Your employees act as the foundation of your organization's success, providing ground-level support for customers and management. When employees do well, the company does well. For these reasons, it's important to recognize and reward employees for a job well done. However, employee recognition can have residual benefits you may not have expected. Here are 4 reasons why recognizing and rewarding employees reduces recruitment needs.

Retain Employees

According to Forbes, 66% of employees will consider quitting without adequate recognition. When you lose employees, you need to pay to hire and train new employees instead of developing your current employees and promoting them from within when the opportunity presents itself. Happy employees, on the other hand, will stay with the customer.

Improve Employee Engagement

Even business owners can relate to feeling disengaged at work. When employees go through work every day without a goal or a thank you for their efforts, they won't be as engaged or happy at work. They won't pay attention to the rules and procedures as well, especially when there's a chance. Some companies, like Maritz Motivation, know that customers will also notice a lack of engagement when they interact with the employees, negatively impacting the consumer experience. When customers receive acknowledgement for their work, the positive reinforcement makes employees more mindful.

Encourage Healthy Competition

Many employers acknowledge employees through contests. The contests not only reward employees who produce the best results, but it encourages healthy competition in the office. Employees will work harder in order to beat their peers. You see higher productivity numbers, and the employees have a clear goal. After the competition, employees will continue to work hard in order to prepare for the next contest.

Find Leadership Potential

You have a team of superstars. However, management may struggle to determine which employees have the most leadership potential. When you recognize your star employees every week or every month, the employees who work hard and put forth the effort will receive awards over and over again. Management will recognize the top employees' names for the right reasons. Team leaders can use these employees to help other employees who can't produce the same results quite yet. When you have a leadership role open, you'll have a good idea of who will perform well in the role.

Whether you offer a free lunch on Friday for the best salesperson of the week or a trip to New York for the customer service agent of the year, employees stay when they feel appreciated.