Like the fall of the Galactic Empire in the Star Wars saga, sometimes you have to bring your formal award and recognition programs back to the light side. When any of your formal award programs fall apart, you need to step in quickly and turn things right around.
Following are a few ways to consider with preventing the downfall of your formal recognition programs.
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Do any of you remember the Sesame Street TV show and the song People in Your Neighborhood? Perhaps I’m dating myself.
The lyrics of the song started with:
“Oh, who are the people in your neighborhood?… and concluded with…The people that you meet each day.”
Bob McGrath, one of the few human actors on the show among the many puppet characters, sang the song with one of the puppets and then they would identify the different people that helped make their Sesame Street neighborhood. Various puppets appeared representing the postman, firefighter, grocery store owner, barber, and doctor, etc.
Many times I am asked how to get senior leaders involved with recognizing and appreciating their employees. Or how to engage them in accessing their online recognition programs to acknowledge or nominate staff.
Sometimes I feel if the leaders don’t “get it” about the importance of recognizing employees, maybe those who manage recognition at the organization should let the natural consequences take their course.
The real recognition leaders in your organization are most often the people that you meet each day in your “neighborhood” at work.
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How are your career milestone or service award programs doing these days?
It seems the majority of organizations have tenure or long service award programs. According to WorldatWork’s 2017 Trends in Employee Recognition, length of service recognition remains the top ranked recognition program with 85 percent of organizations.
Historically, and especially within the public sector, career milestone years were only acknowledged when an employee reached 25 years or longer. Today, most progressive organizations commence with at least 5 years and then celebrate every 5-year increment thereafter.
But when you look at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics the average tenure for salaried employees is 4.2 years. That average drops to 2.8 years for the mobile 25 to 34 year old employees.
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Do your employees know the difference between recognition and rewards? Are managers and supervisors consistently praising and recognizing their direct reports for doing good work on a regular basis? Is peer-to-peer recognition happening through your social recognition newsfeed and face-to-face?
If you had a “no” to any one of those questions, you likely need to send out recognition messaging more often.
It might well be time to communicate what recognition is and why it is so important. You may need to tell everyone how easily they can recognize one another. Show them how to give meaningful and effective recognition.
I have written before about the importance of creating a Recognition Communications Calendar to support your recognition programs and practices. However, I was not as clear as I should have been, about what to include in your advanced communication planning.
You have to be strategic about the recognition messaging you want to convey throughout the company. Here are some quick thoughts to guide you. (more…)
When employees go above and beyond in the workplace it stands out.
It’s noticeable. Exceptional. And it should be celebrated.
That is why managers need to understand the importance of recognizing employees for going above and beyond.
Why should you establish an above and beyond category to your existing recognition award programs? What are the benefits of doing so? (more…)
Too often all the hype, communications and marketing goes into the launching of a new recognition program.
Then there is nothing. All is quiet. You can hear the hum of the photocopier machine.
If you want to keep recognition alive and well and top of mind you need to communicate and market recognition all year long.
That’s why you need to create a corporate recognition communications calendar. (more…)