizing and Rewarding Your Remote Workforce Matters
Imagine leading a team spread across different cities, each member contributing from the comfort of their own home. Traditional office settings, spontaneous high-fives, and celebratory lunches are a thing of the past.
How do you make your employees feel seen and appreciated in this scenario, even when miles apart? Recognizing remote employees: why it’s important is a crucial question every leader must address. Employees are the most critical asset of any organization, and those who receive authentic rewards and recognition are 5x more likely to agree that they see a path to growth in their organization.
Benefits of recognizing your remote employees:
In the post-pandemic era, many companies have employees working partly or entirely remotely. Despite the ever-increasing numbers, many companies struggle to maintain inclusivity regarding rewards and recognition.
The result? Your remote workforce feels left out and unseen. That’s why it is imperative for every organization that wants to thrive in this landscape to have rewards and recognition as a cornerstone of the overall employee experience.
Here’s a deeper look into its benefits:
- Boosted Morale: Employee recognition and rewards programs can greatly motivate remote employees by acknowledging and celebrating individual and team achievements. This proactive approach cultivates a positive emotional climate, fostering appreciation and camaraderie despite being miles apart.
- Increased Engagement: A recent report suggests a 32% increase in employee engagement when employees feel appreciated and recognized for their efforts. This engagement is critical to maintaining motivation, commitment to organization goals, and proactive participation in virtual team dynamics.
- Enhanced Motivation: Employee recognition and rewards programs powerfully motivate employees to go above and beyond. A study by McMaster University reveals that employees who receive strong recognition have a 89% higher sense of determination and drive. This stems from feeling seen and valued.
- Improved Productivity: Spotlighting remote employees’ success and hard work ensures increased productivity. These programs drive this by providing positive reinforcement and intrinsic motivation.
The proof in the pudding! According to a survey by the Society of Human Resource Management, 79 percent of employees agree that recognition makes them work harder, and 78 percent say recognition makes them more productive and better equipped to handle change.
- Strengthened Team Cohesion: Regular recognition and rewards will strengthen your remote workforce’s sense of unity and collaboration. This cohesion transcends physical boundaries, ensuring a supportive team environment where everyone feels like they are a part of a community.
But why implement a Rewards and Recognition Platform?
Given that we now know the importance of recognizing remote employees for their efforts and the various ways we can do that, here are five reasons why you need an R&R platform like Gratifi to do the heavy lifting for your organization:
Instant Recognition: Gratifi makes it possible for managers and peers to recognize their remote employees instantly. When employees fail to receive on time, it often leads to a lack of enthusiasm or encouragement towards their tasks.
Why should they wait for the half-yearly or annual reviews? Recognition must be done on time for it to be effective!
Data-Driven Performance Management: The Gratifi platform promotes a data-driven approach that mitigates recency bias, which happens when recent events disproportionately influence managers’ assessments of employee performance, overshadowing past achievements.
Our platform leverages data analytics to provide a holistic view of employee performance, capturing accomplishments, milestones, and feedback throughout the evaluation period.
Seamless Process: A rewards and recognition platform not only helps in instant recognition and data-driven performance management but also makes the whole process simpler.
Leveraging an R&R platform can make your HR job easier. Because in the traditional process, they are the ones who plan and coordinate from start to end. Thanks to Gratifi, managers/leaders/peers can directly recognize their teams and save time in unnecessary communication. Schedule a demo to see how!
Recognize from Anywhere: Managers do not need to wait or be in front of their office computers to recognize their employees. They can do it on the go and from anywhere in the world.
Most employee rewards and recognition software, like Gratifi, are designed to work on multiple devices. It should be accessible with internet connectivity anywhere on phones, tablets, and laptops.
The bottom line…
A thoughtful and robust employee rewards and recognition program can benefit the health of your remote workforce and organization.
Choose strategies that work best for your company, and focus on making every act of recognition genuine, specific, and highly personalized. Mix and match your ideas, seek employee input, and track the impact over time.
Check out how Gratifi can help you with all of your R&R needs!