Hybrid working has created a workforce often still united behind a common purpose, but fractured when it comes to knowing and understanding each other and enjoying each other’s success. As we’ve seen from social media, technology can play a huge role in bringing people together but in a corporate environment the challenge can often be keeping things personal. Here are some tips for sense-checking your own approach to recognising hybrid workers.

Take stock of what you have

Some companies will come at this with no recognition in place while others will have something in place already. One of the most important things for companies to do is review their current practices because not everything is going to work for a hybrid environment. You may have been doing things to recognise staff in an office environment that now simply won’t work because those staff are not there to eat pizza or have a coffee break. If there are staff there, maybe it’s a small proportion who are therefore far more visible than those at home, in a satellite office or on road.

If you do change your recognition practices, make sure you’re clear about how they will look and work afterwards. Employees don't like things being taken away from them, particularly if they're engaged with them, so be clear and communicate the new rules of engagement.

Key questions: Is it still fit for purpose? Can it be tweaked, or does it need wholesale change?

Understand your employees

It's important to understand how people want to be recognised. It won’t always be practical to recognise everybody in the exact way they would like but try to broadly understand what your employees want from recognition. You can do that through one-to-one conversations between managers and reports, focus groups or anonymous feedback. Make sure you then overlay the hybrid element to acknowledge the possible need to change.

Key questions: Do we know how our employees want to be recognised? How can it look different for hybrid workers and still be fair?

Make it personal

In many ways hybrid working has made it easier to personalise things by blurring the boundary between home and work. Although we may not be in the office anymore, we’re still talking to people on Zoom or Teams. An employee might have children or other family members walking into shot, or dogs barking in the background. You might see someone's spare room or notice that they’re in their kitchen and have repainted. In these ways, we now have a greater personal insight than we did before, and recognition can follow suit for hybrid workers. All the feedback we get when we talk to employees is that recognition works best when it's personal and heartfelt.

Key questions: Do we really know who we’re recognising?

Managers: Are hybrid workers going unnoticed?

One of the biggest challenges in recognising hybrid workers is making sure that remote workers’ contributions don't go unnoticed. Sharing offices made manager-to-report recognition relatively straight forward, and on the odd occasion when they did miss something, there’s a good chance Manager A might still have found out in conversation with Manager B. But Manager B probably isn't now going to pick up the phone or set up a Teams meeting to praise someone in Manager A’s team. A lot more is becoming less visible, so how do you mitigate against that? Can your managers actively ask other managers for feedback? Can you use catch-ups between managers and direct reports? Can you incentivise peer-to-peer recognition?

Key question: When did our managers last check in with their remote reports?

GO Digital

Clients’ employees often tell us that they have no way of recognising colleagues, no formal channel, and in most cases a digital application such as the HAPI app can make all the difference. It provides that channel and removes many of the barriers that exist for hybrid workers. HAPI has a reward and recognition element that can operate much like a news feed, telling peers and managers when people are recognised or nominated. On a very simple level people can send colleagues thank you messages or cards, and by companies putting some budget behind it, colleagues can win vouchers or points to redeem vouchers for coffee or other treats. Because it’s app-based, it’s on your phone and in your pocket, so everyone is included.

Key question: Could you benefit from taking your recognition digital?

Pushing through an open door

Another benefit of using something like HAPI for recognition is that you’re also using a system that has an established footfall. HAPI also hosts things like employee benefits, payslips and overtime rotas, so people are already engaging with it. You’re not having to grow the audience and start user habits from scratch. When they’re already in HAPI, through careful notifications and labelling it’s not a great leap to ask them to recognise or nominate a colleague.

Key question: Have you investigated HAPI?

Especially with a hybrid workforce, it's important that everyone has access to nominations, and to watching recognition being received, in a way that retains that personal touch and becomes contagious. If you can, plan for when you know most staff will be in the office so you can grow the excitement and engagement, and for the people who can’t be there set up a video feed so that they can dial in and watch. There is a risk that recognition can become faceless, so find a way to keep it personal for everyone.

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