Robert Thompson interviews Cindy Ventrice on how employee recognition makes teams stronger.

http://leaderinsideout.com/rants-and-raves/?p=809

Topics include:

How employee recognition builds strong teams
Recognizing virtual team members
How individual recognition influences team cohesiveness
Ideas for celebration and recognition

SHRM and Globoforce have released the results of their 2012 Employee Recognition Programs Survey. There are some very interesting statistics revealed in this survey.

Keep in mind, they polled 770 HR professionals, not the employees within those organizations. This means that the satisfaction rates listed are based on what the HR professionals revealed regarding the companies they work for.

Also note that not all of the professionals’ companies survey employees for level of satisfaction. It appears that only about 42 percent of the represented organizations do survey.  For the other 58 percent, I assume that the HR professionals are offering an educated guess.

On to the results:

76% have recognition programs, of these, 34% of employees are satisfied with the recognition they receive.

What factors improve the level of satisfaction? The survey reveals three key factors worth keeping mind when you are creating a recognition program:

• Values-based recognition
• Performance-based recognition
• Tracking ROI of programs

I agree completely that these are all very important to an effective employee recognition program. Organizations should be recognizing what they value, recognizing those that perform well, and should be tracking results to see where and if they are successful!

For more on developing employee recognition programs that work click here

Readers of Make Their Day continuously work to create a workplace where everyone feels productive and valued. Sometimes though, this is difficult. There is workplace drama that makes creating and maintaining an engaging workplace nearly impossible.

If you ever have to deal with emotional drama and its symptoms: rejection, sabotage, miscommunication, lack of appreciation, lawsuits, and overwork, join me on May 15 as Make Their Day and HRthatWorks cohost a free webinar with author Don Phin.

Want to be a workplace hero? Join us for Victims, Villains and Heroes: Managing Emotions in the Workplace. In this webinar Don will share with us how to recognize and deal with no-win scenarios.

Details:

Gerome

Here is a fun idea from a reader of the weekly employee recognition tips:

Pamela Gill of Kearns Improvement District in Utah says the district has a garden gnome that acts as a traveling trophy. They held a Name the Gnome contest (or was it Gname the Gnome?). The winner was Gerome the Roaming Gnome.

Pamela says people receive Gerome as recognition of:

• extra effort,
• going above and beyond in their duties,
• for an act of kindness, or
• anything deemed praiseworthy.

They also have a poster that lists the names of employees who have received Gerome (or should we say hosted a visit from him). The poster provides a permanent record of Gerome’s travels.

I love it! Now, let’s hear your ideas…

The study didn’t reveal any surprises but reinforced what we already know:

Pay, bonuses, and stock options do not motivate as well as
praise from the immediate manager, attention from leaders, or opportunities to lead projects or task forces.

It is nice to have additional confirmation, but honestly I wouldn’t have posted anything regarding this research except… I perused the reader comments at the end of the article. There were plenty of people talking about the theory behind why the non-financial rewards are more powerful. What caught my eye was the person who took a different approach and offered a great idea for motivating people. I loved what I read so I found her on LinkedIn and asked if I could share her idea with my readers.

Here is what Prathima Acharya wrote:

The basic need for all of us is to feel that we are growing and learning. At every year-end review, I would have my direct reports (Scientists at all levels - PhD, MS, and BS) bring an updated resume. After the review, I would help them add one or two new bullet points that would make them more marketable than the previous year. As managers, we can recognize the contributions of our colleagues and articulate how that fits into the bigger picture. Try this and see how even an ordinary assignment turns into an opportunity for learning and you can get the team to take on both challenging and routine work equally.

At each performance review she helps the direct report add a bullet point or two to their resume.

Brilliant! Readers of Make Their Day! know that a manager who shows concern for growth and development has happy and engaged workers. These resume bullet points clearly demonstrate that the individual is growing and developing.

Prathima was a director at the time of her comment and is now a senior leader in biopharma. When she responded, she noted that not everyone thought that building resumes was a good idea. Some worried that people would up and leave. In truth, she didn’t loose anyone on her team!

Develop people and your team will be engaged while they are there, will stay longer,  and become enthusiastic ambassadors when they leave.

Take a tip from Prathima. Develop your people. Help the build their resumes. You won’t regret it.

For years I have been talking about the value of the handwritten note, thoughtful email, or even a encouraging text. And for years, readers have been asking for new ways to send these messages. How can we improve on the basic written form of recognition? Well, what if you could:

• Create a running feed where everyone could see the notes?
• Track who is using the system, discovering gaps in usage as well as who your champions are?
• Customize individual profiles that outline some basic preferences?
• Post and receive notes directly to your smart phone?
• Share your notes on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn?

Seems to me that such a set up could really facilitate organization-wide recognition - especially in a youthful organization where social networking could have the greatest effect.

Enter Sparcet, a brand new app, just out of beta testing, that could be a great way to build on existing recognition within your organization or your team. If you want to check it out:

www.Sparcet.com

It is free. Sign up and test it out. Send invites to a few people in your organization. Send me an invite if you wish. Play with the system. Tell me what you think. I see a lot of possibilities for this app, and would love to hear from you.

