Effective communication for recognition strategies usually boils down to strong planning and delivery around the three key phases: pre-launch, launch and post-launch. This may sound obvious but there are plenty of key questions and considerations for each phase.

Pre-launch planning

Pre-launch is all about planning. This is probably where most companies naturally focus their efforts in considering which channels to use, but there are still common pitfalls:

• Whether you use notice boards, posters, Yammer or Slack, use channels that are already well-embedded in your organisation to communicate that something is coming. Ideally use multiple channels.
• Try not to overload the communication in this phase or fatigue will set in where people become blind to your efforts.
• Do you want a brand for your recognition scheme? Some companies retain their master brand and others come up with something distinct but complementary. Either way, strong visual elements can bring credibility, professionalism and gravitas.
• Recognition is supposed to be positive and exciting with an element of fun so start in that vein to tee things up.
• Where possible, involve employees in planning the comms. They can bring the kind of insight that management or even HR won’t have in terms of what will land well or badly.
• Keep the messaging consistent and make sure it reaches all staff, including hybrid workers and those in satellite offices or out on the road.
• Think through your FAQs in advance. Whether or not you communicate them proactively, working with your managers and employees to make sure you’re pre-empting as many questions as possible will make sure you sense-check everything. It will also arm managers with the answers they need, and give them support when the time comes, while making sure they’re also advocating the scheme from the start.
• Define success and how you will measure it in the future.

Launch time

When it comes to the launch, you don’t necessarily need banners and balloons, but you do need to put in the right amount of effort visually to achieve the impact you are after.

• Make sure there’s a nice polish to the communications, and that all the finer details are nailed down, anticipating the sorts of questions employees might have (see above regarding your FAQs)
• Where possible, recruit visible support from the senior team. A ‘sponsor’ from upstairs can really help.
• Consider some sort of incentive to encourage people to start engaging with the scheme immediately. That might mean putting some budget behind it in months one and two.
• Be ready to react quickly and flush out any barriers to entry. Remember, it needs to be exciting and set the tone so be careful with “Rules of engagement” and “T&Cs”. Both are important but try to make sure that they match the tone you're trying to set. If you bombard even the most diligent employee with T&Cs, they’ll turn off.

Post-launch and ongoing management

Most companies will put time, energy and effort into planning and launching something like this. When the project is ‘done’ the tricky bit can often be the ongoing communications and impetus to keep it live and carry on driving the return on investment.

• Make sure you commit the HR time and resource needed to keep the momentum going. To do this you need a plan, a consistent platform and the resource in place to deliver that plan. That might be using newsletters to highlight nominees, it might be using your intranet, your Facebook page, whatever works to remind people it’s there.
• Keep the communication fresh. Alternate between short bursts and the more regular comms to avoid people switching off. You might try something specific towards the end of the year or at certain points in the year. A quarterly recognition spotlight can work well.
• In the early stages, share usage stats to reinforce the programme. “Did you know: 50% of you have nominated someone this week” – this kind of message acts as both an endorsement and a reminder.
• Be proactive about gaining employee feedback and sharing it. It will help identify any barriers that might emerge. You can then communicate any fixes you’ve made which looks responsive, shows you’re listening and that the scheme is evolving.
• Make sure the recognition scheme forms part of all new employees’ induction processes. If you don’t do this, any employees who join post-launch will be excluded, and in time the scheme will lose traction because an increasing proportion of staff will not be engaged.
• In the same vein, if your recognition strategy is manager-led think about new or newly-promoted managers and how the scheme forms part of their training.
• People tend to be brutally honest in their exit interviews so consider using them to ask how valued people feel and get anecdotal feedback on the scheme and the communications.
• Using all that knowledge, communicate success internally. Whoever manages the scheme, typically HR, should think about the best ways to communicate ROI upwards to senior management, and potentially the board. If there's money being spent, they’ll always welcome something that shows a tangible return, and it will help you retain or increase your recognition budget for next year.

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