The Linchpin Between Employee Engagement and Customer Satisfaction

For years many of us have understood that employee recognition and awards have had a great deal to do with employee engagement and results.  Since the 1950’s the award industry has been connecting the dots and motivating the relationship between the customer and corporate employees. They were engaging employees to provide the best customer service they could….and it worked for many clients

Yet, employee engagement is now a field that is inundated with consultants and solution providers whose approach to improving engagement runs the gamut of satisfaction research, communications, real time measurement, new technology, training, leadership coaching, assessment, etc.  The one thing that is almost always left out of the equation by these suppliers is the rewards and recognition system combined with the analytical tools to deploy it in an audit-able manner.

We pondered the “why have rewards been left out of this equation” question for a long time.  And in our opinion, the main reason that these award companies missed the boat on this was because they put all their eggs in the “making their money by selling the awards” basket.  It was a simple matter of math.  If the client had $3 million to spend on the engagement problem, about 80% of it was spent on the awards after the fact, and the other 20% on the communications, research, feedback and training.  Even though these companies had highly skilled professionals in these ancillary areas, they often priced them at cost (or even lower) to be in a better position to compete for the award business. These traditional firms are known in the trade as “incentive companies.” 

If the linchpin between employee engagement and customer satisfaction is reward and recognition, the industry still has a long way to go to inform corporate America of it.  Recent incentive industry research shows that over 70% of companies use the award industry just for the awards.  They purchase the other needs of communications, feedback, training etc. from other providers, or do it themselves.

If you need expertise on how to drive employee engagement to achieve corporate results, you might try an incentive company.  They have been basing their success on the successful achievements of these programs for years.   

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

The Employee-Engagement Story

There has been so much written about Employee Engagement that it has frankly become a confusing catchall for almost everything related to employee performance.  It means different things to different people and certainly all types of vendors and consultants have found a home in this umbrella in order to sell their services.

As employee engagement is essentially a behavior change initiative, the incentive industry was implementing employee engagement activities long before the phrase was ever coined. Multi-million dollar “incentive companies” emerged in the mid-20^th century to sell programs to motivate company employees (either internal or external) to improve their performance in a variety of ways.  These programs were very successful and did drive performance because they used motivation techniques invented by the award industry….techniques that are still very prominent today. 

Following is a synopsis of an article written by Paul Herr, Author of “Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Motivation that Drive High Performance”, that is as good a treatment of the connection between employee motivation and employee engagement as we have ever read.

ZERO MOTIVATION, no work would get done and the company would go bankrupt. 

OPTIMAL MOTIVATION, everyone works faster, better and smarter, so productivity, innovation, customer satisfaction and profits would sky rocket.  

THE MASTER METRIC, Motivation drives everything happening inside companies and it should be tracked religiously.

THE STORY

The term “employee engagement” was popularized by the Gallup Organization about 30 years ago.  It gained the attention of the business community by aiming its statistical prowess at human motivation.   Prior to that there were no stats to determine if satisfied employees were more productive than unsatisfied employees.

By reviewing all the top theories of psychologists dealing with human motivation, Gallup  then created hundreds of questions based on these theories and started testing them to see which ones statistically correlated with business performance.  

The result of this gargantuan effort was the Gallup Q-12 survey—12 questions which has been extremely important in measuring motivation.  And employee engagement has become a top business priority for senior executives.  To read the entire article click here.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Gift Card Facts for the 2018 Holidays

The National Retail Federation reported that gift cards have been the #1 requested gift card for more than 10 years.  This year, according to the research, gift cards are still the #1 item and clothing the #2 

• A gift card study by InComm, who drew responses from almost 2500 US consumers, found the following interesting data about shopper behavior for the 2018 holiday season ahead:
• Consumers plan to purchase on average seven gift cards for their immediate families.  That fact alone suggests the gift cards are not an impersonal gift.
• Respondents also plan to purchase two gift cards for friends and neighbors, two for teachers and coaches and one for a co-worker.
• Where there is a strong relationship between the giver and the recipient 86% of respondents indicated that the when they receive a specific gift card, it is for brand that they like
• Pairing a gift card with another item for the recipient is an increasing trend among holiday shoppers that is leading to incremental sales for retailers. 66% of respondents indicated they will give their gift cards in personalized greeting cards or combined with another item.  12% said they would give a card with a homemade item.

