RECOGNITION
There are lots of reasons why managers can't provide positive reinforcement to their employees at work, but just one reason why they must find a way:
It really works.
Recognition, thanking and praising employees for doing good work, is the number-one driver of employee engagement, significantly representing 56 percent of employees' perception of engagement where they work. This might be surprising because thanking someone is such a simple thing—almost common sense—when dealing with others. Yet, most employees report they don't get very much genuine, sincere thanks where they work. In fact, in one survey only 12 percent of employees report they receive meaningful recognition where they work, and 34 percent reported that they didn't find meaningful those things their company did to recognize them.
Yet this commonsense notion is far from common practice in most organizations today. Why is that? In my twenty-five years of working with this topic, I think it's because we often confuse the behavior of recognizing employees with things that are associated with recognition (money, gift cards, points, pins, plaques, and so on).
In fact, in my doctoral dissertation on the topic, I posed a simple question: Why do some managers use recognition while others do not? I found that a manager's access to tools, programs, or a budget for recognizing employees was not significant in causing them to actually recognize their employees. Translation: Employees feel special from the act of being recognized in a timely, sincere, and specific way by someone they hold in high esteem when they have done good work. This is also why many companies that spend millions of dollars on recognition tools, items, cash substitutes, and merchandise still often have a major portion of their employee population report that they don't feel valued.
According to the Aberdeen Group's employee engagement research, “By acknowledging an employee's positive behaviors and demonstrating appreciation for employee contributions, that individual worker will continue those behaviors, stay engaged with the company, and feel motivated to perform.” Sixty percent of best-in-class organizations (defined as those in the top 20 percent of aggregate performers in their study) stated that employee recognition is extremely valuable in driving individual performance.
Managers and organizations struggle to systematically recognize employee performance when it happens. The notion is commonsense but far from common practice in business today; managers tend to be too busy and too removed from their employees to notice when they have done good work and to thank them for it. It doesn't take much: A survey of American workers found that 63 percent of the respondents ranked “a pat on the back” as a meaningful incentive.
On recognition: Our people want it; our people need it; and this is a cost worthy of being spent according to the feedback we get from our people.
—BARRY SALZBERG, DELOITTE
The widespread lack of rewards and recognition programs at a time when it is most needed is particularly ironic because what motivates people the most tends to take so little time and money to implement. It doesn't take a huge bonus check or a trip to the Bahamas or a lavish annual awards banquet to get the best out of people. It often just takes a little time, thoughtfulness, and energy to notice what employees do, thank them for it, and encourage others to do the same. Here are some other simple forms of recognition any manager can use:
- When you hear good news, act on it! Share it with others and thank those responsible.
- Take a few moments at the end of the day to reflect on whose performance stands out. Write those individuals thank-you notes and leave the notes by their workstations as you leave.
- Take time at the beginning or end of meetings to share positive news, such as letters from customers, or ask if there is any praise due from one team member to another.
- When you read your mail, look for positive items to share with others or at staff meetings.
- Take time to listen when employees need to talk. Be responsive to people, not just problems.
- Make an effort to meet with employees you don't see or speak with very often. Take a break together; have coffee or an off-site lunch.
- Remember the four-to-one rule: Every time you criticize or correct someone, plan to praise or thank that same person at least four times.
- Take time to celebrate individual or group milestones, desired behavior, and achievements.
At the same time, some 80 percent of managers feel they are pretty good at recognizing their employees, which is a big part of the disconnect. If managers feel they're providing recognition, but employees feel they aren't receiving it, who's right? Since employee engagement stems from employee perceptions, they have the upper hand on the matter, and managers need to find ways to provide more recognition and with greater frequency.
It's not that difficult to provide more recognition, anyway. The basic behavior is quite simple. The best recognition has the following components:
- Soon: Timing is important. The sooner you acknowledge someone after a success, the more that behavior or result is reinforced, and the more likely it will be repeated.
- Sincere: Good recognition comes from the heart and rings true to the recipient. You can't just go through the motions if you want recognition to be valued.
- Specific: Some of the sincerity in any praise comes from specifics, that is, evidence that what you're recognizing an employee for is valid and important.
- Personal: Whenever possible, you should praise others directly, ideally in person.
- Positive: Provide only 100 percent positive comments. Avoid the temptation to add a “yes, but” or other critique. Save that for a developmental conversation!
- Proactive: Have a sense of urgency in showing gratitude to others. When you see something, say something!
Once you have established a baseline of providing employees timely, sincere, specific, positive praise and recognition, you can build upon that with other forms of recognition they value.
To successfully grow employee engagement in your organization, you must make recognition a foundational part of everyone's work life. It is critical to driving engagement and improving organization performance. In this chapter, you will find a collection of fresh examples representing the rich variety of practices others use to recognize their staff.
