Positive recognition in the workplace doesn’t have to be sterile nor contrived. We’ve made it easy to do well (especially while remote).
According to a 2015 Interact/Harris Poll with 1,000 employees, 63% of employees do not think their managers give positive recognition in the workplace.
Ouch. Might you accidentally be one of those managers?
It’s all good 🙂 That’s why we built “Shout-outs 📣”– a brand new feature in Know Your Team to encourage rapport by sharing meaningful positive recognition in your team.
Positive feedback is such an easy thing to forget to do when we’re in the thick of the day to day of our work. Sure, we might drop a quick “Thanks” in Slack occasionally… But it’s not specific, nor is it shared with anyone else on the team.
As a result, Shout-outs makes it easy and regular for you to give positive recognition in the workplace to your teammates – without it feeling cheesy or stiff.
Here’s a quick screenshot of what it looks like when your team has given each other Shout-outs…
What I personally love about Shout-outs is that it enables all your team members to give shout-outs to each other – so you cultivate a culture of trust by enabling everyone to positively recognize each other, peer to peer.
It also directly integrates with Slack, simply use the ‘/shout-out’ command, and that’s it 😄 If your team doesn’t use Slack – all good! They’ll get soft, occasional nudges via email from time to time to share a shout-out about a peer who’s work has gone unnoticed.
Not really a “Shout-outs kind of person”? I totally get it. For some of us, giving positive recognition in the workplace can feel more unnatural, than for others.
Here are some quick tips to give a shout-out that feels meaningful and not contrived…
- Don’t force it. No need to use shout-outs unless there is something you truly do want to recognize a team member for – or else, it’ll feel artificial.
- Be specific. Calling out a specific event or instance will make your feedback feel more significant.
- Share a customer review. One of the best ways to positively recognize someone is to share the words of a customer or client about the work they’ve done.
- Remove buzzwords. “You’re a rock star who’s killing it.” Yuck. Anytime you use a trite phrase, you erode the sincerity within your comment. Don’t depend on hyperbole to communicate your praise. Take a moment to be genuine. Say what you mean.
You can use Shout-outs in KYT to do all of the above – even if giving a shout-out normally isn’t 100% your style 😊
Hope this is useful, particularly as you’re working remotely. Excited for you and your team to benefit from Shout-outs!
Know any other managers who might benefit from Know Your Team, especially now that they are remote? Feel free to forward this post along to them, so they can give KYT + Shout-outs a try.
