Recognize Right Blog: Unlock the People Potential in Your Organization

As we are all aware, our nations workforce is becoming more and more populated with Gen X and Y’ers.  To keep this generation productive, happy, and a continued part of your payroll, you may want to consider offering them a flexible schedule. 

Amongst other things, this generation requests a flexible work schedule to be working at their full potential. A work schedule with possible telecommuting needs to be part of the offer.  Appearing in the July issue of HR Magazine, “Home is Where the Productivity Is”, states that more and more employees are yielding at higher rates when telecommuting from a home office location.

A recent study completed by Brigham Young University researched data from over 24,000 employees from a global technology company and found 25% reported a full-time, in-office schedule was interfering with personal and family lives.  If an employee is unhappy because of being “tied down to a desk” or an unfavorable work environment, retention and morale are at risk.   

An organization can also save millions of dollars on the cost of reduced office space.  Along with increased retention and morale, these attributes are so important during a down economy and will have a positive effect on your bottom line. 

Don’t forget to also provide feedback and recognition for jobs well done.  On-line recognition platforms enable you to recognize your associates whether they are in the office, across town in their home office, or halfway around the world.

Does your organization offer flexible, telecommuting options to their employees?  If so, does your organization see a lift in productivity and morale?  Would you benefit from a telecommuting option?

Recognition is only as effective as the managers who use it. And to achieve the most effective recognition program, your managers must be engaged and informed.  Developing an environment of effective recognition is the role of your managers and their awareness and commitment to using recognition to accomplish their goals on an on-going basis. 

In today’s economy where everyone is asked to do more, managers more then ever are asked to oversee an increased number of employees.  With this increased workload, how do you keep recognition top-of-mind for your managers? 

These are some helpful tips for managers to sustain and maintain successful recognition to motivate their team to even greater accomplishments: 

1. Training: Training is an optimal way to start your process of creating an enterprise-wide culture of recognition. Inform your managers.
2. Responsibility:  Make your managers accountable for recognition efforts within their department. 
3. Communication: Communicate well and communicate often. Hold meetings with all management to see who’s recognizing and to share what’s working. Sharing the actual recognition comments is highly recommended!
4. Strategy: Most importantly, recognition is a business strategy to drive engagement, strengthen morale, and ultimately increase your bottom line.

Managers are the key ingredient to successful organizations and recognition programs.  The relationship between managers and employees is the “real” culture to most employees. Employees feel they work for managers, not organizations. This interesting statement is further confirmed by Gallup with The 12 Elements of Great Managing.  These 12 elements represent employees’ basic needs at a work place. Appearing on the list is “My supervisor seems to care about me as a person” – employees value the manager/employee relationship.

If you are a manager, have you recognized your staff for a job well done?  How do you recognize your employees? I would like to hear your thoughts. Stay tuned for next weeks blog regarding how to engage your manager.

Today I challenge you to recognize someone who has gone above-and-beyond.  Make it memorable and make it fun! Here are some great examples to get your creative juices flowing.

At our workplace, we have used “chair drops” as a recognition vehicle.  An employee would return from a meeting or lunch break and find a motivational message (from a manager or co-worker) along with a bag of homemade caramels. The employee would be asked to read the message and would receive a round of applause from fellow co-workers. The environment would be bursting with excitement! 

One of our clients would reward others with rocks with hand painted messages of “You Rock” and “You’re a Rockstar”.  This would be proudly displayed at their work station.  It was a very sought after item, as well as a big conversation piece!

Another one of our clients was having engagement issues within their IT group.  The company had a large whiteboard within the department and employees were encouraged to write “recognition” messages to other employees and managers.  Messages ranged from thanking others to team goals to motivational quotes.  Each week the messages would be erased so the recognition can be fresh and current.  Employees would gather around the white board – a true “water cooler” area, which resulted in great knowledge sharing.

Other things to remember about recognition:

• Recognition is a great form of feedback – let them know how they are doing
• Recognition is a powerful tool – behaviors will change right before your eyes
• Recognition happens formally and informally – you don’t need a stage and microphone to make someone’s day

So, let’s hear it . . .  who are you going to recognize today?  And what are you going to do to make it fun?

I wanted to share one of my favorite quotes regarding recognition:

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar

What a powerful statement! It is so important to recognize someone for a job well done.  Make it a daily goal. 

Did you recognize someone lately?  I would love to hear your stories!