Increase Productivity by 31% Just by Saying “Thank You”

Recognize This! – “If managers just increased their praise and recognition of one employee once a day for 21 business days in a row, six months later, those teams as opposed to control group had a 31% higher level of productivity.”

Please, if you do nothing else with anything you read in my blog, take 15 minutes to listen to this podcast on HBR by Shawn Achor, CEO of Aspirant and author of The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work.

If you can’t listen in, the post below is quoted highlights from the podcast:

This is research about how you affect the bottom line. And that requires changing the formula for success. People used to think if you worked harder right now, you’ll be more successful. If you’re more successful, you’ll be happier. This is wrong for two reasons:

1) If we follow that formula, we never get to happiness, because every time we get to success, we move the goal posts of what success looks like. If happiness is always on the opposite side of success, we push happiness over the cognitive horizon.

2) More importantly, your brain works in the opposite order. When your brain is positive, it outperforms your brain when it is negative, neutral or stressed.

When we’re at work, our brain is usually negative neutral or stressed, which hamstrings our brains ability to deal with all we could if our brain were positive.

You can change your brain and rewire it much more quickly than we thought was possible. If managers just increased their praise and recognition of one employee once a day for 21 business days in a row, six months later, those teams as opposed to control group, had a 31% higher level of productivity.

Think about what a 31% change in productivity would look like and what a small change in recognition practices would require.

One thing we suggest is when you open your inbox every day, write a 2 minute email praising and recognizing someone. You just activated 21 people in your environment making it easier to have a feedback loop with your people in your circle. Your brain also begins to recognize that you also have a lot more social support in your network. The greatest predictor of your success and happiness during a time of stress is your social support network. If you create social cohesion at work and home, you start finding more meaning at work, connect to more people, and your job satisfaction and life satisfaction skyrocket.

“When companies decide to invest in their employees to make sure they have a positive and engaged workforce, they’re reaping back a long term return on their investment that’s much higher than what they put in initially.”

I challenge you – take the 21 day experiment. Take 2 minutes every day for 21 days to recognize and praise one person. See how that changes your own positive perception of the workplace as well as those around you.

Generations vs. Life Stage * What’s More Important in the Workplace?

Career Advisory Board

Recognize This! – Forcing an “understanding” of a group of people based on an arbitrary designation will lead to incorrect assumptions and disengagement.

When you think of your workforce as a whole, how do you categorize them in your mind? By generation or by life stage?

A good deal of press and research seem to be devoted to “generations in the workplace” – GenY/Millennials expect ABC whereas Boomers prefer XYZ. I tend to fall in the other camp, though. As I wrote about a few months ago on Compensation Café:

Whether 26 or 46 years old, people with children tend to have more in common than singles of 26, and singles of 46. Comments I’ve received from readers are nearly universal in tone to this one:

“I want recognition, not some fussy bonus thing once every year or two but simple, frequent ‘Thanks, that was great and it really mattered!’ I want to see some understanding that I have a life outside work that is more important to me than some new fancy title. I want to work where I'm not expected to check my personality at the door and be a cog. I want to get out of this silly face-time model and, as I did in a previous job, use social media for virtual presence so I can work from anywhere. I want to be treated like the trustworthy, professional, hard-working grownup that I am. I'm a 56 year old gen Y and agree with you that generations aren't so different. We're all changing together while leadership models aren't keeping up.”

Relying too strongly on “generational expectations” simply leads to a disconnect in expectations as illustrated in the chart at right (from Career Advisory Board, full infographic available here).

“Millennials” want meaningful work, high pay, and a sense of accomplishment for what they do. Is that very much different from what you want? It’s not for me.

Tell me – do you identify more with those of the same “generation” as you or those in the same “life-stage?” What are the most important factors to you at work?

Recognition & Reward Program Best Practices

Recognize This! – Reinforcing behaviors in a timely way will always be at the top of my recognition best practices list.

Ascent Group recently came out with their annual Reward & Recognition Program Profiles & Best Practices. The report is well worth the investment. Highlighting just a few of the key findings:

“Reinforce behaviors and reward results. Recognize the right behaviors and communicate such that the employee’s behavior becomes a model within the work group.”

When you define the behaviors that reflect your values, your employees begin to see the values come alive in their daily work.

“Be timely, specific, and communicate! Make sure you recognize behavior and reward results in a timely manner so employees know exactly why they are being recognized.”

Recognition given at the annual banquet or performance review does nothing to reinforce in the moment precisely what it is you need them to repeat. Make sure messages of recognition are specific and reference the value demonstrated.

“Match the reward to the person and the achievement.”

Every person is different. A BBQ isn’t motivating for a person who lives in a high-rise apartment building. A gift-card to a steakhouse isn’t rewarding for a vegetarian. Let your employees choose what’s personally memorable and culturally relevant for them – from 2,500 brands and 25 million options around the world.

