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?

Knowing the Path to Your Destination * How to Communicate Your Strategic Plan

How’s your 2011 planning going? What changes do you see on the horizon for your organization’s strategic plan?

There’s been a great deal of fluctuation in strategic plans during the last three years as companies have reacted to economic pressures in numerous ways, from drastic cutting of employees (how do we get the work done without them?) to evaluating relevance in a rapidly changing market (do people even want to buy my product any more?)

The more critical questions, however, are:

1. Do your employees know how the strategic objectives have changed?
2. Do they know how to adjust their work to align with the new objectives?


A recent SmartBrief on Leadership poll found that, for 40% of employees, the answer to both questions is “No.”

These findings are worse than the results of an earlier Mercer study I wrote about before that found:

“Simply put, almost two-thirds of all employees are 33% as productive as they can be because they don't understand what they are now asked to do.”

The comments of Mike Figliuolo, managing director of ThoughtLeaders, in reaction to the SmartBrief poll explain the hazards of not getting everyone focused on the same plan:

“Without a defined destination, you’re simply making widgets, and you may wake up one day to find the widget is obsolete because the strategic landscape around you changed while you were hunched over the widget machine.”

So how do you solve this? Don’t forget these two critical steps:

1) Inform people of the destination. Make sure all employees know what the end goal is.

2) Inform people of the path. Knowing the destination is useless unless you know how to get there.

One of the most effective methods for repeatedly communicating both the destination and the path to all employees is through strategic employee recognition. In this kind of employee recognition program, you frequently and in a timely way acknowledge and express appreciation to employees when they contribute to achieving the strategic objective while demonstrating the company values. If you do this consistently, employees come to understand how they, personally, are contributing to the strategic plan, and desire to continue to do so.

Do you understand both the destination and the path? Are you helping those who work for you to understand as well? How?

“The Power of Post-Recession Recognition”

I’m honored to have an article I wrote included in last month’s issue of Workspan magazine: "The Power of Post-Recession Recognition." Here’s a key excerpt:

“The survey showed 45% of respondents from organizations that had a recognition program before the recession said investment in recognition had decreased since the start of the downturn. Organizations that decreased spending on their programs saw significant negative impacts from their actions, including decreased employee engagement (59%). After experiencing such impacts, 42% of organizations that cut spending during the downturn now say they plan to increase spending in 2010. …

“Looking ahead, the respondents who did not have a recognition program before the start of the recession are considering starting one within the next year, most notably focused on employee engagement, making the case that ignoring employee recognition in a downturn is a hard lesson learned. Furthermore, perhaps keeping in mind some of the questionable business practices that hurt companies at the beginning of the recession, many respondents indicated values-based recognition will be a clear priority. The idea behind values-based recognition is ensuring that employees display the right behaviors in achieving company goals. Reinforcing an organization’s beliefs will also help businesses reinforce their employer brand, which will benefit them as they work to retain employees and attract new talent.”

Click through for a full analysis of the results of our survey and the six recommendations to properly calibrate strategic employee recognition programs for the economic realities of today.

Whale Song, White Teeth & Willing Employees * On Compensation Cafe Today

What do these three things have to do with each other? More to the point, what do they have to do with employee motivation and engagement?

I reveal the connection in my post on Compensation Cafe today.