Social Recognition: The Most Powerful HR Tool In The Digital Era
Evolution of Employee Recognition:
Although there is not one single event that highlights the scope of workplace recognition, some form of rewards could be found in ancient Greece during the first Olympic where the winners of the events were awarded prizes, including horses, laurel (or olive) leaf crowns and bronze tripods. These athletes were honored with statues and inscriptions too. Starting in 1896, Olympic medals were introduced which became a huge part of the modern games and are considered to be a great recognition in the sports fraternity. Human nature is known to revolve around the need for appreciation and rewards which keeps them motivated to achieve their goals, be it on the Olympic ground or modern workplace.
During the 20th century, most of the workplace recognition was based on B.F. Skinner’s study of positive reinforcement where he theorized that companies reward only those employees that display hard-working behaviour continuously. It was also observed that the recognition was heavily influenced by the employee tenure back then.
Employee recognition in the modern workplace, which began as a North American concept, in recent decades has been embraced by businesses in South America, Europe, Asia and around the globe. Earlier employees were recognized for reaching significant milestones like tenure, safety or sales achievements typically and were felicitated with a memento, lapel pins or merchandise.
Soon technology continued to advance, and in the late 90s employee reward platforms were introduced making the process of redeeming rewards simpler and quicker. Soon ‘performance points programs’ were developed, allowing organizations to distribute points for specific achievements and tasks which could be banked and redeemed for incentives.
Today, successful employee recognition is not driven by the number of years an employee has served in the organization but is given to employees for their successful performance, for unique ideas, maybe for meeting tight timelines, for active participation, even for displaying company values. Rewards today are also given peer to peer. And the most latest trend, social media has become a part of our daily lives, social recognition has become the in thing.
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