“Involve employees in the design and refinement of your reward and recognition programs.”

One of our 10 tactics discussed in Winning with a Culture of Recognition, involving employees – from every division, region and level – turns employees into program evangelists, ensuring rapid program adoption.

“Don’t just offer rewards and recognition for front line employees – extend the program to cover all employees in the department so the entire group is working towards the same goals.”

One of our 5 tenets of strategic recognition also discussed in our book, giving the opportunity to all to participate not only reinforces the needed behaviors and values across your entire workforce, but makes it possible to measure the understanding and demonstration of those values by employee, division, region and company as a whole.

“Look to technology to facilitate program administration and tracking.”

Doing any of this strategically – especially on a global scale – is far beyond the capabilities of an Excel spreadsheet. Take advantage of our Global Strategic Recognition solution to eliminate the administrative overhead, hassle and risk associated with old-school tactical approaches to recognition and reward.

“Measure the effectiveness and impact of your reward and recognition programs.”

Without a strong technology solution, it’s impossible to measure results. Our real-time In*telligence reports let you customize dashboards and reporting elements to deliver the status updates and success metrics your executives demand.

I encourage you to download the full report. Tell me, what other best practices would you highlight for recognition and reward programs?

Company Values Are Vital to Culture * Whether You Follow Them or Not

Recognize This! – Employees will follow your lead on what you truly value based on what you recognize and reward.

Frequent readers of my blog know how I feel about company values and their influence on the culture of the organization. Ann Rhoades, president of PeopleInk and a founding executive of JetBlue (whose values are a topic of praise and a mini case study in our book Winning with a Culture of Recognition) wrote an entire book on the topic: Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture that Outperforms the Competition. She gave some highlights in a recent Smartblog post, saying:

“Just by looking at the behavior of leaders, you can tell what the values of a company really are. And all too often, those lived values bear almost no resemblance to the stated values — those lofty statements painted on the walls or sanctified in a mission statement. … Your values will be perceived as hollow and meaningless unless you base compensation and rewards on expressions of the behaviors that go along with the values.”

I couldn’t agree more. Regardless of the STATED values, it’s the TOLERATED values around which the culture is formed. Making the stated values and the tolerated values one and the same is possible through strategic employee recognition – structuring your recognition and rewards program such that:

1) Every recognition given is linked tightly (and with a detailed message about how and why) to a company value demonstrated. -- "Ann, great job on the MacGuffin project. The way you rallied everyone from multiple parts of the organization to pull together a comprehensive, detailed response embodies what we mean by 'Teamwork.' I'm sure your efforts will be the linchpin to our winning this business."

2) Such recognition is given frequently -- It doesn't do Ann any good to be reminded of her achievement a year later in her performance review or at the annual banquet if she barely remembers the MacGuffin project. If your goal is to encourage frequent repetition of such actions -- make it memorable in the moment!

3) Such recognition is given to 80-90% of employees, not just the top 10% of elite -- Far more than your top 10% are working hard every day to deliver the results you need. You must encourage all of them to repeat the actions and behaviors you've defined as necessary for success. In fact, research shows focusing on the top 20% is “a corrosive approach that discourages cooperation and initiative.” (Workspan magazine, December 2010, membership required)

In my organization, the values with more power and influence are the:

Tell me about your company culture. Do the company values as stated mean anything?

Stop Turning Rewards into an April Fools Prank

Recognize This: Poorly structured recognition programs can be more damaging than no program at all.

Dan McCarthy, author of the Great Leadership blog and a person I respect, recently blogged “Without Integrity and Trust, Rewards and Recognition are Meaningless."

Dan points out that poor program design allows for participants to “game the system” and “do whatever it takes to gain the advantage and win at all costs.”

And the money quote from Dan: “Rewards and recognition are supposed to motivate, inspire, and not create cynicism and mistrust.”

That’s why we so strongly advocate strategic recognition programs in which the focus is on appreciation, not competition. Incentive programs, in which people compete against each other for a prize, can have their place, but far more prevalent in the culture should be an employee recognition program in which all employee are encouraged to notice and appreciate the good work of their colleagues.

The key to structuring recognition and rewards to avoid “gaming the system” lies in creating a common "language" of recognition that is understood by all employees, regardless of where in the world they may work, job duties, or level within the organization. That's why we recommend the company values (and demonstration of them in daily work) as reasons for recognition and reward -- then publicizing that (as appropriate) through internal social recognition mechanisms.

This helps all employees understand what it takes to be recognized -- especially if a detailed message is included describing precisely why the employee deserved recognition -- and prevents such gaming.

Have you participated in a recognition, rewards or incentive program in your workplace? What was your overall sense of the program? One that could be “gamed” to the advantage of the highly competitive? Or one that allowed all employees to demonstrate their excellent capabilities and achievement, for which they would be recognized?

