How to Have a Great Social Recognition Program in 2023

With the start of the new year just around the corner, it’s important to reflect on potential areas of growth. Maybe you’d like to spend more time with family, finally start work on that art project, or even volunteer in your community. But just as we set goals for the new year in our personal lives, it can be valuable to set our own career goals as well. If you have an existing social recognition program (or are in the process of adding one), here are some tips on how to have a fantastic program in 2023 and beyond.

Update your Available Training & Resources 

With over 51 years of experience, MTM Recognition is a leader in the recognition sector. Ensure your employees feel comfortable and confident operating your recognition software by allowing us to help revamp your training tools. Updated online PDF guides, curated print-outs for onboarding new hires, and short & sweet video clips of site features are some of our most-used resources! If your workforce feels confident using the platform, they will use it more frequently and with higher success. That’s a win for everyone. 

Engage your Employees through a Content Drip

Content Drips, or branded email campaigns targeting your workforce with helpful tips and tricks, are a great way to encourage the use of your existing platform. Content Drip campaigns can last for any length of time (although we recommend one email per week for about 4-8 weeks). We also find that they are particularly beneficial when sent twice a year. MTM offers seasonal Content Drips for our social recognition clients every few months, based on the trends we are seeing among customers. Email topics could be anything from How to Sign Up for Text Notifications to Maintaining a Work-Life Balance. These emails contain valuable information for your workforce, and we often see a boost of around 8-10% engagement just from the emails alone! Imagine your organization’s productivity and positive workplace culture with even a 10% increase in engagement. It feels great, right? 

Encourage Training for People Leaders

So often we tend to find the person who is best at their job and promote them to a leadership role. Unfortunately, excelling at one’s current position does not necessarily translate to being a great people leader. Managing a team, clearly communicating expectations, and resolving conflicts in a way that makes your employees feel heard is much harder than it sounds. That’s why encouraging your people leaders to brush up on their skills is so vital! MTM offers many tools for managers to keep in their back pockets – everything from how to write meaningful recognition to the importance of recognizing one’s team for their accomplishments. In order to have a great social recognition program in 2023, make sure your people leaders know where to find these tools and are actually using them. Everyone wins when managers apply professional development. 

Recognize Throughout the Entire Employee Lifecycle

Recognition should never be one-and-done. Rather, focus on making sure set recognition strategies are implemented at every stage of the employee lifecycle, beginning with onboarding and lasting through to retirement. How can you recognize your employees before they even step in the door? What is the standard for best practice in years 1-10? How can we make sure retirement programs exceed our employees’ expectations and truly honor their achievement and dedication? Utilizing a social recognition program to engage your workforce at every step of the employee lifecycle allows your recognition to be streamlined and easily reportable. Plus, it increases engagement and lowers turnover. Check out more ideas for recognition through the employee lifecycle. 

Read up on Trends & Best Practices of Programs Similar to Yours

Have you ever wondered what other social recognition clients are doing on their platforms? Across all of MTM’s social recognition programs, there are tens of thousands of badges, hundreds of thousands of users, millions of points, and countless ways to engage and recognize employees.  The Implementation Team put pen to paper again this year to come up with the 2022 Top 12 Social Recognition Best Practices our clients are currently utilizing on the site to make a big impact. 

If you’re currently working with us or would like to take the first step towards creating your own recognition program, drop us a comment below or reach out at hello@mtmrecognition.com. We’d love to work with you!