Dena Saddler, an HR generalist with Infinite Electronics says, “I always do, but should not, underestimate the power of a simple ‘thank you.’ It should be specific about what the person did and why it was important. But mostly, it should say something about how the person's action helped you, made your day better, or made your life easier.” When Saddler worked for the City of Dallas, she gave and received a lot of thank-you cards using their Thank You program. The city provided cards to every employee, who then decided to give a card to whomever they wanted—upward, downward, across, and sideways. The cards included a place to identify which of the city's values the person's action represented. “But it was mostly the handwritten, heartfelt description and why the action was so important that was most meaningful to the recipient,” says Saddler. “Anyone who was lucky enough to receive one of these thank-you cards was anxious to display it in their locker or on their bulletin board, maybe to get their attention every day, maybe to remind them about why work is important, really. It's not the money; you can get that at any job.”
“‘Praise in public, punish in private.’ I'm not sure when or where I originally heard that statement, but I live by it,” says Jeff Rogers, CEO of Job Hunter Pro, a virtual company with team members from Portland, Oregon, to Atlanta, Georgia. “As a former vice president of human resources and the current CEO of a company that focuses on people, I wish more managers would embrace that simple phrase.”
Joanna Adams, a supervisor for Highmark, a health insurance company in Wilmington, Delaware, writes:
I am a supervisor at my current job, and recognition is always something I have valued and held in the highest regard. I have a number of staff working under me, and I always take the time to not only acknowledge when they have excelled in some way but also to build upon their bench strengths, that is, their potential. Most employees work hard because they want to feel they matter to their employer. A hallmark of a good employer-employee relationship is not only recognizing when someone has done a good job but also for the potential they may offer. Because of that mentality, I have found my staff on the whole works harder and has a fierce loyalty to me because of that relationship. So we both end up benefiting in the long run.
Bren Anne of Bren Anne Public Relations and Marketing in Ontario, Canada, has five staff members that perform different specialties; most work remotely most of the time. She reports:
I know it sounds cliché, but we reward positive outlook with paid lunches and days off, and we offer to take on a task to help the other team member. For example, a client's needs may require a difficult resolution—maybe a client who needs a theater with a certain seating arrangement. A positive outlook remark might be, “Frustrating as it may seem, I know we'll find the perfect place for his event.” When I catch positive comments, the individual gets rewarded: I do one of their tasks that day, they get a paid lunch and afternoon off, or might even get the day off, whatever my team member prefers.
Recognizing positive, on-brand behaviors within an organization is critical in keeping employees engaged. People appreciate being recognized by their supervisors, management, and peers, and it demonstrates the organization is committed to its people.
Core Creative, a Milwaukee-based advertising and branding agency with approximately fifty employees, understands that its people are its most important asset, and they developed a program for recognizing the good work of others. The Bring It! program infuses core's values and unique culture into daily activities. Employees are encouraged to nominate their peers for exemplifying on-brand behavior via an online form.
There is no verbal vitamin more potent than praise.
—FREDERICK B. HARRIS
Patti Schauer, the company's vice president of finance and human resources shares specifics: “Each month, all nominees receive a token for the Bring-It-O-Matic 5000 Positive Reinforcement Machine, a refurbished gumball machine located in our lobby, which serves as a great conversation piece for clients and visitors.” All nominations are also shared on the company's internal TV channel and on Yammer, their internal communication website. Nominees can win individual or all-agency prizes. Prizes include gift cards, free car washes, an office breakfast, premier parking, or their choice of an all-agency spirit day, such as Pajama Day or Dress Like Your Boss Day, college wear, Packer's NFL jerseys, and so on. The Bring It! program has proven to be a great way for team members at Core Creative to show their peers that they see their hard work and value it.
Many managers ignore or underestimate the power of praise.
—ROGER FLAX, PRESIDENT, MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEMS
“We believe what gets recognized gets repeated,” says Kimberly Heller, PhD, organizational development coordinator for Iowa Specialty Hospital. “A simple but effective thing we do is to provide employee thank-you notes. Each leader writes handwritten, personal notes to employees to recognize their efforts that are in line with our organization's core values, how they demonstrate our standards of behavior. They also write notes to recognize people for going above and beyond what is expected of them. The notes are mailed to the employee's home, which we believe is more impactful than receiving the notes in their mailboxes at work.”
Leaders use a tracking grid to see who and how often recognition has taken place. They write in the names of their direct reports (rows). The columns are labeled by the week for the month. Each week, the leaders tally when they write a thank-you note to any of their direct reports. At the end of the month when they meet with their supervisor, a senior leader, they report on the successes of their employees along with the recognition they provided.
“Another form of fun and effective recognition we do is called a gratitude exchange,” adds Heller. “In celebration of Valentine's Day, each department in the hospital is assigned another department to whom they express their gratitude for contributions they make to our success as an organization. Each department uses their creativity to tailor valentine goodies to match the department and its employees.”