People Want the Holiday Experience

Brick-and-mortar stores will be the primary location where consumers plan to do their holiday shopping. 50% expect to do nearly all of their holiday shopping in-store,  an additional 35.1% plan to do a moderate amount in store and only 1.3% will not do any in-store holiday shopping.  

When asked what they liked about shopping in person, 40% s said that the activity gets them in the holiday mood, and  21% indicated they enjoyed the  festive decorations, displays and sounds of the season found in stores.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Electronic (or Mobile) vs Physical Gift Cards

The gift card industry finds that demand just keeps growing. The National Retail Federation has reported that gift cards are the No. 1 requested gift during the holiday season for more than 10 years, and it doesn’t look like it will be any different in 2018.

While the incentive industry has seen continuing growth and interest in electronic and mobile gift cards, new research indicates that planners should not count out physical gift cards for their awards programs.  New Findings from National Gift Card show that three out of four incentive recipients still redeem their loyalty points for physical gift cards. 

NGC has thousands of corporate clients that connect to their inventory of more than 500 physical and digital brands.  According to their B2B Gift Card Report:

75 percent of the volume in gift card program redemptions is still in physical cards, while just 25 percent is for digital gift cards.

Of the total gift cards used, closed loop cards (retail branded) had 26.8% of the total volume of gift card programs, while closed loop cards (banks, Visa. MasterCard etc.) were are 21.8%. 

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Does You Company Give Turkeys Away for the Holidays

How many companies give turkeys to their workers each year over the holidays? While estimates are hard to attain, some studies show that it’s probably a little less than 3%.  

According to a survey few years ago of 210 businesses by the Bureau of National Affairs, the figure has bounced around, tumbling from about 5 or 6 percent each year between 2000 and 2004 to only 2 percent in 2005 and 3 percent in 2006. 

Americans associate turkeys with the feast that Pilgrims and Indians shared after a bountiful harvest in Colonial days. And some historians speculate that passing out turkeys to workers during the holidays began in 19th-century England with bosses who had read about, and did not want to be compared with, Ebenezer Scrooge (who, after all, eventually bought one for Bob Cratchit).

But times have changed.  Stats today show that over 4 times more companies give away gift certificates for the holidays rather than the actual turkeys.  The employees use them to redeem for almost anything at the supermarket.  Others give away the kind of super gift certificates that can be redeemed for either grocery stores, or many other brand named retailers.  So many things have changed in the American workforce that giving employees a choice of what they want is a far more popular option. 

Why do companies use holiday gifts for employees? 

It’s good business

Employee recognition is a key piece of employee engagement and a holiday gift shows you care and are grateful for employees’ hard work and dedication to the success of your business.

It’s an opportunity for managers to engage with employees

Sharing the gift, personally, with a big smile, warm handshake and hearty “Thank You” is a priceless opportunity for managers to make employees feel valued and appreciated.

It’s about family

These gifts are often shared with families and add joy to their holiday season. Holiday gifts embody the grateful spirit of the season, and that includes your company’s gratitude.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Employee Engagement - If It Is Right – It Is Right

The following excerpt was shamelessly stolen from a Blog entitled “What is Paul Thinking?’,

The blog is written by Paul Hebert, a friend and one I truly admire for his knowledge of how to employe incentives and recognition to motivate employee performance.  He also has a knack for telling it like it is and hitting the nail on the head about subjects such as this. He tells folks what they should hear but rarely do, as experts in those fields would rather tiptoe around the subjects for fear of losing potential sales. 

