Why managers are stingy in appreciating your work
Have you ever felt that your manager doesn’t recognize you enough or doesn’t recognize you at all despite you putting in 100% of your effort at work? Here are some reasons why he chooses not to appreciate you
Time – The most common reason given by most managers is that appreciating someone through formal mechanisms is time-consuming and complicated. They would rather show their appreciation towards the end of the year with a good appraisal rating.
Partiality – Most managers fear that if they appreciate too often or appreciate the same person publicly multiple times they will be seen as biased. This leads to either praising in private or not praising at all.
Basics- Managers don’t want to appreciate their people for just getting the basics right. Most managers feel that day to day work doesn’t require recognition. They want to see what the employee can do “out of the box”.
Lack of involvement – In many cases, the manager is himself not involved enough in the day to day work of his team to understand who is doing what and how well each person is doing their work. Also most of the times he/she may be unaware of what goes behind achieving a team task i.e. – who had the maximum contribution in a team achievement.
How can we help our Managers?
It’s time we as HR managers start focusing on how we can help managers to overcome the barriers they face while recognizing. What we need is not to force managers to recognize people but to help them understand the necessity of the same.
Make them Aware – Most managers are not aware of the importance of making an employee feel valued and neither are they aware of the tools that can be used to do the same. It is important to educate them about the various methods available –formal tools available in the organisation, verbal appreciation at a public form, written appreciation mails etc.
Simplify! – Most managers complain that the portals are too complicated and time consuming to use. Removing multiple layers of approvals to formally appreciate someone might help.
Recognizing Them – We cannot motivate managers to recognize others if they themselves do not feel motivated and recognized. Managers who are good people managers should also be appreciated regularly.
Making it a culture – Our job as HR business partners is to create a culture where appreciating comes naturally and is not something which people have to be reminded to do. This way we will create a culture where people are appreciated for their good work spontaneously.
Recognised people are catalysts for great organisations. Recognised employees feel happier and are easy to motivate! Thus aiding HR managers in retaining and attracting the best talent in the industry.