The Power of Peer-to-Peer Recognition

In an increasingly connected world, employees care more than ever what their coworkers think of them.

As exhibited in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, all humans have the desire to belong and be appreciated within their social institutions, which increases their self-worth and achievement.  Baudville defines peer-to-peer recognition as the “genuine expressions of appreciation exchanged between coworkers.”

With a traditional employee recognition program, most of the recognizing power lies in the hands of supervisors. When employees know that their peers are evaluating them as well, they will go the extra mile to be recognized.  

Top 3 Benefits of Peer Recognition:

1. It’s easy to implement. Once you start an On-The-Spot employee engagement program, we incorporate nominating a peer, employee, or even a manager for a reward into your branded employee engagement platform. Once the nomination is approved by the award recipients manager, the recipient has access to his or her rewards and can shop from their favorite online retailers. This instant gratification model creates a direct correlation between the employees actions and being rewarded for that, increasing the value to the company culture.

2. It impacts more people. It is impossible for a supervisor to observe all employees in a company at once, especially if they’re located in different sectors. Due to coworkers’ familiarity with how peers carry out duties, they can recognize one another for jobs well done or safety measures taken when managers are not around to do so.

3. It’s fun. Positive, regular communication in the workplace creates a happier working atmosphere. With equal opportunities for all, everyone in the office has a chance to reap the rewards of this type of employee recognition program. When employees know they are appreciated by one another, productivity levels skyrocket.

Results we see with our clients:

1. Safety. Day in and day out, we see peers nominating each other and putting in the nominations comments about how they kept each other safe, particularly for manufactures or employees working in the field. Spotting an employee backing out of a parking space, noticing someone's protective equipment had been damaged, and performing safety checks on each other are frequent and noticeable ways to improve the quality of safety within your organization.

2. Customer Service. Retail stores, call centers, and business that deals with customers sees a regular mix of unappreciative customers. These customers can cause employee burnout when they go unnoticed, but rewards for going out of the employees way to deliver a top level of customer service is an easy way to ensure management sees the efforts of their front line employees working with customers. 

3. Going Above and Beyond. So often, a long time employee gets 'stuck' training the new employee. It causes the long time employee's production levels to slow down, repeating training steps and operations, and our programs encourage the new employee to recognize their unofficial mentor to be appreciated, with a reward and positive comments.

4. Taking on more work. It's easy for employees to say "No, I don't have time for that project."  We see when companies implement peer-to-peer recognition programs, the employees are more likely to stand behind the company mission and to take on side projects when they're seeing colleagues rewarded for other side projects. Whether an On-The-Spot program or a Strategic Recognition program, rewarding employees is a way to get more done without having to increase their annual salary.

5. Saving the company money. Encouraging innovation and methods for employees to find cost-saving measures puts more money in the companies pockets. Many individual contributors think to themselves "Why should I care? It's not my money."  If you award an employee $500 for saving the company $5,000 in annual expenses, you're changing the culture to empower individuals to take more 'ownership' within the organization.

Friendly competition in the workplace can be extremely beneficial to your company. The optional feature of making the results of peer-to-peer recognition visible (ex. a leaderboard) for all employees to see can inspire higher levels of production within a company.  This transparency instills a sense of attachment into employees and they are more likely to stick around for a long time, increasing retention rates and reinforcing company values.

Since peer recognition is less common and more unexpected, it is more appreciated in the workplace. Praise is typically only warranted from supervisors, so when the door is opened for peers to nominate each other for excellent work, it will create a cycle of rewarding productivity.

When employees are introduced to your branded employee rewards platform and learn how to nominate coworkers, the power of peer recognition will be apparent on your retention, morale and bottom line.