Also, don’t forget to tweet your tips for employee appreciation and recognition using hash-tag #appreciationtip to be entered to win a copy of the Winning with a Culture of Recognition eBook or Amazon Kindle pre-loaded with the eBook.

GenY Grows Up * How They Will Manage the Workplace

Recognize This: The “young ones” soon become the leaders. GenY will forever change management – for the better.

GenY and their needs in the marketplace is frequently a topic for bloggers.Usually, the attitude is one of annoyance about GenY’s need for constant praise, recognition and rewards, or their preference for team-oriented work.

But always remember – GenY, like every generation before them – will grow up. That doesn’t mean, however, their work preferences will change. It’s far more likely GenY will forever influence the way work (at least until the next generation comes along).

James Kerr in a recent post on Management Issues put it this way:

“Today's organizational designs will likely be deemed obsolete. Millennials will demand a shift away from ‘command and control’ reporting lines to more cooperative-based leadership models that provide greater autonomy and freedom of choice in the way work is performed. …

“Clearly, a greater degree of emotional intelligence will be required by senior leaders so that they can proactively guide organizational transformation while continuing to grow and evolve successful enterprises.”

Are you ready for a “cooperative” work style? How does your team function today? What would be your preferred style – either in an individual contributor role as a manager? Do you see these changes happening already?

Differentiating Employees: Why Not Let Them Do It Themselves?

Recognize This: No one knows the contributions and achievements of an employee as well as everyone does.

In Monday’s post, I discussed the problem of differentiation creep in the workforce – how the percentage of exceptional employees is increasing as the percentage of poor performers is decreasing.

What’s the solution to the problem? The Workspan article (“Measuring Employee Performance the Right Way,” January 2011. Membership required.) gets close:

“People need to know how they are doing, and individual performance feedback should come as soon as possible on a direct basis when employees achieve, or fail to achieve, their objectives – project completion, outstanding service, missed targets, goal achievements and so on.”

I agree with that statement 100% -- but it doesn’t go far enough. If you truly want to differentiate employees, let them do it themselves. Let all employees recognize excellent behaviors, actions and results demonstrated or achieved by their colleagues. Require specifics on what was done and why it was important. Now you have a much more complete picture of employee achievement throughout the year – from the wisdom of crowds. 

What are your solutions for differentiation creep?
 

Also, don’t forget to tweet your tips for employee appreciation and recognition using hash-tag #appreciationtip to be entered to win a copy of the Winning with a Culture of Recognition eBook or Amazon Kindle pre-loaded with the eBook.

Kindness or Meanness * Which Is the Better Management Tactic?

Recognize This: You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

An American colleague of mine used this phrase recently. It came to mind when I happened to read these two article on kindness and meanness in the workplace. While I certainly don’t think of employees as flies, the truth of the aphorism still resonates.

Writing in the New York Times, Bob Sutton, author of Good Boss, Bad Boss, said:

“Widespread meanness not only damages people; it also increases costs and undermines performance by driving out good employees at alarming rates. Numerous studies have also shown that people respond to demeaning and disrespectful bosses and co-workers by calling in sick more often, making fewer suggestions, working less hard and doing lower-quality work.”

Quite true. Management by intimidation must end. The evidence is clear that mean management styles, even just by ignoring employees, does no good and great damage.

In counterpoint to meanness is Davia Temin, CEO of Temin and Co., writing in Forbes about kindness: 

“I am here to tell you that it need not be so! I firmly believe that kindness can still infuse winning, tough-minded, smart, highly competitive and driven organizations. In fact, it can fuel them, and make them even better-functioning, even more outstanding. And it can make those extreme hours we spend in the office that much more pleasant, even fulfilling.”

I know which environment I’d rather work in, and indeed, do work in today. What about you? Is your day more filled with meanness or kindness?

Also, don’t forget to tweet your tips for employee appreciation and recognition using hash-tag #appreciationtip to be entered to win a copy of the Winning with a Culture of Recognition eBook or Amazon Kindle pre-loaded with the eBook.

The Message Is More Important than the Style

Recognize This: Don’t legislate recognition too much. Leave plenty of room for employees to express their true thoughts and emotions.

The power of recognition lies in letting employees voice their true thoughts and feelings of appreciation to their peers and colleagues. To get the most out of your strategic recognition program, give employees guidelines, but let them tell their own story of appreciation.

Possible guidelines:

1) Always include the company value demonstrated or strategic objective contributed to in the recognition message. This brings the values and objectives to life in the daily behaviors and efforts of employees.

2) Write a detailed message of appreciation expressing precisely how the person being recognized contributed and why that contribution was important within the bigger picture. This helps employees understand that their daily work has greater meaning and purpose beyond the day-to-day.

That’s it. Step back and get out of the way. Of course, we have our five tenets that underpin the success of a strategic recognition program, but as far as the daily sharing of appreciation, it’s as simple as the above.