“At the Kentucky Housing Corporation in Frankfort, Kentucky, a company with approximately 200 employees, we have a VIP program, which stands for ‘valuing individuals and performance,’ that provides employees the opportunity to award good work when they see,” says Dr. Amy Smith, deputy executive director for business services for the agency. “The awards look like large checks made out to the employee for $75 with a detailed description of the good work that was done. Employees submit their check for payment through our normal payroll process. In the first full year of the program, 471 VIP certificates were paid to 179 employees, totaling $35,325. A total of 88 percent of employees distributed their VIP certificates and acknowledged good work of their coworkers.”
Men and women want to do a good job, a creative job, and if they are provided the proper environment, they will do so.
—BILL HEWLETT, COFOUNDER, HEWLETT PACKARD
When Heather Machado was a leadership and organizational consultant at Hartford HealthCare in Connecticut, they developed a Gold Medal Manager Award based on ten leadership behaviors. It gave employees a chance to recognize their direct supervisor and explain why they deserved the award. In her role, she analyzed patterns, themes, and behaviors described in the submissions. There were then ten to twelve items submitted to senior leadership and vetted for the award. Then Gold Medal managers were selected, recognized at a system level, and recognized in their respective facilities.
When she chaired the recognition and celebration teams at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, they created a celebration workshop that linked the core values to accomplishments of teams within the organization. Supervisors and leaders learned best practices in rewarding and recognizing their employees, and supplies were given to create celebration events/activities (balloons in branded colors, celebration templates, a budget worksheet, and so on). The result was a 10 percent increase in the organization's celebration-practices score within the organization, related to organizational and team goals.
At both locations they developed an electronic platform that linked the core values of integrity, caring, excellence, and safety, so employees at all levels of the organization can recognize each other. In doing so they were able to explain and give examples of how those they are recognizing exemplify and demonstrate the core values. Employees' supervisors also received notification of those who were recognized. In addition, all 18,000 employees went through leadership training based on their ten leadership behaviors. Those behaviors are also linked to the electronic recognition and allows for timely, specific, and meaningful recognition as employees demonstrate the behavioral expectations of the organization.
People who feel appreciated by their employers identify with the organization and are more willing to give their best to the job.
—PEGGY STUART, ASSISTANT EDITOR, PERSONNEL JOURNAL
Home Depot—the home-improvement chain based in Atlanta, Georgia—awards employees who live the company's values with Homer badges, named after the company's mascot. Employees who collect three of the badges are eligible for a cash bonus. To date, more than 400,000 Homer badges have been awarded to Home Depot employees.
Christina Zurek, solution manager with the ITA Group, an event, incentive, and recognition company, shared how their client Home Depot handles this recognition with their store associates:
Each time associates are seen demonstrating a core company value, they earn a badge that they display on their apron—part of their uniform. As a customer, it's easy to identify associates who are regularly recognized, which in turn makes it more comfortable to ask them questions. In addition, it can be a great conversation starter for a customer who may not be familiar with the program; they often ask about why there are so many badges, which then leads to an opportunity for the associate to feel recognized and share their pride in what they have achieved.
Jennifer Clark, senior vice president and director of human resources for Benchmark Community Bank in Kenbridge, Virginia, says their niche is in the small communities they serve where customers want and find a family-type atmosphere:
Our message to employees is clear: “Take care of the customer's needs.” Employees do not have sales quotas—very unusual for our industry, but they know that if they take care of the customer's financial needs, the results will follow. Customers love banking at Benchmark because we make them feel special. That message is communicated from the top down.
Benchmark's values are not written down anywhere in a handbook. Employees learn about them at an onboarding class in their first three weeks with the bank. During this session, employees learn what separates Benchmark from other banks, and they learn their role in fulfilling the bank's mission to take care of the customer. To make that happen, they created the All Star Awards program.
One of their core values is caring. They created a program for peers to nominate others they see going the extra mile for customers to be All Star of the Month. Each month, the committee selects the winner from peer nominations. At the end of the year, the All Star service team selects one winner from the twelve monthly award recipients. The president presents the award and reinforces caring and going the extra mile for coworkers and customers.
Adds Clark, “Our most recent winner was a teller who had a drive-up customer mention to her that she had vision issues one day when she was cashing her check. The teller decided to contact the local Lion's Club and worked with them to get her a free pair of glasses. The woman was so grateful.”
“We celebrate employment milestones during weekly meetings with foremen and laborers,” says Doug Herbert, president of Herbert Construction Company in Metro Atlanta. After ninety days, new hires get a ninety-day certificate, a gift card, and a round of applause. Employees also receive certificates on the anniversaries of their start dates. They choose one of seven unknown gift cards. “Employees feel recognized for their time with the company,” Herbert says. “It works for the employees we have and it is also rewarding the behavior we want repeated, which is having people staying with the company for a long time.”
