The Horse Should Come Before The Cart

A lot of companies have it all wrong when it comes to recognition and rewards.

They put the reward before the recognition.

Why?

I think it has a lot to do with the history of our industry.

The recognition industry was created by old line manufacturing companies. Many of these companies date back to the early 1900’s. While some no longer exist, others, including Rideau (1912) continue to thrive. These companies all had one thing in common. They were looking for an outlet for their manufactured products… pins, logos and emblematic jewelry etc…

Some of the very first recognition award programs were used in the automotive industry. These programs celebrated years of service and safety and emblematic jewelry became the award/reward of choice. As years went by, different products were added to the product selection.

The key takeaway was that the product drove recognition… not the other way around.

Today, more and more companies are realizing that recognition needs to be in the proverbial driver’s seat.

If real recognition is not there, it doesn’t matter what award or reward product is given to the recipient.

So here’s a simple question… how much of your time is spent worrying about your awards as opposed to why and how you deliver real recognition? If the answer is the former you may have the cart before the horse!

2010 Recognition RX: Engaging Employees for Economic Recovery

One of my proudest professional accomplishments was to found the Recognition Council, a Strategic Industry Grouping (SIG) within the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) . For the last two years I have had the privilege of serving as its President.

The Recognition Council was formed to provide an awareness of how recognition and rewards can help achieve better business performance. Our focus is to educate and promote the benefits of recognition and rewards to the worldwide business community.

Today the Recognition Council numbers 30 strong and consists of our industry's leading recognition and reward companies.

We have just released our very timely second white paper “2010 Recognition RX: Engaging Employees for Economic Recovery.” This will help your organization determine how recognition programs and budgets should be constructed for maximum impact.

I would be remiss if I did not publicly thank Susan Adams, the Recognition Council’s Chair of Education Content. While many people worked on our white papers, Susan acted as our Chief Organizer and we all owe her a big debt of gratitude.

Click here to view other Recognition Council resources.

BTW… Sue probably has the coolest business title of anyone I know… she is Dittman Incentive Marketing’s “Great Escapes Solutions Director”! And no… this doesn’t mean breaking folks out of prison! If you’d like to learn more about Dittman Incentive Marketing and Susan’s innovative Great Escape solutions check out this recent article in Incentivemag.com.

Enjoy!

Governor Arne Carlson on Recognition and TARP Funds

Read this issue of Incentive Magazine to get Rideau Vice Chairman Arne Carlson’s thoughts on Recognition and TARP funds.

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!

Start Small ~ Reach Far!

When my Mom and Dad bought the company in July of 1968 their sales for the month were $6,173! How things have grown!!!

Now, for the second time in six months Rideau has been recognized as the #1 HRO Recognition Provider in the world in a buyer opinion survey.

The Black Book of Outsourcing ranked Rideau as #1 based on a survey that was sent to the nearly 30,000 outsourcing decision makers. Click here for the details.

Needless to say, I’m very proud of this latest achievement which was made possible by all my friends and colleagues at Rideau and the Recognition Management Institute. They are the real reason we have earned such a great reputation with our clients and within the larger HRO marketplace.

When I think how far we’ve come since then, it really brings our slogan to life…