Dedicated Teams: Recognizing and Rewarding the Unseen Efforts
Have you ever felt you were doing a lot of unrecognized work at your workplace? You’re not alone. Modern workplaces are hectic, and what starts as a simple request from a colleague or manager becomes a regular occurrence. For example, it can be a simple task of taking notes to planning coordination between existing dev teams and new hires.
In this article, our team will cover invisible work in dedicated teams in depth. By the end, you’ll learn how to recognize invisible work and take necessary steps to reward it, bringing benefits to your work environment.
What is Invisible Work? And the Examples
Invisible work is work done by employees that directly impacts the project outcome or operation of dedicated development teams or benefits the workplace but is not measured via rigid KPIs. As invisible work is not measured, they are overlooked and hence not awarded.
For example, an employee who handles and retains stakeholders and ensures proper communication might find his work underappreciated. Even though he is doing his best, he’ll not feel rewarded, leaving him frustrated in the long run.
As a manager or a person in a leadership position, you must identify invisible work rather than just focus on metrics, stats, and tactics.
According to Andrew Vakulich, delivery manager at Chudovo, some of the examples of invisible work that gets overlooked include:
- Relationship-building
- Strategic thinking
- Critic prevention
- Risk mitigation
On ground level, the indivisible work can consist of the following:
- Helping others by sharing knowledge, especially new colleagues
- Providing emotional support to the team, resolving conflicts, and boosting team morale
- Organizing social events
- Improving processes by removing inefficiencies
Most of the activities are part of a work culture but are hardly appreciated. The individuals who carry out invisible work do it out of responsibility, but also require time-to-time appreciation.
Problems of Not Recognizing Invisible Work
Not recognizing invisible work by a hardworking employee can lead to issues. This can impact the individual and the overall working environment of the dedicated development team. Below, we have listed the impact of unrecognized invisible work:
- Demotivated and burned out: Individuals who constantly put up invisible work can start feeling demotivated and burned out if their work is not recognized. They may only want to do the necessary work to meet deadlines without engaging proactively in helping others, resolving conflicts, and organizing social events.
- Losing talent: An organization can lose talent if an individual who does invisible work leaves. Along with the individual, the team can lose its vast experience and ability to manage the workplace.
- Limited career growth: Employees whose invisible work is not recognized can also see an impact on their growth and development, especially when it comes to performance reviews and promotions.
- Impact on productivity: With less recognition, it may lead to less productivity. It can also impact innovation as extra efforts are not easily recognized.
How to Recognize and Reward Invisible Work in Dedicated Teams
As a leader or manager, you must recognize and reward invisible work in dedicated teams. This is applicable for both already existing developers and when you hire developers.
1. Recognize the labor and quantify it.
The best approach to identify invisible work in dedicated teams is to recognize it. However, recognizing them is not easy, as invisible labor can span widely depending on the position and responsibilities.
Furthermore, some invisible work, such as providing support, organizing meetings, or carrying out social tasks, might not even be job-related.
To resolve this, managers can use the following techniques to recognize invisible labor:
- Inquire about tasks that regularly inform them and ask them their contributions apart from assigned work.
- Create a harmonic team environment where members speak about work challenges and are open to sharing their contributions that are generally not recognized.
- Create a proper peer recognition system that allows team members to help recognize others’ contributions. You can do it by offering forms to fill out on a weekly basis or just creating a feedback platform. A simple shout-out channel can also help.
2. Performance management inclusion
Invisible work in dedicated teams should become part of performance management.
This requires managers to carefully add performance evaluation criteria. For example, criteria such as collaboration efforts, mentorship, and process improvement efforts can be added to individual performance metrics.
To capture a clear picture, feedback should be taken from all possible players, including peers, cross-functional colleagues, and direct feedback from managers.
3. Rewarding invisible work
A simple “thank you” can go a long way when it comes to recognizing invisible work. Additionally, publicly acknowledging the efforts of the dedicated team members ensures the contributor feels valued.
Apart from that, managers can award individuals with outstanding contributions by promoting them or offering awards. Furthermore, it’s always best to identify talent for leadership roles that demonstrate strong “glue work.”
Short-term recognition also includes offering monetary rewards. This can be a one-time bonus or a salary increase to reflect their contributions.
Lastly, it’s always best to ask the employee about his needs. If the employee wants a flexible work environment, then provide them with greater flexibility, both in terms of location and work schedules. This can go a long way in fostering a positive relationship with the employee.
Conclusion
To reach the best potential, managers must identify invisible labor or glue work. Every single contribution adds to the success of the organization.
That’s why leaders must ensure the following:
- Identify invisible labor by adding new balanced metrics.
- Personally listening to team members on their contributions
- Reward and acknowledge their work.
- Identify the best talent and promote them to leadership positions.
- Foster a working environment where individual work is recognized.
Doing all these can bring out the best in your dedicated team. For example, it will make them stronger and more successful. They are appreciative of small contributions and more productive. This has always been a trait of growing companies that actively hire developers and retain them for long-term growth.
Organizations must also train managers to identify both tangible and intangible contributions. They should know how to identify glue work and award them. Also, team leaders can also lead by example by doing invisible work and ensuring a safe environment where everyone is welcome to do so.
Overall, not all work can be put on metric. That’s why an empathetic and open-minded approach can go a long way when it comes to identifying and recognizing invisible work.