We are living in an age of change. If you're going to succeed in business today, you have to thrive on change, think in terms of change, assume that whatever is here today is going to be different tomorrow. You have to eat change for breakfast. The trick is to keep telling ourselves, “There must be a better way.” And most of the time, there has been.
—HENRY QUADRACCI, CEO, QUAD/GRAPHICS
CASE STUDY A: EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION
Rhett Power, a head coach in Arlington, Virginia, realized early in building his first company, Wild Creations, that they had to figure out a way to reward and recognize their employees. The challenge was they had no money. As a result, they came up with a no-budget recognition plan to ensure employees know how much they meant to the company.
We wanted to let them know every day how much we appreciated all that they were doing to make the company successful. I knew if we did that we would have lower absenteeism, better safety, decreased staff turnover, and more importantly, the team would be invested in what we were trying to achieve:
- Ask staff to post recognition notes to each other on a bulletin board or internal link. Add testimonies from external customers.
- Give people time off. Time is the most precious gift, and people will always remember that afternoon or day to do what they love.
- Send a letter to the employee's family, telling them why their loved one is so important to the company's mission.
- Do one of the employee's least favorite tasks.
- Give a coffee or carwash gift card, movie tickets, concert tickets. Some items can be bartered.
- Allow people to work from home or present them with a flexible day certificate. You'll be amazed at what gets accomplished!
- Give departments their own week: Accounting Week, Programmer Week, and so on. Recognize the contributions made, take them to lunch, make certificates.
- Create opportunities: be a mentor, chair a committee, do research.
- Celebrate birthdays, babies, weddings, graduations, and any other happy time. Bring people together for cake and socializing. Nothing brings people together like eating a meal!
- Establish a Wall of Fame for photos and clippings that recognize outstanding achievement. Acknowledge employees who have done exemplary work by writing up a small article about them in the company newsletter, blog, or social media.
- Say “I'm glad you're here” and “Thank you.”
“What I realized early in my business career is that recognition is more powerful than any other motivator,” says Rhett.
Pretend every person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, “Make me feel important.” If you can do that, you'll be a success not only in business but in life too.
—MARY KAY ASH, FOUNDER, MARY KAY
CASE STUDY B: EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION
Sherry Armstrong, owner of Award & Sign in Greenwood Village, Colorado, shares a recognition program they initiated in the last year that has drastically changed (for the good) their culture, their people, and their business.
The recognition program is a tree called Amelia, named after the word “amelioration,” meaning growth or improvement. Amelia is made of vinyl, approximately eleven feet long by eight feet tall, and is located in an office area. All of Award & Sign's twelve employees have their own specific color on leaves, circles (for the center of a blossom), and starbursts (for special recognition) all explained below. Weekly, everyone has the opportunity to write on a Google Sheet their own accomplishments or those that they recognize in others. Every Monday at an all-staff meeting, they recognize those who have done something to improve the business or their workplace either through exceptional behavior or a task that would not be in their everyday routine. Their contribution might include process improvement or profit measures, among many others. They receive a leaf or a starburst in their color and a gift card worth $5 to $15, depending on the contribution.
Peer-to-peer recognition, represented by blossoms, is probably the most significant award. A circle in the employee's color is placed in the middle of the blossom. “We have found that when stakeholders receive recognition from their peers that real change occurs,” says Armstrong.
There are many other symbols on the tree, each representing different accomplishments. There are twelve sparrows, one each month for the person contributing the most within that month; there are four falcons for best quarterly contributions, and one eagle for the annual superstar.
Additionally, they have special quarterly recognition. Crows are for those who receive the most kudos from customers, butterflies for those who show the most improvement, apples to those bringing a large project to fruition, owls for knowledge seekers, and squirrels for those who bring fun and happiness to the workplace. Higher-value gift cards are given for all special awards. Checks are given for the sparrows, falcons, and the eagle.
“At the base of a tree is a tiny mustard seed, which to me represents the faith that I have in the business, those whom we serve, and all the stakeholders who give so much of themselves each day to Award & Sign,” beams Armstrong.
Each individual writes their accomplishment on the leaves and places the leaf or the starburst on a blossom or symbol on the tree. It is more meaningful when they pick the location and actually burnish the reward on Amelia rather than have anyone else do it.
Once employees see that what they do makes a difference to the organization and is valued, they will perform at higher levels.
—RITA NUMEROF, PRESIDENT, NUMEROF & ASSOCIATES
We are celebrating our thirtieth year in business and have had our share of ups and downs when it comes to employee performance and attitude. Since the implementation of our recognition program, it has been amazing to watch our employees look for the good in others and the things that they are doing right instead of the things that they are doing wrong. There is little to no gossip and complaining, engagement is up considerably, and the people act more as stakeholders than employees.
