In today’s workplace, a Kudos culture, centered on recognising and appreciating contributions, is crucial for boosting morale, engagement, and overall success. This transformative force celebrates achievements, fosters innovation, and builds a culture of recognition that enhances collaboration, diversity, and a sense of purpose among employees.
In today’s workplace, a Kudos culture, built on acknowledging and valuing contributions, is vital for boosting morale, engagement, and overall success. For instance, during the team meeting, whenever the discussion moves to recognising and appreciating what team members have done, it automatically leads to an instant uplift in smiles, energy, and enthusiasm, and the call gets refreshed to newer levels of excitement.
That is the power of ‘recognition’. To say that recognition and appreciation are important for any organisation would be a clichéd statement. It obviously is, and calling out what an employee has achieved not only brings positivity, but contributes to a productive work environment, and fosters employee engagement, loyalty, and a culture of continuous improvement. Kudos, which means praise and honour received for an achievement, have led to practicing the ‘Kudos culture’, which is a method of expressing gratitude to employees in acknowledgment of their diligent efforts and noteworthy accomplishments.
Rajesh Rai, Vice President – People Team and Head of Human Resources, India, GlobalLogic, has shared some insights on the importance of kudos culture in today’s workplace.
WHAT DOES KUDOS CULTURE MEAN IN A WORKPLACE?
A Kudos culture provides the impetus for others to do better and overall builds a culture where great performance is celebrated. It also encourages and reinforces the values, behaviors, and expectations (both cultural and workwise) an organisation would like to see in its employees. Therefore, it’s such a weighty element in defining ‘ways of working’ for any company. Moreover, it helps anyone to recognise and appreciate any of their colleagues publicly and that always holds great value for motivating people. It builds an open culture where meritocracy and performance are celebrated, which further helps in bringing empathy and gratefulness to the workplace. A well-designed Kudos culture helps build collaboration and relationships through appreciating each other’s work – a must in today’s world. It has also demonstrated how it can increase the ‘cultural health quotient’ through the ability to appreciate anyone’s performance and contributions, as it does not restrict this from coming only from managers and peers.
FOSTERING INNOVATION AND BELONGING
Kudos culture enhances and fosters diversity of thoughts and contributions. Rather, it is on an equal footing and can be recognised through what they contribute. The higher the appreciation of diverse work and contributions, the better the innovation and hence business results. It also plays a pivotal role for generations of employees to build purpose in their work lives. When appreciation is given for the contributions made, it automatically helps build the momentum to accomplish more in the same direction, leading to employees finding purpose in all they do. Hence, increasing the overall belongingness with the organisation, their team, and their work through this purpose.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM KUDOS CULTURE?
So, what kind of employee experience is expected through the Kudos culture in today’s era? An employee experience that is personalised, meaningful, and matters to employees. This means that recognition of ‘moments that matter’ demonstrates the significance and core importance in the whole scheme of things in the hugely changing and disrupting world we are living in today.
Each individual’s need is different, each employee wants something that fits into their reality that makes things whole and that is what Kudos has to bring today. Another critical point to note is that no one size fits all – it is the ‘Personalisation of Kudos’ that comes out as the best way to celebrate the diversity of people at work, because when the diversity of contributions and work is recognised in this way, it truly leads to innovation.
By Rajesh Rai, Vice President – People Team and Head of Human Resources, India, GlobalLogic
