Comments for Recognize Right Blog: Unlock the People Potential in Your Organization

Comment on Recognize Success in the Sales Cycle by Xexec

Xexec — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:57:12 +0000

According to me we reward results not the effort put in doing something,but with sales people it is a little challenging because you can go out of your way to sell to clients but at the end of the day it is up to them to come on board.

Comment on Reward Employees on a Budget by Xexec

Xexec — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 08:54:02 +0000

Employee benefits alone in this day and age are outdated if you are looking to keep your best employees. Employee incentives and rewards have proven to increase employee productivity and loyalty and many companies are using the services of firms that specialize in this concierge services as this will save the company time and money.

Comment on Gift Cards: Are they really an Award? by Ley Borlo

Ley Borlo — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:26:30 +0000

Louise, totally and completely agree, except gift cards just aren’t cash. So as merchandise they are all things you mention. The only difference that we really have is the delivery mechanism. Some participants use points in an electronic bank account as the media to get the award, others use the gift cards to get the award. The difference (unless you now work with margins that approach only 10% is that gift cards provide a far better value. Those of us who have been in this wonderful world as long as we have, know that to be true.

Of course this is about the ROI on the program, which typically has very little to do with the value of the award, unless of course you substitute gift cards for catalog merch, than you can show an even better ROI when you can cut your award costs by 25%.

When you finish with those who call you to hear your ideas on implementing an award system, let me know, I’d be happy give them a complete and total cost analysis of the program awards, and we’ll let the chips fall where they may.

Thanks for the joust, I always said you were one of the best salesfolks in the business. Hope you are well.

Ley

Comment on Gift Cards: Are they really an Award? by Louise

Louise — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:58:21 +0000

Ley –

Good to hear from you! I see you are once again in a different business and now promoting gift cards and I’m sure keeping the breakage when participants don’t redeem the cards.

The days when award choices had a 50% margin are long gone and rightfully so. The real factor is how does a company get the maximum return on their investment? How do they engage employees and channel partners to do the right things to achieve the desired behavior and improvement?

Simply put, memorable rewards do get continual engagement. Take a look at the data from the Incentive Federation:
• In terms of specific types of incentives or awards, more respondents indicate that merchandise incentives and travel incentives are more compelling than cash..
o About four of five respondents believe that travel awards and merchandise awards are remembered longer than cash awards.
o Almost two-thirds of the respondents feel that cash awards are remembered for the shortest time.
o Furthermore, about three-fourths of respondents agree that they can build a more exciting, memorable program around travel or merchandise than cash.
o Respondents feel that three out of five (60%) employees see cash as a part of their compensation package.
I invite anyone to give us a call and we will show you how to implement a rewards system with the greatest ROI.

Comment on Gift Cards: Are they really an Award? by Ley Borlo

Ley Borlo — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:52:36 +0000

Ah yes the ever famous “gift cards are just like cash” argument. Thought that went out last decade. Somewhat disengenuous as neither the research references you state say that gift cards are the same as cash. I always like to say they are just like merchandise but with the gift card you at least get the valued tangible item at the price you should pay for it, not double or even triple cost that the smoke and mirrors incentive houses such as yourself are apt to charge. In fact the second reference to the Incentive Federation Survey clearly shows gift certificates leading the parade on the awards lists shown. Aren’t you afraid those who click on it may just go down that far to see those facts? Or did you miss that?

Louise, did you hire some young impressionable thing and then train them to to be a clone to past philosophy, or did you write this remarkable piece of
chicanery all by yourself? Ah for the good old days when we didn’t have those nasty gift cards spoiling our profit margins and confusing our clients to look at our prices. It was better when they believed us and never really looked at what they got for 50,000 award credits. If you don’t remember, they paid $250 plus 17% for something called SHIA, another bogus way to make money, and what they got for it was about $127.15 worth of merchandise. Of course the price was hidden and ambiguous so those stupid participants would never know huh?

Please publish this as I would love to send my clients to it just to be fair and balanced.

PS: Wouldn’t it be nice if you could make your 50% gross margins on gift cards so you wouldn’t have to care anymore? Have a great year!
Ley Borlo

Comment on America’s Happiest Companies by Drew Hawkins

Drew Hawkins — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:22:37 +0000

I would definitely agree with this. I know personally I’m more inclined to work harder when the work I’m doing is more fun. The fun isn’t always in the task at hand (because there are always ‘boring yet necessary’tasks) but the environment in which you have to do them. People make work fun as much as fun work does.

Comment on Keep Employees Happy with Flexible Schedules by Drew Hawkins

Drew Hawkins — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:08:34 +0000

Telecommuting is a great option. I do all my work from the office 99% of the time. However, due to a major flood I was stranded out of town and couldn’t make it to the office, making to where I had no choice but to telecommute that day. I would have to say I “worked” less hours than normal but got a lot more accomplished than normal too.

Comment on Recession 101 by David Olson

David Olson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 16:12:36 +0000

I love them and had been wondering how they were being financed. Leave it to Louise Anderson to find the answer!!

Thanks, Dave

Comment on Recognition is Fun! by Louise Anderson

Louise Anderson — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:39:11 +0000

Drew, you are exactly right. There is allot of data that proves the financial benefits of those little steps to say thank you and it makes you feel great TOO!
Thank you for your comments.

Comment on Recognition is Fun! by Drew Hawkins

Drew Hawkins — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:20:25 +0000

One of the best points made is that recognition can be done informally too. It doesn’t take an entire structured program just to stop and say thanks for someone’s hard work. Little steps like that make an overall incentives program that much more successful.