Recognition Thought for the Moment

Posted on March 5, 2013 by admin

flowers

Do you take as much time deciding what to say in appreciation for a job well done as you do in determining what recognition award to give?

Think about it this way.  When you give flowers or some other gift to that special person do you accompany it with the kind words or a phrase sharing your feelings and thoughts?

Flowers and gifts have a very limited vocabulary.  About the best they can say is that you remembered. 

TY 1

Remember; don’t give that award without fastening some words to it.  That will make it truly meaningful.


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What Award to Use – Cash or Non-Cash?

Posted on February 26, 2013 by admin

money                               

Is it time once again to rehash the discussion of which is better to use for employee recognition and incentive awards… cash or non-cash (like merchandise, travel, gift cards etc)? card in box

Having been in the award industry for many years we’ve been through this debate for what seems like forever.  In the early years, it was always a point of argument with a client, as there were always some executives that felt cash was the only award to use. 

With all the research being done these days on the importance of recognition to employee engagement, we do hear less and less of about cash, but there are still many that feel cash is the only way to go.  Our position is fairly straightforward.  There are places for each in the employee benefit balance.  Still, if you ask persons in the HR community you will get a strong response supporting cash as a good motivator.  Frankly, as has been proven by incentive industry research this is just not the case. 

Certainly cash is the common denominator as compensation for all of us, but to achieve many different business objectives it isn’t necessarily the best motivator. 

This post from Paul Hebert, one of the award industry gurus and one very knowledgeable on this subject, gives a great overview of this entire discussion.  It is well worth the read.  

When confronted with a company objective that requires motivating your employees to change behavior and produce different results, don’t just assume that throwing money at will work.  If often doesn’t.  You may also be pleasantly surprised to find out that you can achieve these objectives with about 1/3 of the cost of the cash program.  You see, studies have concluded that it takes about $3 in cash awards to produce the same result as $1 of non-cash.


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Thank Them – Praise Them – Recognize Them

Posted on February 19, 2013 by admin

TY 8

Remember those hopefully long forgotten days when we had bosses who thought that your pay check was “all the thanks you need?”  We’d like to think that they are long forgotten, but unfortunately we hear every day that attitude is still very much present in today’s managers.  Maybe it’s the times, maybe it’s just we hear the exceptions (there are a lot of great managers out there) but maybe not.

We are in the “Thanks” business, it’s what we do, and we believe it because we know it works.  But it seems that for every one of us, there is a boss out there who defends the philosophy of not thanking employees.  As social beings most of us intuitively know that thanks, praise and recognition is good for us.  We can’t recall a time when an employee every told us that they hated it when someone thanked or praised them for their effort.  They may have been embarrassed about how it was done, but a different issue.  The American Psychological Association in a paper entitled Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed simply that a little gratitude does go a long way and motivates increased pro-social behavior. 

To not foster a culture of thanks we feel is foolish, it lacks judgment and we think it’s unwise.  It’s surely at least counterproductive for everyone involved.  Paychecks are great; it’s why they come to work, but it’s only half the contract.  It’s just paying what you owe, it’s not showing appreciation. 

We’ve heard most of the reasons why managers say they withhold thanks:

  • No one thanks me
  • Thank people and they’ll only expect more
  • If you thank one you have to thank them all
  • I thanked an employee one time and he said ‘put it in my paycheck’, who needs that kind of guff
  • Thank people and they’ll get false confidence
  • I can’t thank people who need to improve

To these managerial types we say get over it.  It isn’t about you.  If your people expect more appreciation give it to them, they will deliver more to others and your workplace will warm up.  You don’t have to thank them all, but once you start you will naturally just thank more and more and it will become a habit.  And forget about the snarky ones, those are often malcontents who are looking around the corner at the next job move.

By simply choosing your words carefully it doesn’t mean you have to rise to the level of praising them, and then formally recognizing them.  But it is does start that cycle, that will result in a more engaged and productive workforce.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.

 


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Guidelines for Wellness Incentive Programs

Posted on February 12, 2013 by admin

lion in mirror

Last week we discussed the importance of incentives in wellness programs.  Few would argue that they can and have been effective in producing results.  However, using incentives in not an exact science, there are no business degrees given for how to implement one.  Incentive programs can, and often do, differ widely from company to company to person.   

“Everyone” is an expert on incentives.  “Everyone” knows how to plan and implement one effectively.  If that is true, then why do some programs produce dramatic results, some only mediocre results and others still no or relatively no results at all?   

A report produced by six major healthcare organizations was published in the July, 2012 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.  It covered aspects of employee-sponsored health incentive programs, from reward design, measurement, and evaluation to methods for engaging employees.  What was interesting to note about the report is that it was compiled from many different healthcare groups with no involvement from the incentive industry.  It does not carry the burden of research and reports conducted by the incentive industry which are always biased toward the award component one way or the other.   

“As employers seek new ways to engage employees in programs that change health behaviors, their interest in outcomes-based incentives has grown considerably as has the need for a unified voice on the issue,” says Jerry Noyce, president and CEO of the Health Enhancement Research Organization. 