End your week on a positive note. Share your appreciation with a colleague today.

The Importance of Recognition Done Right

Recognize This: How you praise is as important as when.

I follow a lot of blogs in the HR and leadership space, as I’m sure you do, too. One I recently started enjoying is Respectful Workplace. A post at the end of last year has resonated so strongly with me, I must share it with you. In “The Power of Recognition,” Erica Pinsky wrote:

“Rather it is the daily practice of recognition – the thank you’s , great job, we couldn’t have gotten here without your input, you are a valued member of this team – that inspire many of us to want to continue making an effort. Let’s face it, whatever our job, task or profession, we want to know that what we are doing matters. We all want to know that others appreciate the effort we make. And unless someone is doing that on a regular basis, chances are we won’t feel valued or appreciated, which often translates to a lack of motivation and the inevitable drop in productivity.”

Erica’s covered all the basics here – frequency, sincerity, timeliness – and the strong link between recognition, performance and productivity.

Wally Bock, author of the excellent Three Star Leadership blog, made a similar case, but also highlighting what should not be praised:

“I do not praise thee for capacity. You do not merit praise for being smart or talented or any other gift you have received without merit or effort on your part.”

That may seem counter-intuitive, but your smarts, talents and other gifts are what you brought to the table in the first place. It’s how you choose to use those talents that merits praise and appreciation.

What do you think? Did Erica and Wally get it right? Is there anything else that should not be praised that many assume should?

Global Integration of People Systems Delivers More to Your Bottom Line

Recognize This: Global integration of talent systems delivers 38% more Return on Equity (ROE).

Why should you care if your talent management systems and programs align with your company values and strategic objectives? Simple – you’ll see a much higher return on equity (ROE).

Ernst & Young reported in the January 2011 issue of Workspan Magazine (“Think Global, Act Global,” membership required):

“Companies that aligned their talent management programs with their business strategy enjoyed a 20% higher annual return on equity (ROE) over a five year period than those that did not. Returns were even more dramatic among those companies that integrated talent management programs, processes, and IT systems/processes on a global scale. These companies experienced an ROE over five years that was 38% better than those that did not.”

That’s precisely why we strongly advocate in our strategic employee recognition programs that customers:

1) Align business objectives and company values with reasons for recognition to make these come alive in the daily work of employees

2) Launch their programs to ALL employees in ALL global locations simultaneously, both to prevent any employees from feeling like “second-class citizens” if they’re not included in the initial launch, and to ensure program consistency on a global scale

3) Integrate recognition with performance management systems

Not only will you gain a much more complete and accurate understanding of how well your employees know and contribute to strategic objectives, you’ll also dramatically increase your return on equity.

Not a bad reason to go global and go integrated.

Generations in the Workplace

Recognize This: Increasing recognition in the workplace isn’t a solution for Gen Y employees. It’s a solution for ALL employees.

Admittedly, I know little about American Football, and even less about college football. But I was deeply intrigued by a recent post of Kris Dunn’s (the HR Capitalist) on the “Oregon Funk” of the Oregon University football team.

Apparently, Nike designs and provides a different uniform for every game. Some like them, some hate them. Or, as Kris puts it:

“Traditionalists hate the Oregon uniforms and the Oregon basketball court. I'm guessing the kids they recruit LOVE IT ALL.

“And at the end of the day, that's really all that matters, isn't it? The vibe helps them acquire talent in their demographic.”

This made me think of the ongoing discussion of Gen Y in the workplace and whether their perceived need for constant recognition and feedback is a good or a bad thing. Dan Pink’s take is:

“The problem isn’t that the Millennial are wrong. The problem is that they’re right. The workplace is one of the most feedback deprived places in modern life.”

Tying the two together, Gen Y are the new generation in the workplace. They are bringing to light a long-term problem in the workplace we’ve all come to accept as “just the way things are.” Bottom line: more recognition doesn’t benefit just Gen Y. It benefits us all.

Do Amazing Things * Overcome Stereotypes

Recognize This: We all have the capacity to do amazing things. We need the desire – and sometimes courage – to do so.

Chris Ferdinandi, Renegade HR blogger, has done it again. For the second year in a row he has published a strong compendium of advice from HR experts on how to be amazing in 2011.

I’m honored to have my contribution on “Overcoming Stereotypes” included in “Do Amazing Things” this year. An excerpt:

“One [stereotype] we often hear in our line of business is: ‘People in China don’t want to be recognized individually.’ A client of ours proved this false simply by giving it a try. When implementing a new, first of its kind, global employee recognition program to all 33,000 of its employees, HR leaders knew the large contingent of employees in China couldn’t simply be ignored. … After program launch, the leadership team was pleasantly surprised to discover China had the fastest rate of adoption for greatest number of employees of the new employee recognition program.”

