How to Encourage Nominations!

All employees would like to feel appreciated and that their hard work and extra efforts are recognised. It is important to create an environment where staff not only feel acknowledged but also look forward to coming in to work. This explains why more companies are implementing staff incentives as a direct way to show appreciation and recognition for employees' hard work, which brings increased performance and increased profits. The implementation is however just the start and employee participation, especially with regards to nominations, needs to be monitored and encouraged.

How the programme is run is important as this will determine its success or failure. Therefore it is vital to have a nominations and awarding process that is transparent so that everyone feels that the process is fair and just.

Below are behaviors that may be adopted in everyday dealings to encourage staff to not only nominate once, but to keep nominating:

Creating and maintaining excitement and the momentum of the campaign;
Making use of every communication mode available, such as company intranets, newsletters and blast email reminders;
Always making certain that the benefits of nominating outweigh the time and effort it takes to nominate. The promise of what the outcome shall be (such as the reward and recognition) must exceed the investment.. In other words, employees need to feel that it is worth it to nominate;
Another fun way is getting everyone talking on social media. Having a weekly pop quiz for example, will encourage staff to get involved as well as think about which employee is living the company's values and deserves to be nominated;
Making use of the convenience of mobile phones as most staff already have mobile phones, it makes perfect sense for employees to be able to nominate on their mobile phones. This enables them to nominate their peers anytime and anywhere, they do not have to wait to log onto their computers in order to nominate which makes the process more convenient and thus more appealing.
Keeping up with the latest and most popular trends in terms of rewards. Employees will not nominate if they have a "been there, done that" attitude towards the rewards;
Making nominations a fun and exciting aspect of work and the company culture. Most employees have other talents outside of their required work, for example if there is a funny co-worker, give him a platform in the form of a mini comedy show at one of the award events;
Another way of keeping the momentum alive is to appoint a mascot. The mascot must be someone who has energy for days, and has the personality to pump everyone up every time nominations are due;

Nothing beats the genuine feeling of being part of a family. Since we all spend so much time at work, building that sense of belonging for workers can be paramount for a successful business and programme. The employer can keep the spirit high regarding nominations by getting employees involved in choosing themes for the programme or monthly focus points. This will make the employees feel like they are a bigger part of the process, not just the nominator.

Peer-to-peer nominations are not a once-off concept, so it is important to keep up with the latest trends and also make sure you know what interests your workers. If it is worth it for the employee, the effort of nominating will be worth it too.

Tags: Employee Rewards Blog, Nomination Programme, Reward Fulfillment