The article was posted 5-4-17 and was titled, “New Research: Employees Work Harder When They Are Almost Starving” It should be very meaningful to anyone who is involved with employee engagement and recognition.

“How many posts have you read about proving the ROI of engagement programs? How many articles, posts, tweets talk about how to show senior management the “financial value of engagement.” Too many.

Because, if you’re looking for business rationale to recognize people in your organization, you’re doing it wrong.

If you have to sell your senior manager on the ROI of engaging with your employees your CEO sucks. If your leadership team doesn’t have time to recognize and validate the work your employees are doing you now have evidence they only do their job for the money. Period.

For them, engagement and recognition efforts are simply variables in an equation that gets them mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money. Again. Period.

Granted – there are limits to what any company can do to support and engage employees. But those limits get a bit blurry when you can’t prove the ROI on better employee support but for some reason the car allowances for all your executives don’t have the same scrutiny applied. What is the ROI on all those perqs you spread like peanut butter across everyone on mahogany row? How can you say THAT is important, but training for managers on how engagement works isn’t?

I know I’m being facetious to prove a point. Of course you need to plan the expense of engagement and recognition. Of course you have to put some boundaries around this. But when you don’t require the same due diligence for executive perqs and other questionable business expenses you are simply being thick. And a bit callous and a bit disconnected. And just a lousy manager.

Don’t be that guy or gal. Be a good manager. Do engagement. Do recognition. Do employee support. Don’t worry about the ROI – worry about ROH – return on humanity.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

What’s Missing in Leadership Today?

In our opinion, most leadership approaches today are based on knowing what to do and how to do it.  In our dealings with many corporations what we see missing is passion, insight, inspiration and an ability to listen. 

We all intuitively understand this.  In our own careers we all know who the great leaders are or were.  They were the ones who excited us to exceptional performance. They formed a relationship and worked with people, and didn’t act like their people worked for them.  The difference between high-performing cultures and just exceptional cultures is the quality of those relationships which formed the bond of how well people liked and trusted each other.  The leaders were inspirational.

To inspire others requires the emotional intelligence and commitment to learn how to connect with others.  Effective leadership communication is clear and deep, creates commitment rather than compliance, and for most of us, requires the learning and application of new skills.

Leadership means not listening to formulate a rebuttal but to build trust. Good leadership communication connects with the mind – it’s logical and strategic – but it also connects with the heart by being personal and meaningful.

Employee loyalty and retention are extremely important in today’s labor market and it could be like this for quite some time. In a time when employee loyalty is waning, generating loyalty can become a competitive advantage. Loyalty to a leader comes from who they are – from the motivation behind their actions. Leaders can inspire such loyalty if they first understand who they are, not just what they do.

Employee recognition is critical.  If leaders really want their employees to produce, they should try to impart a sense of meaning – not just through vision statements – but by allowing employees to feel a sense of completion and ensuring that a job well done is acknowledged.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Have We Eliminated Real Recognition?

This is a complete reprint of a blog post written by a friend of mine, Paul Hebert, the Senior Director of Solutions Architecture at Creative Group, writer, speaker and consultant. Paul is widely considered an expert on motivation, incentives, and engagement.

While it was written over five years ago, the message is just as meaningful (if not more so) today.  We hope you enjoy it.

The blogosphere is full to the brim with studies, research, tea leaves and astrology charts that say employee engagement drives business success and that recognition drives engagement.  It is the siren’s call of 2011 and beyond.  Almost every HR person I talk with has engagement in one form or another on their to-do list.  In many cases it is about finding the “platform” to run their employee rewards program.

And there is no scarcity of platforms.  The ubiquity of technology now means any plaque seller and koozie-monger can be in the business of providing peer-2-peer programs and service anniversary programs.  It’s just not that hard to find someone to run a program any more.

