Praise in Public: 6 Ways to Take Employee Appreciation To The Next Level
Praise in public, criticize in private they say. There’s nothing better than knowing that your efforts are appreciated. Whether it’s felt like a good or bad week, been a heavy workload or you’ve achieved many goals, it’s great to have your efforts recognized not only on a one-to-one level but in front of others. Public praise can be quick and easy and is a great way to spread appreciation, motivation and boost engagement.
In this article, we’ve compiled a list of 6 of the easiest and most impactful ways to incorporate public praise into your workplace.
What’s in?
1. Public recognition: Team meetings and praise
2. Company-wide recognition: All hands on deck
3. Performance management tools for recognition
4. Cheers for peers: Celebrate your coworkers
5. Sharing public recognition with Slack
6. Teamwork, team rewards
Conclusion
1. Public Recognition: Team Meetings and Praise
If you’re not holding team-wide meetings on a regular basis yet, you should! These weekly or monthly moments when everyone gets together to touch base and discuss what they’ve been working on are a great way to keep your team aligned and help set useful and efficient goals. This is a time when everyone is together and engaged in discussion, and it’s a fantastic informal opportunity to share appreciation for work well done, recognize goals reached, or just to celebrate the little things!
As people go round the circle updating the rest of the team on their daily or weekly practices, achievements and learnings, it’s a great chance to show appreciation and ensure team members know how valued they are. There’s nothing more motivating than to start a workday by sharing a moment with colleagues reflecting on what’s been achieved and collectively appreciating everyone’s contributions to the previous day or weeks’ success.
2. Company-Wide Recognition: All Hands on Deck
In addition to team meetings, it’s great practice to hold regular, company-wide “all hands” meetings. During an all-hands session, everyone has a chance to share what they’ve been working on, either in teams or individually, depending on the size of your company. Achievements can then be recognized and celebrated across departments.
An all-hands meeting can simply be a short get together at the beginning or end of the day where everyone gathers to recognize and celebrate each team or department’s latest successes, leaving everyone with the knowledge that their contributions are part of a bigger picture, and one that every one of their colleagues has also been working towards, creating a sense of camaraderie and a common purpose.
3. Performance Management Tools for Recognition
Using performance management tools is a failsafe way to spread appreciation far and wide whilst maintaining the daily workflow. With the opportunity to give real-time, 360-degree feedback and regular check-ins with each team member, it’s never been easier to embed a little bit of public praise into someone’s day; this is literally as simple as typing a sentence to a co-worker to thank them, tell them they’re appreciated or praise the great job they did on their presentation that morning. It’s common knowledge that a compliment goes a long way to improving someone’s day, and this is no different in the workplace.
Performance management tools are a great way to establish a feedback culture. If people see management giving out regular feedback and praise in public, they are more likely to follow suit and do the same for other team members. This creates a loop not only of constructive feedback but also of regular appreciation for all.
A 360-degree feedback tool can be an easy way to help employees give praise to their co-workers.
4. Cheers for Peers: Celebrate Your Coworkers
A great practice to have in place is a small, end of week celebration of the little things that impacted people’s weeks. It’s simple, it’s free, and it means everyone leaves the office for the weekend feeling recognized, appreciated and that little bit happier.
All it takes is sending out an email reminding people to put forward their weekly ‘Cheers For Peers’. This is then read in front of the whole company at the end of the day, getting the pre-weekend praise flowing! There are no rules when it comes to your ‘cheers’; any kind of company-wide public praise practices will leave team members with a spring in their step!
- Cheers can be submitted anonymously, or have a name attached.
- They can be directly related to work, or about a more personal moment that had an impact.
- And they can be about anything, big, small, or in between.
Here are some examples of the little things you can thank your peers and colleagues for to let them know they have had an impact:
“Cheers to Darren for staying late to help me meet that deadline. You worked super hard and it made all the difference to the project. I owe you one!”
“Big cheers to Rebecca for the chat we had during our 1-on-1 this week. You had a lot to share, and I learned so much. Excited to write up a blog post for our website to pass on your knowledge on the topic!”
“Cheers Sam for organizing the office party. Everyone had a brilliant time and it was great to celebrate all together. Looking forward to the next one!”
If your organization is too big for company-wide “cheers”, this is a great idea to do within teams or departments too. Cheers for Peers is a great way for people to receive appreciation from and in front of their peers, not just from management. Not only does it ensure people know their efforts are appreciated, but it feels great to receive recognition in front of people who maybe weren’t there, didn’t know about your achievement, or haven’t had an opportunity to celebrate your successes yet.
5. Sharing Public Recognition with Slack
Looking for a quick and instant way to share public praise? There’s a Slack channel for that!
If someone just hit a target, wrote an amazing report, or went the extra mile for their team, at Impraise, we take a second to show our appreciation using /praise; our Impraise/Slack integration. It’s never been easier to give praise in public or to congratulate coworkers.
This is an especially great tool when there are a lot of people working remotely; a quick way to publicly express your thanks, so that no matter where your colleagues are, everyone can take a second to appreciate their positive impact!
6. Teamwork, Team Rewards
Work happens in teams, and so should praise. It’s undoubtedly important to express your thanks to your team or even the whole company for a job well done.
These rewards can be anything, from a company-wide email praising your team’s latest work, to a Friday afternoon pizza order, to a team day out.
You can also organize a company award ceremony where you present personalized awards to the people who have made outstanding contributions or are consistently going the extra mile. Praise and awards don’t have to be directly related to performance, either. At Impraise, for instance, we recently held our first ‘Value Superhero’ awards to celebrate the employees that best represent our company values!
Conclusion
Public praise has never been easier to integrate into your company culture. When combined with consistent, constructive feedback, it benefits everyone from upper management to entry-level employees; improving employee engagement, retention and happiness levels.
Whether through technology, face-to-face or expressed through tokens of appreciation, it’s time to get praising in public and watch everyone reap the benefits.
Weekly update
Stay up-to-date with the latest news, trends, and resources in HR
Learn more
Related articles
Are you ready for the future of HR?
Learn modern and relevant HR skills, online
