Employee recognition is an important practice for every workplace. Integrated recognition means recognition is a frequent, meaningful part of the everyday employee experience. For retail workers, having offline recognition tools that are integrated into your employees’ flow of work is crucial to helping them feel appreciated and valued. 

When retail employees work in organisations with integrated recognition, there are:

• 7x increased odds of planning to stay two or more years
• ‍16x increased odds of having a sense of belonging
• 14x increased odds of feeling fulfilled at work
• 12x increased odds of high engagement
• 9x increased odds the employee will thrive at work

What should you keep in mind when recognising retail workers? Read on for 5 recognition best practices in the retail industry.

1. Integrate recognition into your company culture and employees’ daily flow of work

Only  55% of retail workers say recognition is a part of their organisation's everyday culture and 60% say their organisation continually implements new programs and technologies to recognise great work. 

And while 67% of retail employees say their organisation has a formal program to recognise years of service and customer service (62%), fewer have programs to recognise above and beyond work (59%) or extra effort (58%).

Organisations should provide tools for employees to recognise one another for a variety of reasons including great work, extra effort, safety, and wellness. Recognition tools, like Culture Cloud®, should also be integrated into the tools employees use every day so employees can remember to recognise and easily do so in their flow of work when they see great work happening. Mobile apps, shared kiosks, or integration into your teams’ existing communication or sales tools can greatly increase recognition access.

O.C. Tanner’s partnership with Zebra allows your deskless employees to access recognition through Culture Cloud, giving them the ability to send/receive recognition, redeem points, approve nominations—all from their handheld device or tablet.

2. Give recognition in a personal and meaningful way

When it comes to meaningful recognition, 45% of retail employees say the recognition they receive at work feels like an empty gesture and a third (33%) say recognition at their organisation is inauthentic.

For recognition to feel genuine and sincere, it must be personal, timely, and specific. Ensure recognition calls out individual accomplishments and contributions, connects recognition to the organisation’s values and purpose, and details what the employee has done well and why it matters. Also, share stories of recognition happening across the organisation, so everyone can see the great work an employee has done.

Train leaders to get to know their people and learn how they want to be appreciated so leaders can create recognition moments that are appropriate and tailored to each individual. This ensures recognition is delivered in a personal and meaningful way, every time.

3. Build connection, belonging, and community with recognition

A quarter of retail employees (73%) believe recognition is a crucial part of building a workplace community and believe recognition for their work makes them feel like they belong at their organisation (77%).

Empower and equip peers to recognise one another—it’s guaranteed to build connection and community. Have leaders recognise employees during team meetings and when employees transition roles or teams. Help new employees feel welcomed and connected with recognition from day one.

Recognising employees' extra effort, career milestones, and life events shows you care about employees both at work and outside of work. With only 60% of retail employees saying their organisation celebrates life events, there is an opportunity to help employees thrive outside of work. Recognition for things like new babies or homes, but also accomplishments like running a marathon, learning a new skill, or even sending kids off to college are great ways to build connection, community, and a sense that the company cares about employees.

Custom awards are another powerful way to connect employees to your workplace community and organisation. Using symbols of your company culture, history, and work environment can help tell the stories of your employees’ accomplishments and how they’ve made an impact at your organisation, in a memorable way.

Treasury Wine Estates builds connection and belonging with recognition.

4. recognise growth and development

Ongoing skill building and development for retail workers can lead to more fulfillment, increase retention and innovation, and improve productivity and customer satisfaction. Recognising employees both during and after the skill-building process shows they are valued and have achieved something important as they learn new skills.

Employees have 3x greater odds of being satisfied with their experience if they’re recognised at the completion of training, but 4x greater odds when they are recognised during and after. We found only 66% of retail employees were recognised both during and after training with a gift card, certificate, or other form of acknowledgment. This leaves about ⅓ of employees who would benefit from more recognition as they build skills.

Recognition is equally important as employees learn new skills in a new role or team. When recognition is an integrated part of a job transition experience (as employees are learning new skills)—whether it’s a new hire, a newly promoted employee, or an employee changing job responsibilities or teams—satisfaction with their transition experience increases 5x.

Initiatives through Culture Cloud can help you set and achieve goals around skill building, sales, team targets, or customer service.

5. Encourage gratitude to support employees’ mental health

Retail can be a demanding business. A whopping 75% of retail employees report high levels of burnout.

Just as clinical research finds expressions of gratitude can help improve mental health, giving gratitude at work through recognition can also alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression. Employees who gave recognition in the past 30 days report decreases in the odds of:

• Burnout (-57%)
• Probable diagnosis of anxiety (-24%)
• Probable diagnosis of depression (-28%)

While recognition is not a replacement for mental health care, it can complement mental health wellbeing strategies. Giving and receiving recognition can increase belonging, connection, and gratitude, which counteract many factors that lead to poor mental health.

Encourage employees and leaders to give recognition when they see great work happening. Align employees’ work to a greater purpose, be specific in how they contributed and why it was unique, and focus on genuine, positive sentiment.

Simple acts of saying thank you and receiving recognition not only bolster the mental health of employees, but also strengthen workplace culture, which can help protect against mental health struggles and lead to an estimated annual savings of $8,000 per employee with probable depression.

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See how Culture Cloud makes it simple and fun to recognise everyone on your retail team. Request a demo.