Episode #5 - Recognizing your team's work when you have no control over their compensation
Hello and welcome to Tricky Management Situations !
Onirio delves, just for you, into all those delicate, sometimes seemingly improbable (but oh-so-real!) challenges that the world of management throws our way. In each episode, you'll find tips to gain some perspective and expertly navigate through your tricky managerial situations
In this episode, we talk about recognition (because yes, it's important!).
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Today's tricky situation: How to recognize your team's work when you have no control over their compensation?
You have highly engaged and efficient colleagues, but who tell you they don't feel recognized for their work. The first thing that comes to mind is wanting to give them a raise or a bonus. That would be great, but... you have no say over their pay. 😟
So, what's to be done?
Why is it important to recognize and value your employees?
Recognition at work is a major motivator and, therefore, a driver of employee retention in a company. Feeling acknowledged helps boost self-esteem. Recognition confirms an individual's significance within the organization. It can have a real impact on an employee's mental well-being.
In France, more than 1 in 4 employees feels that their work is not adequately recognized by their employer. So, it's clearly an important issue.
Salary levels, bonuses, and promotions are undoubtedly important. But they're not enough...
Recognition also involves non-financial signs and marks of consideration. And that's where you can act as a manager! 🙂
⛔ Mind the mistakes!
Before seeking to value and recognize the work of your team, make sure you're not that manager who...
Looks at their phone or answers calls during a meeting with their team member
Says hello only to people with whom they need to discuss specific topics
Makes commitments for the team in front of clients without considering the workload of team members
Doesn't provide any feedback - positive or negative - on the work done
Cancels a meeting when their team member needs their feedback or approval to make progress on their work
✅ How can you show team members that you recognize their work?
Recognition at work can be demonstrated through several dimensions. Here are the four main ones:
🙋 Recognizing the individual
Recognizing the individual for their unique qualities involves:
Allocating time for regular discussions about their feelings
Maintaining one-on-one meetings, even in cases of operational urgency, as it allows for reflection, breathing room, and prioritizing together
Debriefing with the team member when they make a mistake, to reassure them and learn from the situation to prevent it from recurring
📈 Recognizing results
This involves highlighting the team member's concrete achievements, and for that, you can:
Monitor individual performance indicators, not just collective ones, and regularly discuss the results, whether the objectives are met or not!
Communicate the team member's achievements to the entire team, and even outside the team if it makes sense
Make the colleague visible to management, for instance, by suggesting they present their results themselves in a committee
🛠️ Recognizing skills
The idea here is to value the team member's expertise and promote their professional development:
Provide positive feedback on the employee's contribution, creativity and capacity for innovation.
Assign a lead role on an important project or give them a "special" assignment based on their skills
Implement knowledge-sharing mechanisms within the team, such as Brown Bag Lunches, regular experience sharing sessions, cross-training, mentoring, and more
💪 Recognizing efforts
On this topic, it's important to highlight the team member's commitment to their work:
Offer words of encouragement during a high workload period, or even recognize the courage, tenacity, or initiative of a colleague in specific situations
Ask the team member to describe how they handled their task. This shows that you're not only interested in the result but also in the process of achieving it! It also helps the team member become aware of all that they've done
Provide direct assistance or mobilize other team members to help
Now you have the keys to recognizing and valuing your employee's work.
It's up to you to implement the practices that suit you! 😉
À for the next episode!
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This management situation explored with 💙 Onirio was told to you by Blandine Brielles