Amelia has meant so much to me and so drastically changed our business that I would like to share the concept with others (www.awardandsign.com). I have had several companies express an interest in having us create an Amelia for their company including, most recently, the Denver Better Business Bureau. The lessons from Amelia are vast—those we have experienced and those we have yet to experience.
At car2go's North American offices, impact is difficult since employees work in eleven different locations. The car-sharing company has worked to overcome this challenge by using a peer-recognition platform. Coworkers now show one another appreciation and stay plugged into what's happening in other offices.
Legal Monkeys, a legal-record management company based in Bryan, Texas, has an Appreciation Board—a glass picture frame—where employees can write a note and present the board to someone they appreciate. Whoever receives the board can display it on their desk until they are ready to pass it on to someone else. Each achievement is also posted on the company Facebook page to increase visibility outside of the team.
New York recruiting firm Expand Executive Search offers a peer-to-peer incentive called the Praise Pot. Every quarter, three members of the team are nominated by fellow employees to share 1 percent of the company's profits.
“Each Monday, employees at Small Girls PR firm in New York read ‘high fives’ calling out specific people's achievements from the week,” explains associate account executive, Zoe Richards. “They're anonymously submitted from teammates, and it's an awesome opportunity to support each other and acknowledge everyone's hard work.”
We realized that our largest asset was our workforce and that our growth would come from asset appreciation.
—LARRY COLIN, PRESIDENT, COLIN SERVICE SYSTEMS
Dialpad, a cloud-communications company based in San Francisco, rewards its corporate frequent-flyer miles to employees chosen by their peers for “going beyond the call of duty. To date, six employees of the 175-person staff have received all-expenses-paid trips.”
When Vancouver, British Columbia, venture capital firm Growth-Works Capital wanted to improve attracting and retaining Generation Y employees, the company designed new training and rewards programs targeting these individuals. Generation Y coaching seminars for managers and a feedback program tied to rewards were two ways they implemented. Each month, managers and employees are given 1,000 points that they can award coworkers with for “a job well done.” The person awarding the points must explain to the recipient why they got the award. Points can be accumulated and redeemed for various items.
The best thing you can say to your workers is, “You are valuable; you are my most important asset.”
—PHYLLIS EISEN, SENIOR POLICY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS
At MetLife Auto & Home, an insurance company located in Warwick, Rhode Island, the company's recognition program is entirely managed and administered by frontline employees—all of whom are volunteers. The program's recognition champions—the people who oversee the program in the field—are associates or local supervisors. The thirty-three winners of the company's top-tier recognition program, Best of the Best, flew to Rhode Island with their spouses, where they participated in a meeting with senior staff and were then personally honored at a dinner by the company president and top executives, and given a $1,500 travel voucher to use with their families. Since implementing this program, employee satisfaction scores in the company's claims department—MetLife Auto & Home's largest—rose from 3.89 to 4.43 on a five-point scale. Says Marge Rody, vice president of customer service operations, “Our company is stronger today than our competitors because of this program. If this remains a part of our culture, which we intend it to, it will give us an advantage over our competitors forever more.”
Modeled after television's popular weight-loss reality show The Biggest Loser, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Charlotte, North Carolina, created a Biggest Loser–style program for the company's delivery truck drivers. The drivers were assigned to teams, and the team that lost the most collective weight received reward points that could be redeemed for merchandise, travel, and Visa gift cards. Participants—who were energized by the competition—lost an average of ten pounds each.
With so many ways to reward people, you may ask, “How do I decide how to reward each person?” The answer is simple: Ask them.
—MICHAEL LEBOEUF, AUTHOR, THE GREATEST MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE IN THE WORLD
Instead of offering employees cookie-cutter rewards such as gift cards or plaques, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts of Toronto, Ontario, asks employees to tell the company what kinds of rewards they want. As a result, a cafeteria cook received a new kitchen floor, a front office supervisor received a partial payment toward a new Jeep, and a laundry attendant received a trip to London with her mother.
Through the company's Base Hits and Home Runs program, employees at holding company Burnett Companies Consolidated are able to show coworkers anywhere in the organization that they are appreciated. At the beginning of each quarter, each employee receives four base hits to give out to their coworkers as a thank-you for something they did or for doing a great job at something. When employees collect four base hits, they can turn them in for a $25 gift card for a gas station, restaurant, or department store.
Financial software maker Intuit of Mountain View, California, created an employee recognition program called Spotlight as a means for “spotlighting performance, innovation, and service dedication.” The program encompasses recognition in three distinct areas:
- Performance: for specific behavior that meets reward criteria. The majority of these monetary and nonmonetary awards can be given on the spot, providing employees with immediate recognition for exceptional behavior.
- Innovation: for patent disclosures, patent filings, and issued patents.
- Service: for milestone anniversaries in multiples of five years.
One unique aspect of Intuit's recognition program is that employees can have their awards converted into charitable contributions, such as the International Red Cross or an organization that provides medical services in Sudan.