DISTINCTIONS WITHOUT DIFFERENCES

Sure the platforms differ.  The color of the bars differ.  Some of the reporting can be pretty darn amazing.  But at the end of the day you have an automated system that allows managers and peers to send notes, cards and wall posts highlighting what Suzy and Frank did yesterday that made a difference in some other employee’s life.

Don’t get me wrong.  This is mission critical stuff.  I believe it is REQUIRED in today’s organization to find a way to let people know they are valued and their work matters.

WHERE’S THE HUMAN?

But the questions that plague me are:

• ·        When a system removes all the friction – making it drop-dead simple to recognize someone does the recognition lose some of its value (not all of it – just some)?
• ·        When a login page of a company intranet looks like the “gold star” chart from a first-grade classroom does it simply become wallpaper without any focus?
• ·        When employees see recognition events for trivial performance do they start to think exceptional performance gets lost?
• ·        Does the platform become the focus instead of the people?

I ask these questions because I see it happen in other places when effort is reduced and the value goes right with it.  When someone can mow your lawn in 20 minutes on a riding mower they end up charging less and we think it is a commodity.  When the internet at 30,000 feet on a plane is the norm – being disconnected while in the bathroom becomes a capital offense.  They become utilities – not unusual.

I wonder if all of this focus on the technology to drive easier, more ubiquitous recognition is creating a void between “commodity recognition” and “real recognition?”

When my boss used to write a letter that went in my personnel file (that would be back in the 1900’s) I was impressed.  So was everyone else.  But is anyone impressed with 162 “Kudo’s” on your intranet wall from Jimmy in the mail room?

TRAINING IS KEY

I think about these things because even if you find the platform and don’t communicate how to do recognition right – how to make it HUMAN – you really haven’t helped your company.  Sure you’ve checked the box and you have a program.  But do you have engagement?

Do you have a sustainable system that grows with the expectations of the recipient?  Do your managers and their managers understand that making something easy may actually make it less valuable?

Train your people on recognition and its many forms – from the easy to the hard.

Train them to make it human – make it more than the platform, more than the points and more than the plaque.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Can Positive Feedback Turn into an Entitlement?

Some might say that everyone expects positive feedback these days when it comes to positive performance.  The positive feedback provided at work happens during the normal course of the day. It can become habitual and often provide with little meaning.     

It’s on the fly managing – when you see something positive, you say it. Oftentimes that positive feedback loop becomes an entitlement.  It’s expected…and it’s never given proper consideration by either you or the recipient.

As a performance manager there are a couple things to consider: 

·       Do you provide positive feedback on the fly?

·       Are you managing for improvement and challenging those that need to be challenged?

·       Do you need to make positive feedback more formal on a periodic basis?

·       If you sense that there are concerns when you push for results, do you need to take that managing to a more private place?  

·       Are you modifying your coaching plan with the personality of the target in mind?  

Positive feedback can quickly become an entitlement if you do it on the fly.  It is easier to manage and challenge people if we do a better job of getting credit for all the positive feedback that occurs.  

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Citizenship at Work

Citizenship matters; it can transform countries, states, and local communities.  It can also transform your company. 

Organizational behaviorists have been studying citizenship at work since the late 1970s. The evidence uncovered strongly suggests that when employees choose to be good citizens at work, it makes a difference in having a positive culture.

To determine if you have a culture of good citizenship at work, you might want to seek answers to what extent you think that your employees do these things?

·       Do your employees often ask “How can I help?” 

·       Are they willing to share expertise, knowledge, and information to help improve the effectiveness of others on my team?

·       Do they always try to lend a helping hand to those people on their team that need it?

·       Do they try to resolve unconstructive interpersonal conflicts with their coworkers?

·       Do they touch base with other team members before taking actions that might affect them?

In many respects, having good citizenship at work is about the same as following the principle of the golden rule…

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

When you have good citizenship at work it helps to create a sustainable competitive advantage. When aggregated over time and people, citizenship adds up and helps your organizations become more effective. Studies have shown that across a variety of indicators, organizational citizenship accounted for anywhere from 18 to 38 percent of the variance in performance outcomes.

