Gift Programs

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End the Engagement Tug of War: Structure Your Employee Recognition Program for Success

Employee Engagement has been a hot topic in the HR world for a while now and a lot of companies have been struggling with how to most effectively target improving their engagement scores for the best ROI.

Last Wednesday, Fistful of Talent posted a blog by Paul Herbert (one of my favorite incentive and performance motivation authors) entitled “We Have Employee Engagement @$$ Backward”. Herbert suggests that employees have learned to respond to employee engagement surveys in a way that results in companies continuously investing additional resources to improve engagement without necessarily seeing any impact. He contends that employee engagement should start with employees and they should be earning the perks provided by the employee engagement efforts rather than companies mindlessly stacking on the benefits in order to raise their engagement scores.

Hopefully most of the companies who come to us seeking an employee recognition program in order to improve engagement have tried more of a structured approach than just piling on new “perks and bennies” but Herbert is absolutely correct that there are two sides to the engagement coin and both must be taken into consideration in any well-planned employee recognition program.

Following are several items Herbert says employees should be doing to earn rewards and our suggestion on how you can structure your employee recognition program to facilitate employee involvement while still ensuring your program results in positive ROI.

• Find ways to reduce costs and increase results
Structure your employee recognition program to reward goal completion – we have seen that the most effective programs target specific goals (whether individual or team based) that have an obvious impact on the company’s bottom line. Make sure you are awarding more for goals that have a significant impact than others that may be important but have a lesser ROI.

Provide outlets for employees to share their procedural improvement suggestions and cost savings ideas. Remember, we’re not talking a “penny for your thoughts” here – if you want employees to actively think about improvements and changes that can benefit the company’s bottom line you need to reward them adequately for their input. Take time to review all of the suggestions your employees submit and adequately reward and recognize the suggestions you implement - both privately with points and publicly by sharing the details and impact of the suggestion with all of your employees by including information in your company newsletter and / or on your employee recognition program website.

Focus on breaking down silos and building a team environment
Working as a collective and cohesive team is a vital aspect to any company’s success but building a team atmosphere across different departments, locations or divisions takes an extra effort. Many of our clients have found peer recognition and the ability for their employees to send eCards to coworkers a great way to build rapport between employees that might not directly interact on a regular basis. Featuring messages of thanks or nominations for exceptional work on your employee recognition website allows your employees to share their coworkers’ efforts and accomplishments that might otherwise go unnoticed or unrecognized.

• Invest in skills and their future with the company through classes, training, coaching
Personal and professional development your employees accomplish can help your company’s bottom line and it’s important to recognize these efforts. Many of our clients reward their employees for taking classes and completing training that aren’t mandatory to their position but enhance their abilities and develop skills that are beneficial to the company. Encourage your employees to grow and develop and make sure you recognize them publicly in addition to whatever rewards you may deem fit. Seeing other team members improve themselves is a great motivator for other employees to follow suit, especially if they can see that such behavior is supported and applauded by upper management. Many companies also recognize and reward more senior employees for mentoring new or lower level employees and assisting in training them in the skills that will improve performance and best help them contribute to the company’s success.

Set aside time to talk to company leadership, other departments
Another important aspect of employee engagement that can be encouraged and rewarded through your employee recognition program is getting involved in activities outside of regular work hours. Recognizing employees who volunteer their own time to assist on committees, attend non-mandatory planning meetings or participate in community service events will result in higher participation, improved employee relationships and teamwork and potentially even boost community awareness and goodwill towards your company.

Set your employee recognition program up for success. Even though we believe every company should have some sort of employee recognition program, we promote programs that benefit the company overall as well as your employees as individuals. Your program should result in benefits to the company’s bottom line through measureable results such as reduced turnover, waste and accidents or improved customer retention as well as through less easily measured results such as improved morale and heightened engagement.

For more guidance on setting up an effective employee recognition program, see some additional Awards Network blogs: 6 Tips for Implementing a Successful Incentive Program: Part One, 6 Tips for Implementing a Successful Incentive Program: Part Two, Avoid Disaster when Setting Incentive Program Goals, Maximize the Results of Employee Recognition

Does your company have a successful employee recognition program that engages employees while still benefitting the bottom line? Tell us about some of the program aspects that have worked (or failed) and why.

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