Other strong contributions from HR pros I respect include:

• Fail More (Chris Ferdinandi)
• Simplify, Simplify, Simplify (Lance Haun)
• Values, Not Words (Ben Eubanks)
• Break Out of the Boundaries (Paul Hebert)
• Become the Collaboration Leader (Steve Roesler)
• Be Curious (Ann Bares)
• Shadow Someone (Trish McFarlane)

I encourage you to read the eBook for great additional advice and thought leadership. What would you add as your recommendation to Be Amazing in 2011?

Making Your Company Values Real in the Daily Work of All Employees

Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of company values as the glue that holds us (employees, managers, leaders) together as we face unprecedented change in the workplace.

I received this comment to the post on HR.com:

“At the Manufacturing Skills Australia conference Prof. Alan Patching (Program Director 2000 Olympic Games) gave a great presentation. To open he asked the audience of 500 'does everyone in this room work for an organisation with company values?' A smattering of people raised their hands so Alan went to each one and asked them to detail those values to the audience. No one could remember them. My question to you is if company values are so crucial why isn’t it taken up by the workers?”

This is an excellent question and very important point about company values. Most people in an organization have no idea what the company values are. More importantly, even more have no idea what those values mean in their daily work.

Getting a group of people in a room to decide on the values, creating posters and plaques to hang those values on the wall, perhaps sending out a communications campaign about the values – none of these are worthwhile or in the least effective in making your values real to every employee.

Sure, we’d like to help your employees recite their values. But we’re far more concerned about your employees having the values so deeply ingrained that they both live out those values in their daily work and notice when colleagues around them do the same.

This is the power of Strategic Employee Recognition in which you:

1) Purposefully tie every recognition moment in the company to a company value
2) Detail more specifically how the person’s behaviors, actions or achievements reflected the values in contribution to project/customer/company success
3) Encourage everyone to notice and appreciate these “value demonstrations” in their peers and colleagues

When you do this, every employee now not only knows the values, but also knows what those values look like in their day-to-day efforts, knows the company considers these efforts and value demonstrations important, and is encouraged to repeat them.

If you make your company values real in this way for every employee, I guarantee they will be “taken up by the workers.”

Do you know your company values (no peeking at the plaque on the wall)? More importantly, do you know what those values look like in your daily tasks.

Stop Killing Passion at Work!

Recognize This: You always have the power of recognition.

Last month I received an email from an HR director I’ve corresponded with in the past (full disclosure: this person is not a client of Globoforce). Her role is head of employee engagement and the recognition and reward program. Her email to me was full of anguish over an attempt of recognition that was rejected.

She had nominated a colleague for a prestigious honor within the company. This colleague had demonstrated passion, knowledge, excitement and general excellence in completing a certain project far above and beyond expectations. But because the project was technically within the colleague’s job description, the recognition nomination was denied. The person had been “just doing their job.”

My advice to this person, who simply wanted to be sure her colleague was properly recognized for her efforts, was:

While you may not be able to recognize her through official channels, you do retain the power of recognition. I would recommend you:

1) Write a personal letter to the colleague, one she can keep and take with her wherever her career may take her in the future, expressing how much your colleague did to help you and how greatly you appreciate it.

2) If her boss is someone other than the person who denied the recognition nomination, send your colleague the above letter in an email, copying the boss so the boss will also know the tremendous asset your colleague is to the team.

3) However you can, help this colleague in her career by telling her colleagues and superiors what a wonderful and innovative asset she is.

What additional advice would you have given to ensure the fire of passion for the work wasn’t doused in this conscientious employee (both the one being nominated for recognition and the one trying to give it)?

My Generation Isn’t What You Say It Is

Recognize This: The management needs of modern employees have changed. Can you manage the way your employees need to be most engaged, productive and successful?

Back to the “generations at work” battle. I’m on record with my belief that GenY is no different, really, than any other generation in what they want out of work – validation that their effort is worthwhile (in that it contributes to the success of others, the company or the community) and a desire to prove themselves, grow and develop in their chosen careers.

However, I do think that the generation debate shows a deep seated change that is occurring all around us in how information flows, ideas are shared, networks are created, influence happens, and like it or not, it's tending to be members of GenY and GenX who are leading the charge. Not only will this impact how companies make decisions and engage (with employees, with customers and with suppliers), but it's also charging the very way our society works. Information flow is now so dynamic and networks so widely dispersed, someday we'll see a government being changed as a consequence of a Facebook campaign.

In a Bnet post, management consultant Stephen Denning put it this way:

“Managers of the 20th century were trained to supervise people to get them to do stuff, to perform tasks. But now that most people are knowledge workers and not semi-skilled workers, we need managers who inspire, motivate, and encourage collaboration – managers, even, who care about the well-being of their employees and strive to make the workplace meaningful. And that’s not a corporate world where the older set is generally comfortable.”

