Recognition Reading

The Recognition Council's latest white paper is entitled Pump Up Employee Engagement: Fuel Prosperity with Strategic Recognition, Supercharge Your Program by Really Knowing Your Audience.

Give it a read to learn how to wield recognition effectively and accomplish all your corporate goals.

Missing Pieces: 7 Ways to Improve Employee Well-Being and Organizational Effectiveness

Looking for a great summer read?

My good friend Dr. Jean-Pierre Brun and his colleague, Professor Cary Cooper CBE, have just co-written a great book called “Missing Pieces: 7 Ways to Improve Employee Well-Being and Organizational Effectiveness.”

I have never met Professor Cooper, but Jean-Pierre is an old friend. I first met him several years ago when he was a professor in the management department of the faculty of Science and Administration at Laval University in Quebec City. I was very impressed with his research.

In a nutshell, Jean-Pierre found that the absence of employee recognition is the second leading cause of workplace burnout and stress in the workplace.

Earlier this year, Jean-Pierre moved to Paris and became the Executive Director of Stimulus a company that specializes in understanding and reducing stress in the workplace as well as helping companies with change management.

Jean-Pierre sent me a draft copy of his new book several months ago. It speaks about the missing pieces of management. Simple things… like recognizing your employees. Supporting and respecting them. Helping them create a proper work life balance and other great advice that all too often managers overlook.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in recognition and engagement. It will help you create a better workplace.

You can now order his book Amazon.

How to Find Employee Patriots

Last year I got really fed up with agency employee referrals and their fees.

It seemed to me that we were paying out for hires who had no real connection to our company. Many never made it through our three month probation period.

So Isabelle Lavigne, Rideau’s VP of People & Culture worked with my senior management team and put together an internal employee referral program. Richard Lytwynuk, our very talented in-house cartoonist designed a poster for all our facilities.

As usual Richard had some fun at my expense!

But that’s ok... because the program has really worked for us! The quality of our hires has gone way up... these people have an instant connection with Rideau.

They care and so do the people who referred them! They become their mentors!

One of Gallup’s Q12 questions asks “do you have a best friend at work?” According to their research, if the answer is yes, those people are likely to be 7 times more engaged than those that don’t.

At Rideau, we are doing our very best to make sure everyone has a “best friend” working here!

Employee Recognition and Rewards Programs Can Generate Significant Revenue and Profits

In times like these, as a manager, it’s hard not to be thinking of anything more than avoiding layoffs and downsizing. It’s easy to forget that the most important factor in keeping your company afloat is your people. But more than that, having an employee recognition program can not only keep your company from capsizing, it can actually raise your revenues.

The Recognition Council has just released an interesting white paper showing how recognition directly affects your bottom line: an engaged employee is a productive employee. Click here to read why no company can afford disengagement under the current economic climate.

How’s employee engagement fairing where you work? Let me know what, if anything has been done to boost morale where you work by dropping me a note in the comments section!

The Economy and Recognition

The world is a very different place than it was six months ago or for that matter three weeks ago.

People are losing their jobs and unemployment is rising. And it’s only going to get worse.

But if history has taught us anything, these things are cyclical. The economy will get better and people will go back to work.

What will not change is the fact that there will soon be more jobs than people to fill them. Demographics dictates this, not the economy.

But today's economic challenges do offer forward looking companies a great opportunity and that is to embed recognition into your corporate culture.

There is a lot of fear out there right now. Employees are not necessarily looking for pay increases but what they are looking for is open and honest communication. They need to know their work is being appreciated and this is where effective recognition strategies can play a huge role.

Recognition doesn't need to cost a lot. As I mentioned in a previous post, it starts with a name!

Reach out and engage your employees especially in these tough times.

Embed recognition into your culture. Make it part of your DNA and when things turnaround, your employees will remember and stay with you. Not only that, they will become your "recruiting" ambassadors.

George Washington didn't pay his band of revolutionaries a lot but if you study his management style you will see he gave them something far more valuable, he gave them recognition and hope. He turned them into patriots.

Do You Have Employee Mercenaries or Patriots?

I believe there are two types of employees... those who I categorize as "mercenaries" and those who I call "patriots."

Which do you have?

Because the choice is entirely up to you... if you or your senior management think all your employees care about is cold hard cash you most likely will have a lot of mercenaries.

The problem with these folks is they have a bad habit of quitting the company if someone offers them more money.

Perhaps even worse, is when employee mercenaries stay with your company but disengage when they feel you don't pay them enough!

Great companies hire employee patriots who realize that employees want much more than cash. They want the opportunity to do exciting work, to feel part of a team, to develop and advance and to be recognized for who they are and what they do each and every day.

Employee patriots aren't just there for the money and they are truly committed.

The Golden Rule of Recognition

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind."
- Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street

Who can forget Michael Douglas’ lines from Oliver Stone’s classic movie Wall Street?

Although the characters were fictional, the times they portrayed were real. Consolidation and mergers were the rage. Those were the days of “right-sizing,” “down-sizing” all code words for “you’re losing your job!”

Isn’t it ironic that today’s managers bemoan the lack of loyalty from their workers? Is it any wonder? We have taught employee’s not to expect any loyalty from the corporation. So why should they be loyal to the corporation.

It is called the ethic of reciprocity. Don’t expect loyalty if you don’t give loyalty. Likewise, don’t expect commitment if you don’t give commitment.

At Rideau, we call this the “Golden Rule of Recognition”… treat employees like you would like them to treat the company. You’ll be amazed how far a little loyalty goes in improving your retention rates.

Practice the “Golden Rule of Recognition” because loyalty is a two way street!