By Raphael Crawford-Marks
Founder and CEO at Bonusly
Recognition platforms are a powerful way to unlock potential and create connected teams. They also contain valuable insights about the state of engagement, retention and productivity at your organization, including risks that hide behind “good” global averages.
HR leaders like you can spot and address those risks early on, even if you’re short on time or lack a data-assessment background. Today, a high-quality recognition platform can do the work for you, revealing the powerful insights inside your platform so you can take action.
You Don’t Need Expertise to Get More Out of Your Data
In a survey for the book Excellence in People Analytics, only 42% of CHROs said their companies have a data-driven HR culture, despite 90% of them naming people analytics as a core component of their HR strategy. In other words, HR teams know analytics are important, but often struggle to turn their numbers into actionable insights. Good platforms enable administrators to do exactly that on four fronts, no data expertise required:
1. Incentivize Behaviors that Drive a Great Company Culture
HR teams focus heavily on their company culture, which is founded on the behaviors their company encourages and tolerates. That’s why changing a culture is really about changing behavior. Here’s how your recognition program can help:
- Use a platform that generates high levels of participation. The more data the better.
- A quality recognition platform should help you surface the values that are frequently recognized at your company through, for example, trending value hashtags.
- Assess whether you see enough recognition in all areas of your company values.
- Use your recognition platform to incentivize preferred behaviors that align with your core company values and a healthy company culture.
It’s worth noting that a great company culture makes your employees more likely to promote your company brand. That’s great for recruiting.
2. Analyze Employee Connections to Bolster Job Performance
Two types of connections influence job performance and longevity: work friends and a positive relationship with one’s manager.
At first glance, these relationships may seem tough to quantify, but they are measurable. Look at the number of positive interactions happening between direct reports and their managers, as well as connections fostered by managers among peers. Use these numbers to enable richer performance and development conversations or guide managers to connect with their direct reports more often.
These numbers can also highlight where camaraderie exists or is absent among employees. That’s important, because as the Harvard Business Review notes, loneliness correlates to lower job performance. Keep an eye on employees who are isolated or lack connections in your recognition platform, then take action.
3. Evaluate Recognition to Improve Productivity
Companies with recognition-rich cultures boast higher levels of productivity and performance. (They also have 31% lower voluntary turnover rates.) Use your recognition insights to keep productivity high.
Make Effective Recognition a Priority in Your Workforce
Recognition platforms can track three key aspects of recognition: whether an employee is celebrated enough (i.e., at least weekly), for specific tasks, and by their manager. We know that peer recognition is good, but manager recognition is better. Track statistics in all three areas to prioritize recognition and the productivity that happens in a recognition-rich culture.
Identify Your Most Productive Employees
Recognition data can also help you identify productive employees who are critical to your company’s success. See who takes big swings and succeeds, then work to retain them. Look at recognition frequency and the types of actions rewarded to find outstanding members on your teams.
4. Find Connections to Support Remote Work
We “pay” for remote work with reduced visibility into how work is done and who does it. An organizational graph that highlights who works with whom lets people managers and team members understand the cross-functional work that’s happening in an organization. Simple visualization dashboards based on data about who’s working together are all you need to help people feel more connected to the company’s daily activities.
In the near future, recognition programs will even be able to prompt managers in remote work environments to support employees who are disengaged or whose activity measures have changed dramatically over time.
Use the Right Platform
You don’t need a team of expert number crunchers to tap into your recognition data. You just need a great tool—one that’s easy to use so you can garner insights that can lead to effective change. A top-shelf recognition platform is your greatest ally in surfacing data-backed insights. Take a deeper look at the information it provides and you’ll be able to focus your efforts to address risks and drive the changes your organization needs in engagement, retention, and productivity.
Image: iStock