“Older set” – chime in. Are you ready for how your company culture can maximize this new world? Are you comfortable inspiring, motivating and encouraging your employees? Do you care about their well-being? Do you work at making their work meaningful for them?

Tell Me “Thank You” or I’ll Leave

Recognize This: People really do quit because of lack of recognition.

Yes, even in this economy, people really do look for other work (and 2/3 of employed Americans are looking right now) because of a lack of recognition.

2008 research at the start of the recession from Salary.com showed that 17% of employees list “insufficient recognition” as a top five reason to leave a job. Other, more recent, research shows 34% list “no recognition” as a reason to leave.

But is this really shocking? If you slogged away every day, giving it your best, and no one seemed to notice or care, would you want to keep going? Or would you want to find a workplace (where you spend the majority of the time you’re awake) where what you do matters. And you know it matters because people tell you so. Frequently. Repeatedly.

It’s no wonder 23% of companies are adding recognition programs, even in this slow recovery, according to Towers Watson.

Have you ever quit because of lack of recognition? Would you? Tell us the story of your breaking point. What finally pushed you over the edge?

"Phased" Rollouts of Global Employee Recognition Programs Fail

Recognize This: ALL employees matter, regardless of geographic location.

What’s your general opinion of the employees in your company? If you have multiple locations, do you feel the same respect and appreciation for those in another office, another county, another country? If you’re in HR, do you work to make sure all employees, regardless of location, are treated equally?

I cannot wrap up a series of posts on the second critical tactic for creating a strategic recognition program – Involve Program Participants and Invite Their Input – without discussing the makeup of such a team.

You must consider the widely divergent needs, expectations, and cultural differences that are natural in a multi-location organization. This is compounded a thousand-fold in global organizations. Including representatives from each location in the design phase is critical.

But it’s no less critical in roll-out. If you do a “phased” roll-out of a global program, many will be left feeling like second-class citizens.

It doesn’t matter if you included representatives from the Australian, Chinese and Indian office in the design phase if you plan to roll out the program first to the country of your headquarters, and then eventually to outlying offices or divisions. Truly global programs demand truly global, synchronous deployments.

Have you ever been promised a new “global solution” only to receive it months to years after the initial deployment group? What was your reaction?

Employee Recognition ROI at KPMG

Recognize This: The emotional impact of recognition is huge compared to the low monetary investment.

Last month I had the pleasure of participating in a webinar, Recognition the KPMG Way: Driving Employee Engagement and Success, with Sara Turner, UK head of employee benefits and wellbeing, KPMG. Sara made quite clear the same point I’ve been making this week about the need to Involve Program Participants and Invite Their Input  when creating a strategic recognition program:

“The key is not to do this in isolation. Look how recognition links to other areas of engagement in the organization and consult with stakeholders – decision makers and users— to make sure what you’re designing will really resonate. You need to take in account how other people feel.”

The ROI of Recognition

The results experienced at KPMG have been phenomenal. They increased the number of award recipients year over year by 25% without any additional spend. But the emotional impact is even more powerful. Again, quoting Sara:

“What you get with recognition is a really emotional response. This is quite different from any other area of reward. What really sets recognition apart – and this comes through the feedback from the people – is that it’s unexpected. Though the monetary value is low, the impact is really huge.

“In monetary terms, recognition is so much less expensive [than other reward systems], but what you get is this emotional gut response from people who are overwhelmed, happy and excited when they get an award. People are so engaged because someone has appreciated the extra effort they’ve gone to and taken the time to make sure they acknowledge it and that others acknowledge it as well.”

Did you miss the webinar? Listen in here.

Have you ever been “overwhelmed, happy and excited” by being recognized in your workplace? Tell me the story. Better yet, how often have you felt that way?

Balancing Input and Progress in Employee Recognition Program Design

Recognize This: Be sure to communicate to program development participants why and how final decisions are made if you want any hope of ultimate program success.

As I discussed in yesterday’s post on Involving Program Participants and Inviting Their Input when creating a strategic recognition program, notice the delicate balance between input and progress. At some point, every initiative must move from the planning to the execution stage. And not all participants in the planning will be happy with the execution decisions – unless you clearly communicate why final decisions have been made throughout the process.

Or, as Ann Bares recently pointed out in her Compensation Force blog:

“Nothing wrong with fun, fulfillment or perks – but maybe our priority should be on creating work environments of truth, integrity and mutual respect then ensuring that employees are rewarded well for the results they work to deliver.”

Communicating why decisions are made – especially to stakeholders (at all levels) who helped in the process leading to those decisions – contributes considerably to ultimate program success. Why? Because those stakeholders will gladly carry the banner of why the program (and the decisions behind it) are good, valid and worthwhile.

Have you been in a position (officially or not) where people looked to you to validate the worth of a new program? What was your response? What was the program? Did you support it to your peers?

