Which Recognition Program Do You Start With First?

You have either personally asked or thought about this question, or the leader you report to might have asked you.

“Which recognition program do you start with first?”

Lewis Carroll, in his unforgettable tale of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, gives us a clue to the answer to this question.

The main character, Alice, sees the Cheshire Cat sitting on the bough of a tree and decides to ask it a question.

“Cheshire Puss,” she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider.

“Come, it’s pleased so far,” thought Alice, and she went on.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where—“ said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat

Likewise, you need to take the recognition program road you would like to take. Lead by your company’s purpose, recognition needs and budget realities as well as your own experienced opinion.

And if you don’t have a destination, objective or purpose then I will help you choose one. (more…)

Are Fears Getting In the Way of You Giving Recognition?

Is it possible that those struggling with giving people recognition in your company or organization actually are afraid to do so? Do they have perceived fears that are stopping them from recognizing others?

These days we hear the acronym “FOMO” or the “fear of missing out” which is the anxiety of missing out on rewarding experiences that others might be having. This is typically associated with social media and the need to be continually connected online so the individual can stay connected with what other people are doing.

I would classify the many fears associated with not giving recognition as “FOGR”, or the “fear of giving recognition”.

Latter-day Saints have a scriptural reference that states “…but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear.”(Doctrine and Covenants 38:30)

And so I bring to the forefront the typical fears people associate with giving recognition and provide you with ways you can prepare for dealing with them and helping others cope better. (more…)

Get Your Managers Excited About Giving Recognition

Many of you responsible for employee recognition in your organizations have a hard time getting full support and attention of your managers.

Some just don’t get it as far as understanding the importance of recognition in the eyes of their employees.

A few managers rose to their current position solely based upon expertise or technical competency and not for any people skill or emotional intelligence strengths.

Your job is to spark their interest in recognition when they are being bombarded with so many other priorities and distractions.

In reality, we tend to remember two kinds of events in life – major negative happenings and warm, positive activities.

Your goal should be to get managers excited about giving recognition and make it a warm and positive memory for them.

Learn from these four ways to raise the excitement level. (more…)

I have had people ask me about points-based recognition and reward programs and the pros and cons of Issuance Model and Redemption Model payment plans. Hopefully this Top 10 Insights on Paying for Program Awards will answer those who have questions.

Date: June 15, 2017
Appearance: Top 10 Insights on Paying for Program Awards
Outlet: Incentive Magazine
Location: New York, NY
Format: Magazine

How to Run an Engagement and Recognition Program

Free webcast features speakers from Rideau, Inc. and Ohio State UniversityWexner Medical Center/RPI

On Wednesday, Aug. 2, Incentive will host a free webcast on the topic, “How to Run an Engagement and Recognition Program” as part of a yearlong series of step-by-step guides to running a variety of effective incentive programs.

With more than three-quarters of all U.S. jobs now in the service economy sector, having engaged and enthusiastic employee is more important than ever to the success of a company. In fact, the most engaged companies have outperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 30 percent over the past four years.

In this free webcast recognition experts Roy Saunderson and Amy J. Hurley will provide attendees with a step-by-step guide on how to refresh, improve, or create an effective and successful employee recognition program. Topics will include determining the goals of your recognition program, creating the rules structure, promoting the program, tracking participant performance, choosing and delivering awards, and measuring the impact on your firm’s engagement scores.

Speakers

Roy Saunderson, MA, CRP, is Chief Learning Officer at Rideau, Inc.‘s Vistance Institute, as well as author of Giving the Real Recognition Way.

Amy J. Hurley, LSW, CRP, is program director of faculty and staff recognition at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She also serves as vice president of the Recognition Professionals International (RPI) board of directors and chair of RPI’s best practice awards team.

Moderator: Leo Jakobson, Executive Editor, Incentive

How To Stop Leaders from Stopping Recognition Giving

In your effort to make recognition flourish throughout the organization you always need the support of your leadership team or a key leader.

Unfortunately, the skills or attributes that sometimes cause certain leaders to rise to the top may not be the people-facing skills needed to make recognition happen the way you would like it to.

In fact, sometimes you will find your role is more focused on stopping leaders from stopping recognition giving.

See if you relate to these seven ways leaders can sometimes stop recognition. (more…)

4 Quick Ways to Understand Analytics with Recognition

I am constantly researching information to better understand employee recognition and how I can better help you with these insights.

I recently stumbled upon some great information about analytics and how it applies to recognition and I want to summarize it for you. Nothing mathematical or statistics oriented – so don’t worry!

The information I found was from Gartner. They are an amazing information technology research and advisory company. Always be on the lookout for their reports, press releases, etc., for incredible findings and future trends.

I also found a great summary documents from Information Builders an analytics company in Spain. Don’t worry the information is in English!

If you’re like me I was never good at statistics and barely passed the course in my second year of university.

But when I found these descriptions of the different kinds of analytics it was so simple and understandable I just had to pass it along to you. (more…)

Right Words of Recognition for Years of Service

What do you say to a person who reaches a specific milestone level in their years of service with the company?

This is something that is very important but frequently overlooked.

Over the years I have seen different milestones of recognition celebrated at many years of service award events.

Too often the years of service recognition is relegated to an online or manual process that makes things happen.

But planning the right words of acknowledgment to use isn’t always in the mix.

There should be thought put into the right words of recognition to use that accompany the event, the one on one encounter between a manager and employee, or the gift given to the employee.

I will give you some guidelines to consider for the right words of recognition. (more…)

Recognition Tip #37: Bring in some noisemakers and have some fun together.

Get kazoos, party clappers and horns for your employees and allow your team members to “blow their own horn” when no one else is. Towards the end of the day or at an appropriate break time, create some fun ruckus in harmonious unison to boost team spirit and morale.