Effective Recognition Programs Have Unlimited Impact on Healthcare Employees

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

This blog post excerpts the HealthStream article, Effective Recognition: The Right Way to Influence Behavior, by Craig Spilker, Head of Product + Engagement, AMPT, and Brad Weeks, Director, Performance Assessment  and Development, HealthStream.

With monetary rewards, managers can be limited in how and when they can acknowledge positive behavior. This may not only deter recognition from happening, but also may strain relationships between team members and managers. Instead of a limited pool of resources defining how and when a manager acknowledges employee performance, employee performance determines the how and when of recognition.

Effective Recognition Programs Have More Impact than a Rewards-Based Program.

In the highly regulated environment of healthcare, reimbursement and pay structure can change at any time, impacting any budget not tied directly to patient care. When healthcare leaders are thinking about how to motivate employees, they should consider lower cost alternatives that can be sustainable and not impacted by budget cuts. Taking an employee reward system away from a workforce due to lack of funds will have a more detrimental impact on the employee experience than not implementing one at all.

Rewards and tangible motivators do not need to be eliminated entirely, they just should not be the foundation of how and why we motivate our employees to deliver high-quality patient care or other job responsibilities that allow the organization to live their purpose. Encouraging positive workforce behaviors through frequent, authentic and public recognition should be at the forefront with rewards being reserved for larger accomplishments such as years of service and/ or to encourage activities that change processes vs. behaviors that change engagement and performance.

About AMPT

AMPT is an employee engagement platform powered by social recognition and communication amongst the workforce. Employers connect with AMPT to strengthen the company’s core values by assessing their strengths and providing personal and meaningful affirmation. Through this process, employees are aligned with the foundation for company culture and help foster the way success is defined and measured. AMPT empowers organizations to take effective recognition to the next level by making it easy for employees to provide meaningful feedback to each other and quickly cascades recognition across the workforce to connect and influence the behavior of all employees.

This article also includes:

  • “Reward” and “Recognition” Are Not Synonyms
  • 83% of Employees Prefer Authentic Recognition over Rewards
  • Recognition Vs. Rewards: Why Effective Recognition Wins
  • Effective Recognition Strengthens Relationships between Employees, Teams,And Managers

Compensation & Rewards Exclusively for Healthcare

HealthStream Compensation & Rewards Solutions optimize your workforce’s compensation by automating inefficient error-prone processes and promoting a pay-for-performance culture to help retain staff. Interoperable with HRIS, performance, and financial systems, HealthStream Compensation brings your organization a secure, auditable healthcare compensation workflow that results in more accurate compensation decisions, and better allocation of merit and bonus dollars.