Blog Changes * Involve Program Participants & Invite Their Input

I’ve learned a lot in my nearly two years of blogging on strategic employee recognition, including how to offer posts that are useful, interesting, thought provoking. Now I’d like to try something new.

Starting today, I’m changing the structure of the blog a bit to focus my posts on a weekly topic or theme. The Monday post will dive in more deeply into the topic, setting up the posts for the rest of the week, which will be shorter and easier to digest in our time-strapped schedules. I’ll lead each post with the key take-away – the “Recognize This” idea that resonates the most with me.

Let me know what you think. Does the new format meet your informational needs? Would you prefer the old approach or a different approach entirely?

Recognize This: Successfully implementing any new program requires involvement and input from those who will be using it.

In the spirit of these changes to the blog and my hope that you’ll share your input on them, this week I’ll be discussing the second tactic in implementing strategic employee recognition programs: Involve Program Participants and Invite Their Input.

As we discuss in our new book, Winning with a Culture of Recognition:

“A program that improves employee alignment and commitment needs input from a cross-section of employee leaders, from high-ranking executives to hourly workers. Individuals ultimately implement culture change, so gathering input from all levels early is helpful. … As you clarify your vision for recognition, balance the need for broad input against the need for a process that moves forward. … The common theme in successful program design is that the program owners ultimately have authority to move ahead. If everyone you survey has a vote (or veto) you’ll never get out of the visioning phase.”

Think about a new program or initiative you recently implemented (or were part of). Was it created in a vacuum of “people who know what’s best” making all the decisions and then delivering it as a complete package? Or was it a truly collaborative design/development experience before moving into execution?

Tell me your story. With either option above, the outcome could be good or bad. What happened to you?

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.

The Four “Anys” of Recognition

There are a lot of good people writing very well on the topic of how, when and why you should express your appreciation to colleagues, peers and subordinates. I occasionally like to feature them here, like these two writers whose recent work I admire.

Reba Spencer in the Toronto Globe and Mail offered sound advice and practical steps to “Rally the Troops in an Age of Austerity”:

“Without at least periodic positive feedback, employees may easily become unhappy, unmotivated and unproductive, because it's difficult to know the value of your contribution without feedback. And what goes for managers is also true of co-workers. While praise is often thought of as a “top down” activity, it shouldn’t be: Everyone should feel free to praise their colleagues – and their managers, too.”

And Scott Eblin offered excellent instruction in his Next Level Blog in “Why and How Leaders Need to Say Thank You”:

“Make it fresh: While revenge may be a dish best served cold, a thank you isn’t. When someone helps you out, thank them in the moment or as soon as you can.

“Make it personal: Acknowledge the time and effort your colleague spent to help you out. Just like you, they’ve got 24 hours in a day and no more. They made a choice to put off something that was important to them to give you assistance. Let them know that you appreciate that.

“Make it clear: The research shows that a thank you means more when the person being thanked understands the value of what they did. Make it clear in your thanks how what they did helped you.”

Reading their insights prompted this simple “Any” approach to recognition and appreciation:

1) Anyone Gives – Anyone, at any level, has the ability to notice, appreciate and formally recognize anyone else – both up and down the chain of command.

2) Anyone Receives – Anyone, at any level, with any performance history has the ability to receive recognition if they’ve done something worthy of it.

3) Anytime – There is no “schedule” for recognition, such as the annual Employee Appreciation Day. People deserve to be appreciated for their efforts in the moment – or as close to it as feasibly possible.

4) For Anything Deserving Recognition – Any behavior, action or result that you’ve pre-established as worthy of recognition (especially tied to your company values and strategic objectives) should be recognized and honored.

Did I miss “any”thing?

“Paying Bonuses” * When Will We Ever Learn?

It’s nearly that time of year so many in compensation and benefits have come to dread – end of year bonuses and the resulting litany of: “How come she got the same bonus I did? Clearly I worked harder.” Or “This isn’t as much bonus as last year and I did so much more.”

Bonuses, when used appropriately, can play an important role in a Total Rewards package. The challenge with them tends to arise when bonuses become an entitlement. For example, one article (requires membership) I read this week outlined how to structure a “money pool” approach to ensure your top performers get more of bonus budget. Another article argued the benefits of “paying bonuses” to those who would be hard-to-replace and not just top performers.

What’s wrong with these scenarios? Let me count the ways:

1) You’re adding so much complexity to what should be – and can be - so simple. If you create a strategic recognition program, that allows anyone to recognize anyone else at any time for actions or behaviors you’ve pre-established as deserving of recognition, then naturally your top performers are going to receive a larger share of the “recognition” pie.

2) You’re separating the moment/action/performance deserving of recognition from the recognition itself. People need to be recognized soon after the action or behavior deserving of recognition or they will lose any connection to the moment. Think of this as the puppy approach. Annual or quarterly bonuses can then reinforce trends in performance or achievement of long-term goals as they are intended to do as incentives.