The features I have mentioned here are free. They have additional engagement provoking strategies that will cost your company a bit of money, but the basic app that allows you to send your messages with words of praise and appreciation is free.

When it comes to recognition, I have some of the most creative readers in the world!

I received this thank you card from Kelly Cowan of Ontario. She created the card, which is illustrated with a puzzle piece mountain, to use at work.

Take a look at the image. What does it say to you? To me, it sends a powerful message about the individual’s role in achieving success, that every “piece” is important in reaching the pinnacle. What a great way to reinforce the importance of individual contribution to team success. I love it. Thanks Kelly!

Have you created a custom card to use at work? Send me a picture and note telling me how you use the card and I will post it.

Every once in a while something happens that reinforces an important concept, the concept in this case being that the way others treat us really does affect our behavior, whether consciously or not.

A Little Background

A few years ago I had an appointment with a service provider. I left for my appointment about 10 minutes late and I should have called, but didn’t want to be even later (stop to find the number, etc). I had been going to this person, let’s call her Sally, for years and to various specialists among this group of providers even longer. I knew Sally would be okay with my being a few minutes late. Unfortunately 10 minutes became 20 due to road work. I really began to regret not calling.

When I arrived for my appointment the receptionist acted like the disapproving parent of a teenager staggering in at three in the morning. She behaved this way in spite of the fact that I had never been late in the 10 years she had worked there. “Oh well,” I thought, “Sally is the one who matters. She won’t be thrilled but she will understand. Besides,  she only needs about 40 minutes to do what needs to be done.”

I expected to apologize to Sally and then have everything be okay. Imagine my surprise when I learned that she was no longer employed there! With no warning they had switched my appointment to a new person, who was peeved at my late arrival. She took me in anyway, huffed and puffed throughout the session, in spite of my apologies, and then said she was out of time 10 minutes before the end of the hour. Instead of feeling like a client who had messed up once in many years of patronage I left feeling like a criminal.

My solution was to switch specialists but stay with this group. After all, why should I let two people ruin my relationship with a group I have been patronizing most of my adult life? If I were being logical, this would be the end of the story.

Fast Forward to this Past Week

I am upset with myself because I have completely forgotten an appointment with this group for the third time. My husband raises a very good question,

“Why do you forget appointments with these people when you are so reliable everywhere else?

Hmmm, I wondered, was it possible that it wasn’t a coincidence? I like my current specialists so what was the problem? Was there some part of me that didn’t want to go there at all, regardless of who I was working with? It didn’t make much sense, but my record seemed to speak for itself. It appears that the way I was treated by the receptionist (who still works there) and one specialist (gone) has influenced my behavior.

I am not proud of the fact that I may be unconsciously sabotaging myself and inconveniencing my providers, and I certainly wouldn’t share my poor behavior here, except to illustrate the apparent power of disrespect to demotivate long term - and in a less than conscious and rational manner.

The Organizational Link

When organizations are faced with poor engagement they often try to motivate with pay raises, promotions, or awards, Often they fail. Why? Because something has happened that has sent a strong message that people aren’t valued. Logically, employees see the that new initiative is intended to tell them that they are important to the organization. But logic doesn’t drive  motivation and engagement, emotion does.

The answer, for organizations (and me), is an honest conversation followed by behaving with integrity.

Recognition is about two things, being:

1)Visible

2) Valued

Most of our recognition efforts are focused on the second part, conveying the message that people are valued. Demonstrating the value of our employees is extremely important, and we need to do it through both our words and our actions. The more we can show our praise and appreciation the better.

But what about visibility? We don’t pay much attention to it, and yet visibility is critical to the success of our organizations. No one wants to be a nameless cog in a machine. They literally want to be recognized, as in “Oh I know who you are! You work in accounting and your name is…” Small organizations have no problem with this and consequently usually have higher levels of engagement. With bigger organizations people can get lost in the crowd.

What do organizations do to counteract this sense of isolation? Most have on-boarding processes for introducing new people around the company when they are hired. And most have mixers and other events where people can get more familiar over time. What else can be done?

Here is what Zappos is doing that I find so interesting. As part of their computer log-on sequence, employees are required to identify the photo of one employee, chosen randomly from their data base.

Isn’t that intriguing? The message I get from this process is that knowing your coworkers isn’t optional. If you want to work here you literally have to recognize everyone!

Tell me what you or your organization do to improve visibility!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 6:30 to 8:00 PM
Cisco Bldg. 24, Large Conference Room
510 McCarthy Boulevard
Milpitas, California 95035

6:30 to 7:00 PM   Networking and Light Refreshments
7:00 to 8:00 PM   Round Table Panel Discussion
8:00 to 8:30 PM   Networking

Panelists:
Jeff Hahn, former Quality Director at Oracle Corp. and Cisco Systems
Chi Nguyen, PMO, R&D, and CTO Office at i365, a Seagate company
Cindy Ventrice, expert and consultant on employee recognition; author
of Make Their Day: Employee Recognition that Works

Come with your questions and perspective. It should be a lively discussion.

RSVP: info@rosetogroup.com or (408) 221-9760

If you want more information check this link.