Managers: The Key Ingredient to a Successful Recognition Program

June 24, 2010

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.

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Recognition is Fun!

June 18, 2010

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?

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Posted by Recognize Right

Daily Recognition; Make it Today’s Goal

June 11, 2010

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!

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Replace Compensation with Recognition?

June 2, 2010

As I mentioned last week, I recently attended the World at Work Total Rewards Conference sponsored by Towers Watson, the leading professional services company that helps organizations improve performance through people, risk, and financial management. The US Strategic Rewards Report (completed by Towers Watson) was highlighted at the conference noting growing companies in the US are investing more in their recognition programs because it is stimulating a greater energized and productive work force than compensation. The results from this year’s US Strategic Rewards Report created quite the buzz throughout the conference. 

Total Rewards are tools available to employers to attract, motivate, and retain employees.  Total Rewards consists of five elements: compensation, benefits, work-life, performance and recognition, and development and career opportunities.  The stress of the current economy has had an affect on the Total Rewards mix. What is the best combination to retain your employees and keep them engaged?

In 2009, recognition hit the radar with 23% of growing companies increasing the use of rewards and recognition while at the same time holding compensation flat or returning it to the former level; if it had been lowered.   An additional element of development and career opportunities is now part of the Total Rewards mix. Perhaps it’s because of the Gen Y’s hitting the work force by storm. 

In a typical organization, the Total Rewards elements would be weighed and given a perceived value by the employees; then employment decisions are made based on the value they place on the company’s Total Rewards package.  The employee has two options; take the job or look for a different employer they believe better suits their needs. More importantly, the Total Rewards elements impact the employee’s engagement and sense of value to the organization, the team, and their job. 

Now that’s a look at why recognition is so powerful  and is a very low cost way to stimulate engaged, productive, happy employees who take good care of your customers. Recognition is a valuable feedback and role-modeling vehicle.  It can also impact your culture – many successful organizations use it as a change accelerator. Whether it is adopting a new system or procedure or merely taking performance up a level.

Cost savings continued to be a strong focus at the conference; organizations are significantly reducing administration costs and increasing the perceived value of their existing recognition program by simply putting all recognition (safety, productivity, on-the-spot, manager’s discretion, health/wellness, years of service, and cultural/value-based) under one umbrella.  Our award-winning Anderson Enterprise Incentive Solution, AEIS® enables all employees to accumulate the recognition in one place and choose from a broader assortment of awards.  The management reporting is also a powerful tool to use for coaching.

What Total Rewards elements are on the top of your list? Is recognition on the top of your list?  Are you getting a significant return on investment in your people?  Are you stimulating continued improvement?

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