I’ve heard from many companies over the past several months that they cannot afford employee recognition today as a result of the challenging economic times we are all enduring. While I understand the need to cut costs and spend responsibly, I caution companies who view employee recognition as an option or expendable cost …. Are you sure about that?
The recent white paper published by the Recognition Council (www.recognitioncouncil.org), Thesis: Employee Recognition and Rewards Programs Can Generate Significant Revenue and Profits, makes a fantastic case for why now, more than ever, is the time to invest in an employee recognition program. I would encourage you to check this out as there are many great points about how a company simply cannot afford NOT to recognize employees – regardless of the economy.
I write today though to pose a simple challenge to you … one that will not cost you a dime and will likely instantly improve your employee morale! I want you to say “Thank You” to a different individual that you work with each day this week. This is what I call “on the spot recognition” and it truly works! It is amazing how we can all get caught up in the grind of daily business and forget that the simplest phrase can truly make an employee feel valued and actually may make them work harder in the coming days/weeks/months. In a recent survey of 1,000 workers conducted by White Water Strategies it was “found that saying “thank you” or praising staff can affect job satisfaction as much as one percent pay increase.” And I think that we would all agree that working on saying “thank you” as a form of authentic, honest employee recognition today will fit better in the budget than a 1% company-wide pay increase.
To put this into numerical terms lets look at how simply saying “thank you” could impact a company of 500 employees with an average annual salary of $40,000. By giving consistent recognition and praise to your employees on a regular basis rather than giving each employee a 1% raise – you can have engaged employees and save $200,000 a year!! That can make a big difference to any company’s bottom line!
So again I challenge you to start implementing “on-the-spot recognition” in your company TODAY… you can’t afford not to! THANK YOU for taking the time to read this today. See, it’s that easy…
Posted by Recognize Right 