3) You’re possibly “rewarding” people who don’t deserve a reward. Especially with the idea that people should receive a bonus just because they might be “hard to replace.” If they’d be hard to replace because they’re a consistently high performer who does great work, then they will receive frequent recognition in a strategic program. If they’d just be “hard to replace” because of their degree or credentials, then giving them a bonus only encourages them to rest on their laurels.

4) You’re cutting people off from recognition for good work who may deserve it even though they’re not in the top 10 percent. Focusing so intently on top performers negates the excellent work another 70% of your workforce does that is also deserving of recognition, if not as frequently as the top performers. Adding recognition to the total rewards mix ensures a much higher percentage of employees can enjoy the appreciation they deserve.

The solution is to keep bonuses to a reasonable mix within the Total Rewards package and balanced with true after-the-fact strategic recognition. What’s the right balance? The answer depends on the company and culture, but consider reducing bonus levels by 30-40% within the ill-performing programs and reinvest that in a strategic recognition program. Our clients have proven strategic recognition tends to out-perform cash bonuses in improvements to employee attitudes and engagement by a factor of 10!

Without Peer-to-Peer Recognition, You’re Just Swimming Upstream

Do you have some kind of an employee recognition program in your workplace? What level do you offer? The bare minimum of years of service or performance-based annual review recognition? Middle-of-the-road manager-to-employee only schemes? Or do you go top-of-the line with peer-to-peer recognition in which employees are actively encouraged to notice and appreciate the behaviors and actions of their colleagues that contribute to team and company success.

If you consider employee recognition to be a key factor for increasing employee engagement, performance and productivity but are not enabling peer-to-peer recognition, then you are missing out on at least 50% of the tangible benefits you could realize from recognition.This is something we talk about in our soon-to-be-released book, Winning with a Culture of Recognition, in which we make the point: “Peer-to-peer interactions through the recognition program sup¬port the values promoted by recognition. Exceptional employees are recognized by the group, and the group looks to them for informal guidance.”

This article in Human Resource Executive highlights this well:

“Peer-to-peer recognition programs are among an employer's most powerful, low-cost tools for reducing turnover, improving productivity and boosting employee morale. Unlike gifts through traditional recognition-and-rewards programs, peer acknowledgements are often unexpected, selfless and inspirational. Employees are usually so touched that they end up forming strong bonds with co-workers and become more motivated to do a better job.”

What’s this mean in the real world? The article goes on to explain the success our customer, Symantec, has had with peer-to-peer recognition. Jennifer Reimert, senior director of global compensation, explains:

“‘It takes a lot of people to get a product launched from development to marketing to sales. There's such an acknowledgement when somebody outside your department recognizes you. When they know you value and acknowledge what they're doing, they'll work harder for you.’… ‘It's another vehicle that immediately rewards behavior,’ says Reimert, adding that employee engagement jumped 14 percent after the program's first year. ‘It's definitely enhanced the employee experience.’”

So what’s your approach? Do you let employees formally recognize each other (which adds the benefit of employees knowing their peer appreciation will also be seen by the boss)? Or do you think managers alone have the right to say “thanks”?

“The Way We’ve Always Done It”

Last month, Laura Schroeder wrote a great post on Compensation Café on tailored rewards and the realization that one size doesn’t fit all. As Laura points out: “Various research shows that people are motivated by different things at different times, depending on a variety of personal and demographic factors.”

Pop over and read Laura’s full post. She offers five solid tips for moving towards tailored rewards. It’s her last statement of the post that got me laughing, however:

“I also don’t recommend tie pins.”

I laugh because I’ve heard that more than a few times from companies we consult with: “But we’ve ALWAYS given tie/lapel pins. It’s a critical part of our program!” As I’ve written about before, ask just about any employee who ever received one, and they’ll fumble to remember which junk drawer the pin ended up in.

But the important lesson here is that any discussion of total rewards is irrelevant if you don't also discuss the meaningfulness of those rewards. "The way we've always done it" may mean something to the 30-year employee in Marketing, but absolutely nothing to the 1-year GenY rockstar in R&D. And vice versa. BOTH perspectives are equally important, and even that is vastly simplifying -- it's not easy to juggle the "perceived motivators" of a 10 person small business, much less in a 30,000 employee multi-national corporation.

And that's why the discussion must come down to (and thanks to Dan Pink and others is beginning to) true motivators of autonomy, mastery and purpose. Every employee is motivated by managers who remove obstacles from their paths at work, who listen to them, and help them achieve what is meaningful for them in the workplace.

One final thought. When I made similar comments to Laura’s original post, she asked, “What if these three simple criteria were added to or even replaced the manager evaluation form at every company?”

What if, indeed.