Managing Employee Recognition: Platforms Help Measure Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is important to most people, and yet this can be a fairly nebulous concept that is tricky to achieve and also tough to measure in a meaningful way.

Luckily a number of software platforms designed to manage employee recognition have emerged in recent years, as outlined in this comparison list. The upshot is that it is not just easier for businesses to keep their workers content, but also to track satisfaction and thus extrapolate the morale trajectory for the entire organization.

Here is a look at how these platforms work, why they are useful for keeping team members happy, and how analyzing employee contentment benefits the business as a whole.

The basics

Although they vary in terms of features and functions, all employee-recognition software solutions share the same purpose, which is to codify and unify the way that appreciation for people in a workplace is demonstrated by management.

Platforms like Bonusly, Assembly, and Kazoo all act to empower people at every level of a firm, not only allowing decision makers to celebrate the achievements of their subordinates, but also encouraging peer-to-peer recognition that can help with team bonding and improve the atmosphere.

Making satisfaction measurable

A number of factors contribute to job satisfaction. Feeling appreciated is often top of the list, with a positive working relationship coming in a close second place.

With the assistance of an employee-recognition software suite, you will not only be able to ensure that team members feel valued on a regular basis, but also gain access to in-depth analytics that can deliver actionable conclusions across a range of topics.

For example, the more recognition points employees receive within the context of a given platform, the more likely it is that they are going to feel fulfilled in their roles. This in turn can translate into a good measure of employee loyalty and provide indications as to whether they may be ready to take their next steps.

Likewise this kind of software can provide insights into which employees are perhaps not having the best time or are falling behind the rest of the team. Although the reasons for this might not be immediately clear, it is good to be able to see a snapshot of satisfaction levels and thus know where to focus your efforts.

Tracking talent

Another aspect of the analytical abilities baked into employee recognition software is that they can be used to pinpoint the particular skills and talents of individuals that could be difficult to spot without having in-depth data on hand.

Once again, this gives managers much more information on which to base their decision-making, rather than relying on instinct. Being able to allocate your resources effectively will not just ensure that staff are satisfied, but will also lead to productivity improvements and cost savings, which is why this type of software can be seen as a sensible investment.

Kazoo is especially well adapted for the purpose of assessing employee talents, helping them to unlock their true potential while bringing performance benefits to the business that they represent. This can assist in the event that an individual feels that her true skills are not being recognized in the kinds of tasks that she is being assigned, yet she lacks the confidence or seniority to do anything about it. Software like this provides an unambiguous, data-driven approach that avoids the pitfalls of the past.

Cross-platform promotion

While employee recognition software has obvious inward-facing perks for businesses looking to improve job satisfaction, there are also some platforms that help disseminate achievements to the outside world.

Credly, for example, includes native features for employees who want to share their credentials elsewhere, such as on social media platforms. This is all about tapping into existing skills, showing where and how they have been applied, then delivering trusted, verifiable evidence of this concisely in a variety of contexts.

This has positive outcomes for individuals while also benefiting the organization as a whole because it is all about making the impact of employees measurable as well as shareable. In an age when a person’s digital presence is just as important as his in-person performance, this kind of software can clearly be an asset.

Proven effectiveness

Now that you know how employee recognition software can work for organizations of all sizes, it is worth establishing how impactful its use has been in the wild.

Tech titan Oracle provides a good example of this. One of its enterprise cloud teams took advantage of Bonusly to help provide a cohesive recognition platform for 78 people working in different locations worldwide. The aim of adoption was to recognize and reward exceptional performance more efficiently by use of a points-based system.

On average the users of this system handed out three bonuses to their colleagues on a monthly basis, with 94 percent of participants getting recognition in this ecosystem. The significant levels of usage that the platform enjoyed clearly indicated that there was a demand for this kind of software that had not been fulfilled prior to the platform’s introduction. A spokesperson for the company said that the integration of Bonusly was smooth, and it did not take long for it to be embraced within the broader culture of the company. This created a positive change, the scope of which continues to expand.

Wrapping up

By now it should be obvious that the old ways of recognizing employees achievements have been seriously superseded. The main challenge comes with choosing which of the many recognition software solutions you should adopt.

It is worth comparing and contrasting each of the major players in this market to find the one that fits your organization’s needs. Free trials are often available, so if you take one for a test drive and discover that it is not ideal, you can easily experiment with others before making a commitment.

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