Praise and Recognition

YES, praise and recognition are important to each of us and clearly impacts our engagement and performance. However, the recognition needs to be done in the right way. Here are five best practices for recognizing employees or help:

1. Recognize people for specific behavior and results. Stay away from comments like “great job today” or “good work” and be more specific—what did a person do specifically and what was the impact.
2. Tailor the recognition to the individual. Know your people. Some of us love public praise. Others prefer it to be done in private. One person may want regular on-going praise during a project where another team member would find that annoying and only wants the praise at the end.
3. Give the recognition as close to the event as possible. Don’t save the praise for a meeting or performance review. Take the time to walk around and look for opportunities to catch employees  or helpers doing something right and give the praise in the moment.
4. Encourage peers to recognize each other. Peer recognition is more impactful than recognition from a manager or boss because a peer is closer to the work and it’s not their “job.” NOTE: Managers or crew chiefs still need to give regular praise also.
5. Share success stories. Post on Facebook or tell your fellow drivers or managers bring up positives in meetings.