0 Comment

The Role Of Top Management In Employee Rewards And Recognition

Watch the Video

The Role Of Top Management In Employee Rewards And Recognition

The top management in all organizations defines the vision, business strategies, and organizational policies and guides the team to implement the business plans. Hence, given the importance of employee recognition in keeping the workforce motivated, the top management of the organization must be actively involved in the process.

How Can Top Management Involvement In Employee Recognition Help?

HR experts believe that the active involvement of the top management in employee recognition programs is essential for ensuring their success.

So, this is how their involvement can make an impact on the effectiveness of the program:

1. Makes It More Integrated

2. Builds Credibility

3. Creates Trust

4. Makes It Aspirational

5. Enhances Participation

How Can Top Management Involvement In Employee Recognition Help?

1. Makes It More Integrated

Integrating Employee Recognition with the Organizational Culture

Involvement of top management in the employee recognition program helps it align with the business goals and core values of the organization, more closely.

Hence, this, itself can help the organization derive greater business impact from the program.

2. Builds Credibility

Performance and Productivity of Work from Home Employees

The visible involvement of the top management in the program enhances its importance in the eyes of the employees.

They start perceiving it as something much more strategic, and not just another HR initiative.

3. Creates Trust

Work from Home

The involvement of the top management helps assure the employees that the organization is truly interested in recognizing their efforts and contributions.

Therefore, they look at the program as a genuine initiative by the organization to appreciate those who have contributed the most towards its growth and success.

4. Makes It Aspirational

Integrate Reward and Recognition with Innovation Efforts

Also, the active involvement of the top leaders of the organization in the employee recognition program makes it aspirational for employees. 

This motivates them further to outperform in their roles and increases their chances of getting recognized and noticed by the top management.

5. Enhances Participation

Investing in employee engagement

Given the visibility of the employee recognition program to the top management and their involvement in it, more employees are motivated to try harder to perform better and get recognized.

Also, supervisors and managers are keen to nominate their team members for recognition, for the same reason.

This helps in enhancing the overall impact of the program.

How Can The Top Management Get Involved In Employee Recognition?

The top management should play a critical role in making the key decisions about the employee recognition program.

So, here are the important aspects of the program where they make a significant impact:

1. Defining Program Goals

2. Funding For The Program

3. Approval For The Program Design

3. Approval For The Program Design

5. Employee Communication

6. Felicitation Of Award Winners

7. Direct Recognition By Management

How Can The Top Management Get Involved In Employee Recognition?

1. Defining Program Goals

Meeting

One important responsibility of the top management is to outline the key objectives of the recognition program.

Having a clear understanding of what the organization intends to achieve through the employee rewards and recognition program is critical to ensuring its success.

This also makes it easier for the management to track and measure the impact of the program and make the necessary decisions to improve its effectiveness.

2. Funding For The Program

Seek Funding For The Program

Another important responsibility of top management regarding recognition programs is approving the budgets for the same.

This might be based on a host of different factors including the program goals, expected return on investment, overall financial situation, etc.

Primarily, a clear understanding of the expected ROI is what might drive the budget allocation to the program.

3. Approval For The Program Design

Learning and Development can Promote Employee Engagement

In most organizations, the top management has the final say in defining the program design.

Importantly, the program goals and framework need to be in sync with the business goals and core values of the organization.

Typically, the top management would give the final approval for the recognition program, policies, and process framework.

4. Sign-off On The Platform Selection

Determine What Systems Are Required

More often than not, the selection of the right technology platform for employee recognition is one of the most critical decisions in setting up the program.

There are various factors that the organization needs to consider while deciding on the platform.

Hence, the top management should give the final sign-off on the decision to go ahead with a particular recognition platform.

5. Employee Communication

Understand The Relevance Of Customer Recommendation

Also, there should be involvement of the top management in important communication and updates about the employee recognition program.

Starting from communication about the program launch to the announcement of important awards; it’s a great way to generate the right kind of visibility around the program.

Personal emails personally signed appreciation letters or certificates, and even video messages from the top management to the award winners are great ideas.

6. Felicitation Of Award Winners

Innovative Award Names

Another great way of ensuring the involvement of the top management in the recognition programs is by making them give away awards during an awards ceremony or town hall.

Receiving rewards from a high-level executive fills the employees with a sense of pride and achievement.

Informal interaction of the top leaders with the award winners over a coffee or a meal or even shooting selfies with them are also great ways to motivate and inspire them further.

7. Direct Recognition By Management

Another effective way to ensure the involvement of the top management in reward programs is through management awards. 

Though the nominations might come from different managers in the organization, the final decision can be taken by the top leaders personally based on the available data.

The winners can be awarded by the management in an awards ceremony in the presence of a large gathering of employees across the organization. Such awards are perceived to be of great value to the employees.

Wrapping Up

The involvement of the top management in employee recognition is one of the critical success factors of the program. Their involvement can lend significant credibility and visibility to the program, and increase its efficacy significantly.

Sagar Chaudhuri

Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn

To stay updated on the latest HiFives blogs follow us on Twitter (@MyHiFives) 

Learn more about HR Best Practices on HiFives.

HiFives is a global employee rewards, recognition and engagement SaaS platform that enables organizations to digitize, automate and transform their employee experience. It is used by 100+ large enterprises, small businesses and startups in manufacturing, retail, technology, financial services and media, across 25+ countries.