The walls and machinery of a Toyota automobile manufacturing plant in India are covered with stickers marking the exact places where employees suggested innovative new ideas. The stickers—on which are written the names of the suggesters—are inexpensive but stand out to coworkers who walk by.
The engineering group of the aircraft manufacturer Boeing Company has developed an instant awards program called Pride@Boeing that emphasizes spontaneity and the personal touch. Fifty employees within the group have volunteered to serve as recognition focal points, or “focals,” as they are known within Boeing. It's the focals' job to supply a steady stream of award items (valued at $10 or less) to employees to use to spontaneously recognize one another for doing something special. Typical award items handed out to employees by the department focals include such things as customized candy bars, movie tickets, calculators, and more.
Diane Symms, founder and owner of the Italian restaurant chain Lombardi's, took six top-performing employees to Italy for a sixteen-day culinary adventure. The highlight of the trip was when the group stopped in Santa Maria, a small village in the south of Italy where head chef Matthew Romeo's ancestors and relatives have lived for more than 700 years. Said Romeo, “The whole thing showed me how much Lombardi's feels about us.”
Top salespeople at computer network hardware manufacturer Cisco Systems earn face time with the company's senior executives via the Chairman's Club. Limited to the company's top 1.5 percent of performers, in a recent year, winners and their spouses or partners were flown to Hawaii for a five-day stay at the Four Seasons resort on the island of Lanai. Although award winners enjoyed the typical resort amenities such as golf, tennis, spas, and the like, of greatest value was the time they spent with Cisco's senior leadership team. A series of business roundtables were arranged that brought winners together with two top-level executives to discuss business issues of interest to the sales team. According to one attendee, “One of the benefits you get from actually attending the Chairman's Club is exposure to the key execs that run the company. But secondly, career-wise, it's really beneficial. I've already noticed my profile has been raised significantly.”
It's up to you to decide how to speak to your people. Do you single out individuals for public praise and recognition? Make people who work for you feel important. If you honor and serve them, they'll honor and serve you.
—MARY KAY ASH, FOUNDER, MARY KAY
Legacy Multimedia makes stars of employees to recognize their achievements. According to founder and managing partner Stefani Twyford, the company features their stars in professionally made multimedia presentations on DVD. Here are Twyford's guidelines for making an effective DVD:
- Get personal. Use clips and photos of real people.
- Be professional. Use professional standards to complete all production steps.
- Get creative. Do something to move and entertain your audience.
- Add and remove. Use editing software to add or replace people.
- Think history. Archive or preserve presentations for future use.
At Recreational Equipment, better known as REI, the Washington-based outdoor gear and clothing retailer, top-achieving employees are eligible to receive the Anderson Award. Recipients are nominated by their peers and receive a variety of accolades, including a personal announcement by the vice president of their department, a Swiss Army watch, a framed certificate, and their names carved into a brick on the walkway outside the company's headquarters building. Anderson Award winners are then flown to Kent for a three-day event where they have the opportunity to meet REI's leadership team and participate in team-building events, educational seminars, and outdoor activities. Says Giselle Sampson, manager of benefits and human resources risk for REI, “One of our vice presidents or a director will take people hiking to Mt. Ranier. We've got people going sailing, we've got people going kayaking. We don't have to work too hard to get employees excited about the outdoors.”
Recognition is so easy to do and so inexpensive to distribute that there is simply no excuse for not doing it.
—ROSABETH MOSS KANTER, PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
At the Portugal office of New York-based global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, teams that complete a project go out for tapas and drinks after work, and all employees are invited to an annual three-day offsite event held at a tourist destination.
David Foos, cofounder of Team-vibe, a software start-up in San Diego, California, tells the story of one of his previous companies—Room 5, which had offices in San Diego, Silicon Valley, Sacramento, and Portland:
The year had been particularly lean on profits and we were struggling to incentivize the team. We had provided raises to top performers but had very few additional dollars to spread across everyone else. I made the decision to buy a high-end coffee machine for every office, thereby giving everyone a Christmas gift for that year. I bought four machines and each was about $3,500. The net-net was that we spent $14,000 across 100 employees. An equivalent 0.5 percent raise would have cost the company $60,000 and would have been more likely to disappoint everyone. The machines were totally over-the-top cool. We put a big red bow on every machine and hosted a “how to use it” coffee party at each location. It was a huge hit that never really lost its value; even people who weren't coffee drinkers thought it was cool. Of course, it also became the company standard for new offices as well—but that was fine by me. The machines were always a hit with candidates and new employees as well. It was a big win for the employees (and the company).
Hilcorp Energy recently gave $50,000 vouchers to each employee as part of a bonus program to double the company's size. The company also offered every eligible employee a $100,000 bonus “if the company's production rate, reserves, and value doubled by the end of the company's fiscal year, four years later.” In that subsequent year, the company reached those targets, and the checks were given to employees in celebrations across every state except Hawaii.
