Wondering whether recognition improves employee engagement and satisfaction? You’ll find a variety of data points that validate the relationship by just performing a simple search on Google.
In case you need more convincing, according to a study by the Harvard Business Review, 72% of respondents believe that recognizing high performers’ work improves their level of engagement; while BambooHR found that 76% of employees who receive regular recognition enjoy their work more.
The question then isn’t if employee recognition is important, but how you can provide recognition—especially for colleagues who work remotely. To give you some inspiration, we’ll walk you through 3 virtual recognition ideas that leverage HR automation.
You can learn more about the first two automations by signing up for our on-demand webinar, “Boost Employee Engagement Across Remote Teams.”
1. Celebrate Work Anniversaries on Time and in Ways that are Impactful
Work anniversaries can serve as the perfect opportunity to recognize employees for their commitment to your organization and for their contributions thus far.
You can automatically determine when an employee reaches their work anniversary and send them an award early in their work day by using the following automation:
1. A human resources information system (e.g. Namely) checks for work anniversaries on a daily basis, and once it finds one, the workflow gets triggered.
2. A balance checker in Tango Card determines whether there are enough funds available to distribute the reward.*
* If the available funds in Tango Card fall below a certain preset threshold, the employee(s) who manages the workflow automation will receive an email that notifies them of the low balance.
3. Assuming there are, the reward gets delivered to the employee via email.
By using this automation, you can ensure that every employee gets recognized for their work anniversary. All the while, you free up time for those who play a role in managing the process, as they no longer have to manually check which employees have reached their work anniversary or administer the reward.
Related: How automation can help you perform virtual onboarding
2. Provide Visible, Peer-to-Peer Recognition Seamlessly
Another invaluable way to show appreciation is by providing the colleague with positive feedback through a public means—such as a message in a Slack channel.
Here’s an automation that can help you do just that:
1. An employee enters the colleague’s name in Slack and provides a reason why they want to recognize them.
2. Namely checks the relationship between the employee who makes the submission and the colleague they’re recognizing. If one employee directly reports to the other, the workflow ends (as this doesn’t meet peer-to-peer recognition standards).
3. Assuming there isn’t a direct-report relationship, the employee receives a reward via Tango Card (also assuming there are sufficient funds in Tango Card’s balance checker).
4. Slack adds a message in a specific channel that shows who’s receiving the reward, who’s sending it, and why the recipient is being recognized.
Since most employees work on a platform like Slack throughout the day, this type of peer recognition is likely to draw a lot of responses (which should make the employee who’s receiving recognition feel all the more appreciated).
Related: How you can use payroll automation to delight your employees
3. Help New Hires Feel Welcomed on Their First Day
Here at Workato, we’ve implemented “first-day automations,” or automated tasks we perform on the new hire’s first day. This includes:
- Scheduling orientation-type meetings
- Inviting them to relevant Slack channels
- Delivering a company-wide welcome message
Taken together, these first-day automations all but ensure that the new hire is recognized and feels empowered to hit the ground running.
Ready to start putting these automations into practice? Looking for other ones that can help you recognize your colleagues? In either case, you can get the guidance you need by speaking with one of our automation experts!
