August 17, 2009
One of the biggest mistakes companies make during the creation of an incentive and recognition program is the lack of well defined rules. Those who are tasked with designing a sales program tailor it around the company’s compensation structure. This is a big no-no. If your comp is not returning the results you are wanting, why do you think an incentive program designed the same will?
When designing how your participants will earn awards or what we refer to as “rule structure”, you need to focus on behaviors. Example: For your sales group, target your best performers, the ones that are doing “it” the right way. Who are they? And most importantly, what are they doing to be so successful? Focus on how they target new customers and what their plan is. Inform the team of these desired behaviors and then reward for doing it.
For non-sales groups like your customer service, technology and administrative groups, focus on behaviors like collaboration, excellent documentation, analysis, and financial aptitude. Again, find those individuals or teams that are getting the job done well, and then reward those who adapt these new behaviors.
Sound simple? It is SIMPLE, but it is not easy. Keep working at it. Track your results and continually look at how you can make it more exciting and MORE SIMPLE. And again, focus on behaviors and improvement.
Remember, there is a science and an art to designing a successful program. The science is the creation and design of the rules and the art is the fun. Yes, the fun! Make your program fun – and engagement will skyrocket.
My article Accelerate Recognition to Accelerate Profits discusses the importance of a behavior-based rule structure. What has been your most successful program? How did you go about designing your rule structure?
Leave a Comment » | 
Employee Engagement, Recognition | 
Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
August 7, 2009
Last week I attended the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) 10th Annual Executive Summit. I attended an interesting breakout session regarding social networking. I am sure you have heard the buzz about the various social networking services; LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. You might be asking yourself, what is social networking and why is it so important?
According to Wikipedia, a social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact. At this time, over 200 different networking services are available.
With these social network services, you can do your “homework” about a perspective client or a new hire. For example, my daughter recently moved to New York and she needed to find a roommate and an apartment. First she posted a message, researched her potential roommates (gaining knowledge about their background, family, education), and in the end, she was able to make a better, more informed, quicker decision.
It is true about the professional world as well. About a month ago, we were asked to respond to an RFP. How this company found us was through the social network world. They searched for incentive and recognition providers through the various social networking services. When I did eventually meet the key contact, it was amazing how much she knew about me.
Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information which I believe in turn can improve your performance and the performance of others. These websites are being used regularly by millions of people. Share your experience or successes about social networking services.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
August 4, 2009
This past spring, my oldest daughter graduated from college. Where did the time go! She came to me with a plan of moving from our small community to the big city of New York. She wasn’t looking for my approval; she was looking for my advice to make this plan successful.
She is a hard-working, very determined, typical Gen Y. She knows what she wants and hasn’t changed much since her second birthday! Ironically, this generation doesn’t want to be told how to do something, rather told how to be more successful.
She is finding out for herself how competitive the job market is, especially in New York. Because of this, she has become a master of “follow up” and “networking.” Remember, this generation has grown up with computers, cell phones, and other gadgets us Baby Boomers hadn’t even heard of. After she has an interview or attends a networking event, she uses all sorts of media to follow up and hopefully sets herself apart from the crowd.
As a rule, Gen Y’ers are looking for challenging positions which will generate immediate success. They want to impress their new supervisor NOW. How do you keep this group engaged and focused on what is most important to your business and retained as an employee? According to research by the Center for Sales Innovation at St. Catherine University in Minnesota, there is a strong, positive correlation between recognition and job satisfaction.
Take a look at my article “To Engage Gen Y Workers, Adopt New Approaches”. Is your company doing the right things to keep this group engaged? I would love to hear about it.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
July 24, 2009
Recently, I earned a Certified Professional of Incentive Management certification (CPIM) from the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA). This certification acknowledges professionals who demonstrate the knowledge and leadership essential to succeed in the incentive industry.
The program and certification process takes into consideration my work and educational experience, along with the contribution of my time and expertise to improve the incentive marketplace – and most importantly, my commitment to continuingly seeking education to enhance the knowledge of this field.
It was an eye-opening experience. It was great to see all the critical information in one place enabling professionals whether they are resellers of incentives and recognition or managers responsible for their own companies programs. At this time, only 40 professionals in the industry have received this certification.
Another part to the certification process was writing a White Paper about an incentive topic. My White Paper, “Impact your Bottom Line Now … Build a Culture of Recognition with all the Generations” discusses the importance of recognition. Take a look – I would love to hear your thoughts.
Leave a Comment » | Employee Engagement, Recognition | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
July 15, 2009
More and more companies are looking for an easy-to-use, effective way to recognize employees. It only makes sense. Did you know many companies are wasting thousands and even millions of dollars by not having one consistent and fair way to recognize employees company wide?