Some interesting guide points from the report for you to consider: 

  • Program goals should be flexible, rather than a set of ideal targets that could be discouraging for many participants 
  • Rewards should be earned for a variety of behaviors, rather than offering all of the incentive for one area, or earned on an all-or-nothing basis   
  • Employees should be able “to integrate behavior-change approaches into their own value framework.” 
  • The importance of cultivating a workplace culture that supports healthy behavior should be emphasized…fitness centers, healthy food options, wellness champions etc. 
  • Develop a strategic plan to guide the company’s wellness goals over the long run, and ensuring regular communication with participants 

Larry Hausner, CEO of the American Diabetes Association, writes “Incentives can be an effective way to motivate some employees to participate in workplace wellness programs and to begin behavior changes.”


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Incentives Can Kick Start Your Wellness Efforts

Posted on February 5, 2013 by admin

barbells fruit

As reported in Incentive Magazine, research published by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans shows that incorporating incentives into a wellness program was found to be a key reason why these programs are showing a high return on the investment….up to $3 for every dollar spent.  

Many companies are now seeing a direct connection between wellness initiatives and the effect they can have on both employee health and health care plan cost savings.  Companies that manage health risks stand to add a great deal of profit to the bottom line.  But, to manage those costs you need to have the buy in and enthusiastic support of your employees.  .  According to Wellsource, a leader in health risk assessments there are several things you can do to ramp up the participation, among them are:

  • Make it social, people like to be part of something and enjoy the support of their peers.
  • Have wellness leaders; find those employees in the organization that are health-minded and ask them to champion the effort.
  • Invite significant others to participate, they become a valuable support group
  • Offer incentives, they have shown to help achieve participation rates up to 80% 
  • Recognize accomplishments; anyone who has ever lost weight, quit smoking, maintained an exercise campaign will tell you that being recognized by their management and peers is very motivational. 

There are a myriad of behaviors you can choose from to initiate your program that are easy to measure and reward.  A few might include:

  • Completing health screenings
  • Completing healthcare questionnaire
  • Getting the blood pressure checked
  • Getting body mass or other health indicators checked

And once enrolled, use incentives to keep them enrolled and progressing on the path toward better health.  There are many motivational incentives that you can use such s cash, discounts in premiums, gift cards, sports related merchandise or gym memberships.  You are the best judge of what award will work best within your overall benefit system.  When used properly, incentives are probably more important that communications in producing results.


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Recognizing All Employees – Not Just the Top Few

Posted on January 29, 2013 by admin

happy employ

Limited winner programs (person of the month, annual winners circle, etc.) were spawned by a true desire in organizations to recognize employees, but without budgets necessary to implement them properly.  These programs, or a great portion of them, are almost exclusively subjective in nature, are rarely built around a provable return on investment, and are always designed to award only a small percentage of the employees. 

While these programs are certainly appreciated by the few who are honored, how many other worthy employees in the organization go unnoticed, and if truth be known harbor ill will toward the company or fellow employees? How much animosity occurs at the water cooler the day after the gala year party to recognize the chosen few?  If you haven’t heard any, you aren’t listening. 

Years of Service programs, the first of these types of programs (and now the most prominent type of recognition program in business today) has become inbred in companies, and unfortunately often the only recognition system that exists.  Ask executives in almost any company if they have an employee recognition program in place and they will inevitably say yes.  What they are usually referring to are the years of service program that awards (at best) only a handful of your employees. 

We are often asked by clients for better ways to recognize more employees.  Obviously budget is a big piece of how many employees can be recognized and rewarded, but by no means the only criteria to examine.  There are a myriad of ways to increase the usage of recognition, but to do it takes a lot work, and that’s usually where things start to fall apart.   

While you’re thinking about it, how many employees in any given year should you actually recognize for performance?  A good question in answer to that would be how many of your employees actually show a positive performance in any given year?  It’s simple, that’s how many you should recognize! 

bell curve

We have designed programs that can reward up 90% of your employee base.  As any employee performance bell curve you’d care to review will show you that any organization will have a 10% – 80% – 10% distribution.  The bottom 10% of employees that are not and probably never will be engaged or be good performers.  In that case, recognizing the other 90% would be a good goal to use, wouldn’t it? 

If you’d like to see strategies on how to recognize more employees, and start to do away with those archaic programs that award only a few, just contact us at the tab above.


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A Gift Card Mall for Employee Recognition Programs

Posted on January 22, 2013 by admin

This last holiday season saw a record year in the purchase of gift cards.  Early reports show that about 8 in 10 consumers gave gift cards and the gift card volume approached $30 billion for the holiday.  It’s no wonder then why gift cards have been the most popular award used in the incentive and recognition award programs for the last several years. 

Many consumers purchase their gift cards at a gift card mall the offers several different cards to choose from.  These malls often include not only the closed loop cards specific to certain merchants, but also Visa or MasterCard .  Typically these malls carry an inventory of between 25 and 50 merchant cards.  