It starts at the top.  When our leaders help us, they help themselves by encouraging a work environment where the “helping virus” can thrive.  When leadership treats us with courtesy, dignity, and respect, we feel positive at work, and good mood moves people of all personality types to be better citizens.

There’s been a lot written recently about “fairness” in companies.  Sometimes

the hardest thing to do as a citizen is to be fair to people that aren’t fair to you, care about people that don’t care about me, and help people that have thrown you under the bus.  But if you ever hope to have a truly successful company you first have to choose to be good citizens.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Study Highlights Opportunities in Employee Recognition Programs

According to a study conducted by Maritiz Motivation Solutions Employee recognition programs are effective -- but many miss out on opportunities to be even more effective.

Based on an online survey of 117 companies with more than 1,000 employees, the "Culture Next Employee Engagement and Benchmarking Study" found a majority of companies (80 percent) believe their employee recognition programs are at least "moderately effective" in driving employee engagement, and nearly a quarter (22 percent) believe their programs are "very effective."

Here are a few facts uncovered by the survey:

• Seventy-eight percent of companies have a documented employee engagement strategy

• Sixty percent of companies fund at least four to six different types of recognition programs, the most common types being service anniversary, above-and-beyond performance, and employee referral programs

• More than half of companies offer formal manager training on how to use recognition programs effectively

• Sixty percent share recognition-related communications at least monthly

Communication has always been at the heart of a successful recognition program.  Your employees want to know what’s going on, how they can earn more recognition and what the program is doing for the organization.

Those surveyed in the “very effective” category:

·       communicate about recognition daily or weekly

·       offer more program training

·       have higher budgets, devoting 0.76% more of total payroll than average companies

Most of the companies said that budget is the "greatest inhibitor to success," while those in the "very effective" category cited manager participation as well.

To make your recognition program more successful then, you need to have a strategy, a documented plan, a way to measure success and sufficient budget to motivate, frequent communications and effective manager training.

Lastly, have a technology platform or social engagement component or you are missing an enormous opportunity to connect with millennials and Gen Z, who will be the workforce majority in the next few years.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Employee Referral Programs – Fill Your Hiring Needs

According to Dr. John Sullivan, an expert on employee referral programs andd HR thought leader from Silicon Valley:

“Employee referral programs are the most powerful corporate recruiting tool, bar none. They can produce a high volume of quality hires who have been statistically proven to have lower rates of attrition.  When designed well, they can not only be cost-effective, but they can produce one of the highest ROIs in the entire HR function.”

Dr. Sullivan has advised large companies all over the world and has found several things that are important do to make your referral program as successful as possible:

·       It must be responsive and provide feedback to the preferred candidate within one - three days of the referral and to the referring employee just as quickly.

·       It needs to be given preferential treatment in the timeliness initial contact, phone screening, interview, and the decision about hiring the employee.

·       It needs to target hard-to-fill positions that are essential to the organization.

·       It needs to include all employees to make referrals, regardless of the position they hold.

·       The most important factor in employee referrals is swift candidate evaluation and decision feedback to the referring employee

Great referral programs become part of your company’s culture and some ways to hep make them successful are:

·       Interview referring employees to determine how they met the employee they referred

·       Ask for referrals at all employee onboarding meetings

·       Give current employees referral cards to pass out when they meet a well-qualified potential employee

·       Provide training about how to build their online and offline social networks and use them to recruit superior candidates for your company

·       Where possible have dedicated staffs to deal with the program

·       Provide non-monetary incentives such as public recognition, periodic banquets or lunch with the president to honor employees

·       Develop easy ways for employees to track the status of their referrals

·       Give positive feedback in performance development planning 

·       Provide daily feedback and recognition to those who refer qualified candidates.

·       Let referring employees know what’s happening with their referral every step of the way.