Barbara Green, office manager for Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs of Canton, Ohio, explains “virtual applause”:
We sent an email to our entire staff asking everyone to applaud the great efforts of our office services department at 4 p.m. at their desks. Members of that department work throughout the building, so this was a terrific way for each staff member to receive the benefit of praising at exactly the same time and in the same way.
William Pickens, owner of Pool Covers in Richmond, California, found a way to use his limited time for recognition. He often hangs a number on the wall and rewards employees who know how that number relates to the business. For example, 22.5 is the average miles per gallon of the delivery truck fleet, and those who knew that received a $10 prize.
There is no way a workforce that is uninvolved and unrewarded will be quality conscious, efficient, or innovative.
—ARRON SUGERMAN, INCENTIVE MAGAZINE
Human resource employees at Symantec Corporation give each other Serendipity Awards when someone does something worthy of recognition. At the end of each quarter, the vice president of HR randomly selects names among the recipients for prizes worth $40 to $50.
21 DAYS OF THANK YOU
Here's a practical exercise from Donna Cutting, founder and CEO of Red-Carpet Learning Systems based in Asheville, North Carolina, and author of 501 Ways to Roll Out the Red Carpet for Your Customers: Easy-to-Implement Ideas to Inspire Loyalty, Get New Customers, and Leave a Lasting Impression. She advocates providing your employees thanks for twenty-one consecutive work days to help increase your consistency in showing appreciation or as a way to reinvigorate your efforts to do so.
Day One: Send an email thanking an employee or coworker who makes a difference in your work life. Be sincere and very specific about what they do that you appreciate. Expect nothing in return; just reach out and say thank you!
Day Two: Thank an employee face-to-face, telling them specifically how they make a difference to your company and/or your work day. If you work alone, pick up the phone and talk to them or leave a message.
Day Three: Spend some time purposefully “walking the floor” today and catch someone doing something right. When you see it, say it: Give them on-the-spot, specific praise. Try to find someone who is demonstrating one of your customer service standards and specifically share with them what they did, how it relates, and why you appreciate it. If you have time, find two or three other people and do the same for them.
Day Four: Plaster Positive Post-it notes! Gather a group of department heads and/or coworkers. Choose one employee you want to praise or encourage. Write positive messages on Post-it notes and plaster them all over their work area. Give someone a big visible wow and make their day.
Day Five: Start a chain of kindness. On a paper link, write specific words of praise about an employee or coworker. Share it with them, and let them bask in your words for a moment. Then, give them a blank chain link, and ask them to find someone else to praise and appreciate. And so on. Post the chain on the bulletin board and watch it grow as others pay it forward.
Day Six: Encourage an employee who needs a little lift. Let them know how they make a difference and what they do well. Ask them what they need help and guidance on and provide it. Strive to have the employee leave the conversation feeling great about themselves and their work.
Day Seven: Wow Patrol: Choose an employee who has really gone above and beyond. Put together a balloon bouquet and a special certificate. Gather that person's coworkers and surprise the person with the Wow Patrol. Share how they've made a difference in front of their peers, applaud together, and celebrate. Gift them with the balloons and certificate, and take a group photo.
Day Eight: Write a handwritten thank-you note for an employee or coworker, specifically stating how they make a difference to the team, your customers, and/or your workday.
Day Nine: Take a piece of paper, and with a pen or pencil, divide it into two columns. In the first column, list the names of all your direct reports. In the second column, write something positive that each person contributes to the team. Leave no one out—even if you really have to work to find the positive. Carry that list with you for a week, and as you have the opportunity, privately share the appropriate positive praise with each person on the list. Try to get through the entire list within a week.
Day Ten: Bring in treats to say thank you to your entire team! Bagels, pizza, cupcakes, or M&Ms (because they are marvelous and magnificent). If you'd prefer not to use food, purchase $1 lottery tickets for each staff member. Just be prepared to lose someone special should one be a winning ticket!
Day Eleven: Visit with a new employee or coworker. Welcome them to the organization and invite them to have lunch with you. Spend some time getting to know them and introduce them to at least three other people. Follow up with a handwritten welcome note!
Day Twelve: Find an employee or coworker who does a lot behind the scenes without a whole lot of recognition. Let them know that you notice their work, and specifically point out how the little things they do make a big difference.
Day Thirteen: Gather your team for an impromptu stand-up meeting. Ask each person to spend sixty seconds sharing good news with the team. It can be personal or professional good news. Celebrate together and go back to work! If you already have a meeting scheduled for today, begin or end it with this good news exercise.
Day Fourteen: Have face-to-face meetings today with at least two employees. Talk to them about their long-term goals. Where do they see themselves in five years? See where you might be able to encourage and mentor them in reaching their goals. Consider what you might be able to delegate to them that would challenge them and help them along the path to their desired future. If this is something you do regularly, choose two new people to help.