Research on gift cards late last year revealed that individual stores charge fewer fees for their branded gift cards than the all-purpose ones issued by banks.  These fees range from $2.95 to $6.95 per card. That may not seem like much until you realize that represents 12% to 27% on a $25 card, and the $25 cards just happen to be about 75% of all cards purchased on average.  In addition it was found that over 50% of the bank cards have some kind of monthly maintenance fee. The combination of these fees can approach 35-40% of a card before it is used.

New credit card regulations do not allow banks to have expiration dates on their consumer bank card for at least 5 years.  What is not commonly known is that when used for an employee incentive or recognition program, these bank cards can have expiration dates starting as early as 3 months, with the average being 1 year.  This can create a significant loss of value. 

With the Award of Choice employee recognition card you can have your own gift card mall for your employees without the hassle of trying to procure 25-50 separate store gift cards.  And the Award of Choice card does not have any purchasing fees, monthly maintenance fees, or an expiration date.  But most importantly your employees the Award of Choice card is redeemable for over 500 of the most popular gift cards in the country.  Award of Choice is the best value and choice of any gift card system offered today.


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Are Your Employees Average? “Reward the Unrewarded”

Posted on January 15, 2013 by admin

Every day executives walk through the workplace and never really notice or acknowledge those individual employees who just seem to blend into the work environment.  Those employees come to work, they do their job as well as they can, they aren’t very demonstrative in their daily pursuits and rarely volunteer for anything.  They are just one of the team, and surely don’t stand out in the crowds of other more highly engaged employees.  

Our business world is loaded with these types of employees.  They are called average, and as average they make up at least 50% of the workforce.  They rarely get noticed for anything unless enlisted to participate in the project that gets all the press.  They might be shy, quiet or reserved.  They just want to come to work, do their job and go home.  No muss no fuss, no bother as advertising in the 60’s used to proclaim about cleaning materials. 

But are they really average?  Can they be encouraged to become more engaged?  As we’ve all noticed throughout our work lives, the steady silent types can be a dynamic force when motivated to get involved.  Not everyone responds to the rally’s, the hype and noise surrounding events that are designed to get you pumped up, the banners, the videos, the posters, pocket cards, reminder wristbands and all types of desk mementos of the moment.  In fact some recoil at these kinds of things and find them just silly or a waste of time.  So how do you get their attention, how do you start them on their journey to become more engaged? 

There is one thing they everyone wants and that is to be recognized for their effort.  Mark Twain said it best, “I can live for two months on one good complement.”  How your people want it done and when and by who is up to you to decide as we are all different.  But everyone will respond to a kind and heartfelt thanks and a meaningful award for their effort.  The trouble with most recognition programs is that they are designed to reward extra effort, to reward those who go the extra mile.  Problem is when you’ve got an “average” person who truly performs higher than their ability, management is rarely there to notice it. 

As we hold employees to be accountable for their work, leaders need to hold themselves as accountable for the development effort and recognition of their people.  If you have challenges that never go away, ask yourself what you’re doing to change things.  Ask yourself when was the last time you noticed an employee for the loyal work performed for years and years or if the case of a new employee for even months?


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What is RVOLPC and Why is it so Important for Employee Recognition Programs?

Posted on January 8, 2013 by admin

RVOLPC is an acronym coined by Dr. Brooks Mitchell of the University of Wyoming and founder of Snowfly, an incentive company specializing in gamification.  RVOLPC stands for readily verifiable on-line price comparison.  

After years of study within the behavioral sciences field and firsthand experience in implementing incentive programs, Dr. Mitchell soon learned (as we have) that the traditional merchandise awards used in the incentive industry are extremely overpriced and the companies that use them run the risk of having unhappy participants, which can result in de-motivation. 

With RVOLPC it is easy for your employees to compare prices of your awards on-line and determine the real value.  Even with points based applications where the reward company attempts to hide the pricing, it’s not too difficult for an industrious web surfer to uncover the price.  Rest assured that not long after that all the employees know about it as well.  Do you think they will be satisfied with a wide screen TV that cost them (you) $3000, when they see it all day at Best Buy for $1699? 

Some of the negative consequences of having an incentive or recognition award that is prices higher than even the highest retail are:  

  • Your employees start to question many things about the program value.  They see the company wasting money at a time when budgets are scarce. 
  • They want to know why you are overcharging them, why you’re giving away money to the supplier.  They question your buying prowess and that can extend to many things. 
  • They are asked to cut costs or have to double work performance because of layoffs, but become disgruntled when they see this waste. 
  • If taxes are involved (which they invariably are) this adds insult to injury. No one wants to pay tax or see their company pay tax on items of dubious value. 

Overpriced merchandise awards are a fact in the industry.  If you are bound to use some of these types of systems in your incentive or recognition effort (especially long term years of service programs) you might want to consider giving your employees a gift card option.  Your merchandise award supplier will fight you on this with a lot of hocus pocus about trophy value, but your employees know better.  In the vast number of tests we’ve participated in, the redemption of gift cards well exceeds 75% and often approaches 100%.


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Merry Christmas from Award of Choice

Posted on December 18, 2012 by admin

From all of us at Award of Choice, may the Christmas Angel bring you peace and happiness this Christmas Season and a safe and healthy New Year!

 


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