  

Referral programs don’t always have to have monetary rewards, cash is not always the answer. All employees have different motivators.  Determine what they are and use those as inducements.  If you are trying to make your referral program positive, immediate and certain, don’t issue awards that only pay the referring employee all or part of it after the new employee works out successfully for six months or a year.  That becomes de-motivational and takes the energy out of the program.  

Employee involvement is key to an effective employee referral selection process.  The more you do to get it, the better your program will be.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Compare Open & Closed Loop Reward & Recognition Cards

Companies purchasing gift cards for recognition, loyalty, and goal achievement often debate the advantages of purchasing and awarding open loop cards vs. closed loop gift cards.

Open loop payment cards are prepaid cards carrying the MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or Visa logo. These cards may be used like cash wherever credit cards are accepted.

Closed loop payment cards are those limited to a specific vendor and can only be spent at the merchant listed on the card.  Starbucks and Amazon gift cards, for example, are “closed” because they are only accepted at those specific merchants. 

At first glance, it appears that open loop cards are the best solution as they offer the widest range of purchasing options.  But before you make that decision, consider these attributes:

• Often impose a per card fee above the face value – can be as much as $5.95 per card.  On smaller denominated ($25 or $50) this can amount to 10% to 12% additional cost.
• Often expire and/or decline in value after 6 or 12 months if full balance is not used;
• Often impose fees when the card is swiped, when you check your balance via customer service, and other situations included in the “fine print” on the card;
• Often result in a decline at the merchant location if cardholder does not know the exact balance and the merchant cannot tell the cardholder how much remains on the card;
• Can be confusing at checkout if the cardholder wants to use an additional method of payment for any outstanding balance on his/her purchase (i.e. a “split tender” transaction).
• In addition, older credit card processing terminals still handle gift cards as though they are credit cards – putting holds (or pre-authorization amounts) on the gift cards when they are first swiped. If the bank card does not have a balance to accommodate a pre-authorization swipe plus the final sale, a gift card might be declined.
• Closed loop merchant cards, while restricting the cardholder to a specific merchant, have no declining values and rarely impose expiration dates. In addition, the merchant can “read” the card and tell the cardholder the exact balance that remains.  

The user experience is usually much smoother with closed loop cards than with open loop.

How about a solution that offers the best of both worlds? Award of Choice gives each recipient the open loop flexibility of hundreds of merchants with the ease of closed loop gift card use. One Award of Choice opens the door to over 500 closed loop gift card brands including those that are requested most – WalMart, Target, Amazon, Starbucks, Best Buy, Costco, etc.  With no fees, no expirations, and no minimums, Award of Choice combines the best of closed loop and open loop cards -- offering hundreds of merchant choices, favorable economics, and a great user experience.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

Reward Items of No Value Get Thrown Away

This Delbert cartoon Adams raises a very appropriate discussion regarding employee recognition awards.  It is a debate that has been going on for years and years, and no doubt will continue for years and years.   

Why?  Because if you were to draw a straight line continuum to depict the awards industry, advertising specialty items would be on one end of the spectrum and strategic full service employee incentive and recognition programs that included research, training, communications, feedback, awards and analysis would be at the other.

The debate arises anywhere along that line where the advertising specialist sales folks think they carry the type of products that are appropriate as awards.  And they could be right, some of their items could be appropriate.  But unfortunately most don’t, and actually if you prefer to give your award winner a choice of what they can receive, many would choose another award.  But often clients don’t really want to give a choice.  They’ve chosen the item because it fits their need to communicate something; the theme, the company, the outcomes, the goals etc. 

So, when considering awards for your incentive or recognition program, think about this cartoon.  Will the items you choose eventually be thrown away and considered as something with little or no value?  Will they be relegated to the bottom desk drawer or the closet?  What are you trying to accomplish; motivate increased performance or simply communicate something. 

When your award backfires and your employees see relatively little value in it, it can do more harm than good.  Remember, the award categories termed advertising specialties do just that.  They advertise something. 

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net