Day Fifteen: Regardless of what department you work in, leave a thank-you note (and maybe some treats) for the third-shift team. Be specific in your praise, and let them know how you appreciate their good work at such odd hours. If you lead people who work the third shift, show up during their shift with goodies to personally thank them.
Day Sixteen: Decide to give someone who has recently gone above and beyond a standing ovation! Gather ten or more coworkers to meet at a predetermined place and time. Arrange for the employee in question to come by (once everyone is assembled) and give them a long-lasting, heartfelt standing ovation! Be sure to tell them specifically what they did to warrant such a visible display of appreciation.
Day Seventeen: Surprise an employee with one of the following: Let them leave a half hour early with pay. Give them a long lunch and do their job for an hour. Swap one task with them — their choice.
Day Eighteen: Start a traveling trophy! Find something fun to use as a trophy. A big visible star-shaped necklace would be very appropriate, or a pin-on award ribbon. Give it to one of your employees and tell them specifically why they get to wear this award today. Let them know how they make a difference. The key is, they can wear it for one hour. When one hour is up, they need to find someone else who makes a difference, tell them why, and give them the ribbon or trophy to wear for an hour. Keep it going all day and see who ends up with it!
Day Nineteen: Write and deliver five applause certificates today. Be very specific in how each person demonstrates the standards you hold for customer experience.
Day Twenty: Have lunch with one or two of your direct reports. Ask for their opinions, no holds barred, about how things are going at work. What are their specific suggestions for improvement? Thank them for their input. Over the course of the next week, try to implement at least one or two of their ideas, and be sure to give them the credit.
Day Twenty One: Write a handwritten thank-you note to one of your employees who has really gone above and beyond lately. Instead of hand-delivering it to them, send it snail mail to their home.
At Nucor, operating and maintenance employees and supervisors at the plant are paid weekly bonuses based on the productivity of their work group. The rate is calculated based on the capabilities of the equipment, and no bonus is paid if the equipment is not operating. In general, the production incentive bonus ranges from 80 to 150 percent of an employee's base pay.
Our philosophy is to share success with the people who make it happen. It makes everybody think like an owner, which helps them build long-term relationships with customers and influences them to do things in an efficient way.
—EMILY ERICSEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES, STARBUCKS COFFEE COMPANY
Each team leader at Quicken Loans has a generous monthly budget to provide immediate, on-the-spot recognition and rewards. Top achievers are recognized at monthly meetings and dinners, and the top thirty loan officers are honored each month at a posh restaurant dinner hosted by the CEO and president. The total costs add up to more than $1 million every year.
Taj Hotels uses their special thanks and recognition system (STAR) to tie customer happiness to rewards. Employees collect points in three areas: compliments from customers, compliments from colleagues, and their own suggestions for improvement. Depending on points earned, the hotel gives employees various gift vouchers at an annual ceremony.
Judith Schmuck, head of employee engagement at online gambling giant GVD Group, teamed with Avinity for a radical new rewards solution for employee engagement. The company put employees totally in control of their social engagement platform, creating a more relaxed feel around the reward and recognition process. Everyone can earn rewards or recognize others. Schmuck says:
Our platform introduces some of the fun of playing a game into employees' lives in a way that isn't forced or fake. Choosing to take different rewardable challenges, which are linked to our values, triggers little culture-shaping shifts in outlook and behavior.
Self Regional Healthcare formed service excellence teams whose focus is to celebrate achievements, honor outstanding employees and physicians, and ensure patients receive very good care. To celebrate improvements on the Gallup survey, as well as other achievements, the company sponsored a community-wide fireworks show in February of a recent year.
RIVA Solutions, which provides services to the US federal government, has established their Kudos program to give peer-to-peer recognition. Employees, supervisors, customers, and stakeholders are invited to share their experiences with RIVA employees who went the extra mile. Each month, a name is drawn at random, and that employee receives a certificate and gift card.
Linkedln bought 3,458 iPad Minis to thank all of its full-time employees for their hard work.
Provide positive, immediate, and certain consequences for people's behaviors, and they will do what you want.
—BARCY FOX, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, MARITZ MOTIVATION
Phillips North America found a way for coworkers to acknowledge one another with “thanks badges,” up to five a week.
Employees at Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie, Ontario, use a “fish line” for peer-to-peer recognition. The fish line is a voice mailbox to leave anonymous appreciative messages for anyone who has been caught doing something right. The messages are recorded on notes and attached to a “fish” ribbon sent to the employee's manager, who then personally recognizes the individual.
Positive reinforcement not only improves performance, it also is necessary to maintain good performance.
—R.W. Reber and G. Van Gelder, Behavioral Insights for Supervision
Bette Gaines-Snyder, the executive director of special events at MGM Grand, sends group emails after each event that articulate people's specific contributions. Says one direct report: “When I get the emails from Bette, I feel that she is paying attention.”