Creating communities within your organization

My partners down at PollStream create fantastic social networking tools to facilitate employee relationships and increase employee engagement. The networking systems let you use a proven successful social phenomenon to keep the channel of communication between employees open and active. PollStream understands the power of community!

If you're interested in learning more about them and the subject, they've recently launched their blog: http://pollstreamblog.wordpress.com/

So go take a look and discover the power of conversation!

The Reward IS Recognition: Earning Discretionary Effort

Our very own Roy Saunderson, president and founder of the Recognition Management Institute, will be a guest during Pollstream's next webinar, The Reward IS Recognition: Earning Discretionary Effort on June 23rd.

As far back as the 1890s George Eastman recognized that a solid core of highly engaged employees were the heart of his enterprise. When he began paying his employees dividends out of his own pocket he discovered that a small bonus was enough to encourage employees to perform above what their job descriptions required.

The difference between what a worker is required to do and the higher level of performance a worker is capable of is known as "discretionary effort." It turns out that the cash Eastman handed to his employees might not have been as important as the fact that he took the time to recognize their contributions.

Register now and reserve your place, it's free!

The Future is Here… It’s Called “Recognition Social Networking”

We have all heard about social networking… Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Digg, MySpace, YouTube etc… Millions of people are setting up personal accounts to share their information and to reach out to others on a weekly basis.

Today, more and more corporations are jumping into this space and are starting to set up their own “Business Social Networks.” They are leveraging the power of people and the web to deliver their messaging directly to their customers.

This phenomenon will affect our industry too… I believe companies will use “Recognition Social Networks” to set up programs whereby people will be able to recognize one another. When employees have strong relationships within the company, their success becomes synonymous to the company's. A Recognition Social Network doesn’t necessarily have to have a “reward” component. The recognition received ACTS as the reward. It builds the relationships that are key to driving business performance.

According to a Gallup study, employees who claim to have a best friend at work have customers who rate them "5% to 10% higher than those of impersonal or acrimonious groups, explaining the difference between success and failure in many organizations."

It is for this reason I’m proud to announce that Rideau has created an exclusive partnership with PollStream. They are a leading provider of interactive engagement and community building solutions. PollStream will allow our clients to effectively recognize, engage, educate and inform employees in online two-way dialogues… all with the objective of building stronger relationships. Checkout the press release.