Digital reward and recognition is reshaping the employee experience regardless of role, location, or work environment
There are a lot of myths floating around about how digital reward and recognition doesn’t work in certain workplaces or industries, says Mark Barling, senior sales director at Achievers. Reward and recognition are still viewed in a lot of Australian organisations as a hygiene program that they need to have but don’t really understand what value it adds, says Barling.
“We want to challenge the myths that claim this new approach to reward and recognition: just saying thank you, sending praise across the organisation, is not going to work in an offline workforce,” Barling says.
Blue collar workers, a blokey culture, dispersed across a factory floor, with their mobile phones stored and not in front of a computer. These are all reasons given for why digital R&R will fail.
However, the evidence suggests otherwise, says Barling. After pay, the most critical lever for attracting people into the workforce or ensuring that they want to stay in their job is creating a sense of belonging and showing appreciation.
“The biggest single contributing factor to how an employee is engaged is how they are recognised. How are they made to feel appreciated and given a sense of purpose. Reward works when it is done to endorse the recognition that has gone before it,” Barling says.
Today every company is a tech company. As we approach 2023, this statement hits even closer to home as the digital employee experience becomes just as important as the physical one.
Read more: A review about Achievers-- an employee rewards and engagement platform
Barling gives some examples of how digital R&R works in practice and how the Achievers app is a tool that allows employers to welcome, connect, recognise, include and support someone at the beginning of their role and throughout their working life.
“If you’ve just been hired to work in a factory or a mine, on day one, through the onboarding process, you download the Achievers app, login and straight away, there is a welcome card signed by your team, your manager, with great messages to make you feel welcome. Perhaps at the end of the first week you want to thank the manager that helped ease your transition. Again, you can do that via the app.”
As for the future, Barling anticipates increased personalisation of the technology, tailoring the digital employee experience using AI and nudges (reminders) to be in the moment with an employee such as at a promotion or a return to work after having a baby.
Another growing HR demand is for integration with HR departments demanding fewer systems not more. Alternatively, HR seeks a new system that integrates seamlessly into an existing technology stack, such as Teams or Outlook – which Achievers does. You don’t need to leave those applications to access it.
The final big shift has been around insight, says Barling.
“Modern R&R is quantitative and demonstrably impacts on business. We can track manages when they are interacting with their employees. We know the best managers are those who interact regularly, and it allows employers to intervene with those managers who aren’t giving enough feedback or support to their employees. Insight from the app is not only driving business outcomes it’s driving business investment.”
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