{"id":43357,"date":"2021-07-28T09:13:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=43357"},"modified":"2021-08-02T12:10:44","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T16:10:44","slug":"praise-and-recognition-in-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/praise-and-recognition-in-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"The Value of Praise and Recognition in the Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why is it important to provide praise and recognition in the workplace? What are the most common excuses for not giving recognition<\/a>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his book Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work<\/a>, <\/em>Paul Marciano discusses why praise and recognition in the workplace are so important. When employees feel like their work is valued, they’re happier, they perform better, and the workplace becomes a more positive environment for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to learn the benefits of recognizing your employees’ work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Importance of Praise and Recognition<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We all desire social belonging and feeling like our efforts are important. Praise and recognition in the workplace, especially from your managers, is a very direct way of achieving this. In his book Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work, <\/em>author Paul Marciano argues that the ROI of positive feedback is huge \u2013 a minute spent on complimenting work can lead to hours of increased productivity<\/strong>. Positive feedback is reinforcement that makes the behavior more likely to happen again, unprompted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managers tend to overestimate how much they give recognition and underestimate how important it is to employees. Imagine that some people keep a positive sticky note from their boss for months \u2013 it means that much to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failure to reinforce through recognition actually suppresses behavior \u2013 if you assign a project and don\u2019t reward hard work to meet its deadline, the worker is less likely to meet the deadline next time. If you admonish a worker for poor behavior, and the worker corrects it but doesn\u2019t receive positive feedback, she\u2019ll fall back to the bad behavior, for there is less reason to correct it. \u201cYou don\u2019t get team members to take initiative by focusing on their lack of initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People tend to acclimate to repeated signals of one kind, and to notice deviations from the norm. If you only provide negative feedback, the next item of negative feedback gets little novel weight<\/strong> \u2013 if the worker tries her best but still gets only complaints, there\u2019s little incentive<\/a> to change. In contrast, a history of positive feedback will make a major complaint feel explosive and note-worthy. The employee won\u2019t want to disappoint someone who\u2019s signaled satisfaction through positive feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excuses for Not Giving Recognition<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Managers often cite reasons for not recognizing employees:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEmployees shouldn\u2019t be thanked for doing what we pay them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n