A Culture of Recognition and Loyalty

In my last post I wrote about the different kind of cultures that can arise in an organization.

So, what kind of culture works best? That depends on your goal. If all you care about is cranking out widgets and aren’t particularly concerned about the high-turnover of employees who perhaps are not passionate about widgets, need some challenge in their work, or can’t abide another day of “meaningless” work, then worrying about your corporate culture is probably not high on your priority list.

But if you’re concerned about employee loyalty – keeping those employees who are committed to the success of your organization and that of your customers – then your best cultural option is recognition. In fact, recent research by Monster (as reported in WorldatWork) found that “being recognized for good work” consistently ranked high as a reason why employees would remain loyal to an employer.

"Globally, having a great boss and co-workers, challenging/interesting work and gaining recognition all recorded results at 20% or above, demonstrating that, for many workers, there is more to their loyalty than financial rewards.

"Respondents in India (31%), Italy (27%) and Ireland (24%) rated gaining recognition as the foremost reason for them being loyal to their employers."

Clearly, employees need and want recognition for their efforts. It’s easy and cheap to give and can save you millions in turnover expense.

I would also like to take this opportunity, in honor of tomorrow’s American Thanksgiving holiday, to give thanks and express gratitude to my colleagues and team members who make my work more fun, more interesting, and certainly more exciting every day of the year. And to you, the readers of this blog, thank you for your insights that have continued to educate me and contributed to my growth as an employee, a manager, and most importantly, a person.