"Motivating without Money" * See Us in BusinessWeek

In the last several months, I’ve spoken with the leaders of quite a few organizations who realize the importance of implementing an Employee Stimulus Package to keep employees motivated, producing against needed objectives, and committed to the future of the company.

A recent article in Business Week, Motivating without Money, illustrates this approach well.

“These days, with layoffs rampant and companies slashing budgets across the board to weather the economic downturn, motivating employees to bring their "A" game to the office every day is harder than ever. According to a survey of nearly 80,000 employees by the Corporate Executive Board, one in every five employees now consider themselves disengaged from their job, compared with one out of ten last summer. What's more, two out of three companies surveyed in late 2008 by market research firm Quantum Workplace had lower overall employee engagement scores compared with a year earlier.

“Small gestures can go a long way during difficult times, so many firms have recently turned to an Irish outfit called Globoforce, which designs corporate recognition programs for clients like Intuit, Procter & Gamble (PG), and Dow Chemical. Globoforce's programs allow employees to choose a reward they want rather than co-workers or managers making the choice for them. A music lover in accounts receivable, for example, might choose tickets to a concert, while a foodie in sales might choose a $50 gift card to Whole Foods. Such freedom of choice can be much more effective than the scattershot, ad hoc recognition (think: pizza parties) that normally takes place in corporations.

“Such programs are more valuable than ever in a recession, according to a study conducted last fall by Towers Perrin that polled more than 10,000 respondents in 13 countries. (Globoforce, whose U.S. headquarters is in Boston, has closed several deals in the first quarter of 2009.) Nearly half (49%) of U.S. companies have recognition programs, according to a May 2008, study from Watson Wyatt. But those programs only target 10% of employees in the U.S., compared with 36% at European firms, the survey found, so there's an opportunity to enlarge their scope and effectiveness.”

Do you have an effective, strategic employee recognition program
in place? If so, are you optimizing the scope and effectiveness to reach all employees in every location globally?