For recognition to be truly inclusive, it goes without saying that it needs to touch everyone. Regardless of position, rank, department, seniority, age, gender or background, a recognition scheme needs to resonate with everybody and ultimately give all employees the opportunity to be nominated and recognised.

Ask yourself if you are falling into any of the common pitfalls we see in recognition schemes: Does your scheme seem to nominate and reward the same people again and again? Is it encouraging recognition for exceptional performance, or for a certain project, in which case how many people is it cutting out? If one side of your business is more transactional or receives more customer feedback, is it easier to recognise those employees? Is the language you’re using excluding a gender or cross-section? 

Once you start analysing this through the lens of age, disability, ethnicity and gender, do any patterns emerge that tell you it might be unfair? If so, how can technology help? 

Firstly, let’s acknowledge where technology can’t help. If recognition is managed badly and is not genuine, it can land badly. If someone is recognised for simply doing their job it can be patronising or if they’re recognised with a gift of wine when they don’t – or can’t - drink it can be insensitive. Good technology will not mask poor man-management, but if it’s used in the right way, the benefits can be huge.

Accessibility

Firstly, managing your recognition strategy through an app allows everyone to access it from anywhere. Whether they are part-time or full-time, office-based or remote, up at HQ or down in the warehouse, pretty much everyone these days has a smartphone. If they can download the app, it’s there right in the palm of their hand. And, in accessibility terms, these days the tech can also cater for things like visual impairment and different language needs. 

Engagement and Communication

Even if every employee downloads the app, that in itself does not guarantee success. A successful roll-out is only fully complete when all the managers have been told how the company plans on using it, and when all staff know how to engage with it and what they can get out of it. This element of training is important but often overlooked because of the investment in time and money. Similarly, with the communication you then put out from the technology on an ongoing basis: this can be a huge galvanising benefit to the company and its culture, but it needs dedicated resources, time and planning if the messaging is going to land properly and engage everyone. 

Measurement

Of course, another major advantage of going digital is in measurement and analysis. In the same way as knowing how many people have viewed a web page or downloaded an online resource, the same analytics can now drive inclusion by telling us how staff are using the tech. These metrics give immediate insight into how your communication is landing with each cross-section of the business. Who visited the pages you promoted? Who didn’t? How long did employees stay? Which awards were redeemed, and which were ignored? 

If pages are not being visited, chances are the communications aren’t working, or you’re structuring the recognition programme in a way that isn’t appealing to staff. In painting a picture, this kind of ‘digital’ feedback can also help your ‘analogue’ management processes improve by keeping them informed. As with the communication piece, don’t forget to factor in the dedicated time and resource to analyse and scrutinise. It’s always the starting point for improvement.

A tailored approach

Finally, if you have the right technology solution, you can tailor the scheme, communications, and analysis according to your needs and your culture. You may use recognition to simply send a Thank You to staff; give points, or green points, for recycling or award vouchers enabling staff to redeem money into digital wallets. Building a virtual ‘wall’ can also give a company its very own social media platform creating excitement, community and competition. 

A robust technical solution, such as the HAPI app, can give you all these functionalities and benefits, and allow you to move with it at your own pace. Start small with a core offering and scale it when you are ready. 

About the new HAPI app

With an improved user interface and navigation the new HAPI app allows businesses to build a colleague community within their organisation that allows managers and employees to recognise each other’s hard work and success:

• Tailor your reward types - financial, company perks, duvet days, message from the CEO, donations to charity of your choice, free lunches etc
• Peer-to peer recognition – easy-to-use functionality allows employees to say 'thank you', give badges or recognise colleagues
• Manager insight – managers can see who, or has not, been nominated and recognised
• Social wall – helps link all recognition and rewards to the company values
• Automated posts - for employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries

More recent Insights by Sarah Lardner:

Cost of living: A blend of measures to help navigate your way through
Diversity in the workplace: why it matters and how you can improve
Pay without Borders – Aligning salary with talent
 

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