Try having one flexible program and include everyone! Useful information is captured from a company-wide platform; who’s doing what and most importantly, who’s not!
What I think is even more important is having a culture of recognition within your organization. Research states recognizing your employees increases engagement, retention, and productivity. Recently we had a client who ran a recognition program that can attribute to over 89% engaged employees. You might think 89% is average . . . not even close!
The Gallop Poll has identified 12 questions that measure employee engagement. http://www.gallup.com/consulting/52/employee-engagement.aspx. According to the results, United States has the largest percentage of engaged workers . . . 27%. Many of you might find this shocking! This equates to 22 million employees who are not engaged or those who are actively disengaged. And it is costing over $300 billion annually in lost productivity. Can you afford not to engage your employees? Recognizing your employees is so powerful and cost effective!
Could your organization benefit from a centralized recognition tool? I would love to hear your thoughts.
Leave a Comment » | Employee Engagement, Recognition | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
July 1, 2009
I presented at the Loyalty Expo in Florida the beginning of June and had an opportunity to have some very interesting conversations with other colleagues about motivating and incenting customers. My presentation was focused on Best Practices … What’s New! What’s new was recognizing customers for their knowledge and opinions.
Funny thing (or sad thing) is that the way many customers get valuable knowledge and information about your brand or product is through your companies’ employees. Best in Class customer engagement used online medium to reward for customers responding to surveys and sharing their opinions and knowledge.
Some of the rewards are additional privileges or special offer discounts. A major food manufacturer enlists customers through advertising to sign-up to take a survey and receive a coupon for a featured product. Shortly after the coupon is mailed, an electronic survey is sent to gain feedback on the product.
Have you been involved in this yourself? Could you see this working in your organization? Let me know.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
June 22, 2009
I recently had the pleasure of being a quest writer for Premium Incentive Products: Products and Ideas that Inspire Performance magazine on generational differences and recognition. I love digging into the Gen X and Gen Y minds to really get an understanding of what makes them tick.
As I stated in the article (http://www.pipmag.com/200905gc01.php), “Recognition says to them, I’ve noticed you. I want you to be successful. Make recognition and rewards timely and public, and your Gen X and Y employees will reward you with continuous performance improvement.” This characteristic in the Gen X and Y is due to their strong desire to be successful, fast!
It’s so fascinating when I hear from managers who are frustrated with their Gen X and Y employees because they are asking for feedback – most managers aren’t used to providing immediate feedback, they’re more used to giving instructions on “how-to” at the beginning. Providing immediate feedback enables your Gen X and Ys to adjust, change or excel faster.
Can you see how this could help you or others around you today?
1 Comment | Recognition | Tagged: behavior change, Recognition | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
June 5, 2009
I was at the Loyalty Expo in Florida at the beginning of the week, and the energy was amazing! Many of you are aware that the Gallup Organization is known as the employee engagement research organization; I attended their seminar at the expo and need to share with you…their seminar was on getting your customers to be loyal and engaged in three steps:
- Know their business
- Bring them ideas that will help their business
- Help them get the ideas implemented
Guess how you help your customers do all these? Through your engaged employees!
How do you get engaged employees, managers and non-managers? You get them actively involved in recognizing their peers, subordinates and managers for the behaviors and activities that are most important for improving your business, meeting your customers’ needs, and creating a delightful experience.
WOW – what would you do if everyone knew what was most important to them, their team and organization and what the behavior(s) are that would get those results so they could get IT done?
Recognize for knowledge and DOING IT.
1 Comment | Employee Engagement, Recognition | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
May 15, 2009
Think of your self – how many priorities and changing priorities do you have everyday? How many text messages from home or your boss do your get in a day? How many long term strategies are you working on and the day-to-day get’s in the way? Can you imagine how much you could get done if you could clear the clutter?
What is in your mind gets done; and if you were recognized for the most important item or behavior that yields the greatest impact, it will get done. If you were recognized for completing the annual budget this week, it would get done despite the multitude of other activities and requests that you have. If call center reps who just have just been quizzed on a best practice for how to engage with the customer within the first 30 seconds were recognized by their manager when they use the new skills, they would do it. Or for an employees of a wellness program that just learned the importance hydration and if they are recognized by each other will drink more water.
Creating new behaviors is all about creating focus for each person even though it is part of their job. What you as their leader or team member or parent are really doing here by providing recognition/feedback is creating focus that enables change.
Using recognition to achieve strategic targeted behaviors will get you the results you desire. Please share with us ideas you have to get you want through targeted recognition.
Leave a Comment » | Recognition | Tagged: behavior change, focus, Recognition, results | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
April 27, 2009
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…
9 Comments | Recognition, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Recognize Right
