Employee Recognition Blog

Frequently companies are looking for different ways to celebrate outstanding customer service. We recently became aware of a company in the Midwest that has a unique way of commemorating achievement in this arena. Annually sales representatives from across the country submit letters of reference from their client base. Representatives can submit as many letters as they want from the last 12 months and are required to offer at least one prior to a predetermined deadline.

Once all the client letters have been received, the Management Team reviews each letter looking for those notes that highlight and/or adhere most closely to business's mission, vision, and values. Each Management Team member selects the five submissions that support those corporate objectives. After every member of the Management Group has made their final selections, the totals are tallied and the awards are given for the top 3-4 entries.

The awards, which are presented in front of the entire sales team, are engraved plaques that are a replica of the winning reference letters including the letter (word for word), the letterhead, and the signature. In the course of the award presentation, highlights of the letters are read for the group to understand why they were selected and the plaques are received with a rousing round of applause! The award recipients leave that event feeling great about what they have achieved and no doubt thinking about what would be an appropriate place to display this award.

Finally, the company's Leadership Team makes it a practice to send a "thank you" note to each client that wrote a letter on their salesperson's behalf and also takes the opportunity to thank them for their business. In addition, they post the letters so everyone in the business can see how the work they do impacts their clients. At the end of the day, it is a pretty simple program that has the ability to positively touch people at all levels of the company.

Labels: Customer Service Awards, Engraved Paques

by Chad Zamler

I was recently given the task of analyzing the data from a company's employee recognition satisfaction survey. Being new the field of employee reward and recognition, I was not sure what to expect. After analyzing the responses and reading the comments, there was one thing that certainly stood out to me. These surveys showed me how essential the award presentation is to the success of a recognition program.

The presentation can make-or-break the entire recognition program. The results of the surveys proved to me that no matter how much employees like their reward, most will not be completely satisfied with the program unless there is some type of personal/meaningful presentation. Some of the employees who were satisfied with their reward, but not satisfied with the overall program commented that they would be more satisfied if "my GM would have known and acknowledged", if there was "actual acknowledgement of my time, dedication, and energy towards the company's success", and if the reward was "handed to me by my manager with a handshake and thank you, not just sent in the mail".

As you can see from some of the employee comments, most employees do not require an extravagant presentation (even though many would like this). They simply want to be recognized by someone that they know and respect. Something as simple as a 30 second acknowledgement with a handshake, "thank you" and "congratulations" by a manager when presenting an award can greatly increase the overall employee satisfaction of a recognition program and employee satisfaction with their job and employer.

Labels: Award Presentations

One of the emerging themes that we are seeing from our employee recognition clients throughout North America is a shift from traditional manager only nomination schemes. Businesses are doing away with initiatives that could be viewed forever as "favoritism" or talked about as "it's your turn to get recognized this month."

In order to address this organizations shifting away from processes that single out an individual, such as "Employee of the Month" and moving towards more open-ended programs that allow multiple employees to be recognized when goals are reached. The objectives is to insure that more team members are eligible for recognition and in order to be truly effective recognition needs to reach as many people as possible not just a select group of high achievers.

The results have been encouraging in building employee engagement. To add another level excitement consider offering a peer nomination process.

Labels: Open ended Recognition, peer to peer, team awards

True story: this past weekend my friend Joe hosted a little soiree at his home, and several friends and co-workers were invited. Over the course of the evening, somehow a conversation about homebrew morphed into talk about handmade wooden tap handles. At this point in the conversation (...and I promise, soon this will relate to recognition...), Joe disappeared momentarily and when he returned he held in his hand a finely crafted wooden roller pen accented with gold.

Joe says, "If you're looking for a good woodworker, you should talk to my line manager.

"When we rolled out our last project, to celebrate the accomplishment he made each of us on the team one of these pens. We each got to pick out the piece of wood that our pen would be made from."

Joe passed his pen around, and each of us "ooh'd" and "ahhh'd" over it and secretly coveted it. "See, mine has this wormhole that make it unique," Joe says.

So, what can we learn from Joe's weekend party? Here it is: Joe's manager did a remarkable job of giving his team members recognition for their work through this treasured memento of their blood and sweat that they gave to the project.

Not to wax too sentimental here, but that homemade pen is possibly the perfect award, and it's what so many of us at Terryberry give our blood and sweat to every day. To capture the shared vision of a group of people working together toward something big, and to crystalize it into a personal and memorable symbol that recipients will remember for years to come.

Recently when presenting to a Human Resources group in North Andover, Massachusetts about motivating employees there were some great informal ideas flying around the room. One Human Resource professionals from a nearby retirement community talked about a practice they have of quarterly Cover-all Bingo.

If the employee teams hit certain metrics over the course of a quarter then the group is rewarded with a day long bingo game. Over the course of the day, there are periodic announcements over the intercom that could include; B-14 or O-68. Employees, who are actively engaged at the time with facility residents, then mark the Bingo card they were given at the start of the day as they work towards being a Bingo winner.

The game goes on throughout the work day until a certain predetermined number of employees reach the cover all level. This HR Director indicated that it makes for festive day with numerous winners (who are then able to select from a group of nice awards) and spontaneous celebrate often contingent on the numbers being announced. She indicated, you will hear YIPPEE or DARN echo through the halls facility but at the end of the day everyone seems to have a good time!

Labels: informal recognition, team recognition

Earlier this month I was in Amarillo, Texas speaking to a group of Human Resource professionals about recognition and we were sharing informal recognition ideas. A Human Resource professional from a local contractor firm spoke about a coveted award in their organization. She talked about how often times on a worksite when an individual is performing at an extra high level and deserves acknowledgement that the foreman in charge of the group will frequently take advantage of a lunch break to make an informal recognition presentation. The presentation requires more then just pulling the crews heads out of their lunch pails and mentioning the individual's contribution.

The foreman does a little pre-work to insure the presentation is memorable. Without notifying the recipient the crew passes around an extra 2 x 4 and the group all signs it, often times thanking the soon to be recognized crew member. This inexpensive yet, one of a kind award is then presented over the lunch break.

According to this Human Resource Manager, these signed 2 x 4s are consistently held closely by those who have received them. Like we see so many times the act of recognition is very important and then having a unique award that evokes memories of their achievement creates a lasting memory that drives people going forward!

Labels: informal recognition, memorable employee recognition, rewarding above and beyond performance

We recently heard about a great informal peer to peer recognition program being used by a company in Mentor, Ohio. This manufacturing facility was looking to encourage employees to catch fellow workers doing extraordinary things and was charged with finding a way recognize these actions.

The program they developed, the NICE CATCH award, started when Human Resources and other company leaders initially saw an employee doing something above and beyond their normal responsibility. The awarded would be presented with a full-size football and a Sharpie marker. The recipient would sign the ball and then it became their responsibility to "catch" fellow employee. When they were able to locate the individual, the football and marker would be passed along for signature and of course, it became the next recipient's job to locate the next winner.

The program took off very nicely and the business had 8-10 footballs in circulation at any given time. When a ball was covered with names it would be retired to a display case near the door where employees entered the building. In the display case the balls were supported by tees that were signed by the company's leadership to symbolize the fact that management supports the program and the employees.

The feedback from company leadership has been very positive. They feel they've developed a traveling trophy that acts as continual reminder to employees about what the company values and how great catches happen every day!

Labels: informal recognition, peer to peer