Have a Wonderful and Safe Holiday Season

All of us at Ultimate Choice wish you and your family a safe Holiday Season and Healthy and Happy New Year.

Thank you for your support this past year and we sincerely appreciate the trust you’ve placed in us to provide you with the finest gift card recognition award system to achieve your objectives. 

Create an Attitude of Gratitude

We have written about thanking employees many times over the years, simply because it is the easiest method we can all use to start the process of building and maintaining an engaged workforce.  When you are cognizant of all the things going on around you and observant for opportunities to thank someone for their efforts, it’s hard to be negative or critical or uncivil.  Our brains aren’t wired that way.

Earlier in the year we came across an article entitled “39 Employee Recognition & Appreciation Ideas" by SnackNation, a company that supplies healthy snacks to businesses as a benefit for their employees. I won’t list them all here, you can check the article out for yourself, but wanted to list a few of the ones that we have used or seen used by our clients…..ones that are easy to integrate into your company…ones that have had great effect and helped to build positive cultures:

• Initiate a peer to peer program encouraging your employees to recognize one another.  Get some “Thank You” note pads to use to reinforce it. 
• Personally ask your employees what kinds of recognition they’d like
• Do shout outs on social media
• Recognize your team or individuals by highlighting those performances that directly impact your company mission
• Dedicate a section of your website to your employees
• Encourage customers to thank employees for great customer service
• Celebrate more - highlight employees who have made a spectacular effort
• Try random acts of fun – hold company themed adventures
• Don’t always focus on group performance, make sure to recognize personal success or celebrate personal talent
• Take time to know your staff, learn something about them and their family
• Recognize the value of helping others – let staff select community service ideas
• Go visit – give your employees facetime with you

Creating an “Attitude of Gratitude” can be the most rewarding thing you can do as management.  It’s not necessarily costly, and can bring enormous dividends, but it should be a full time job.  If incivility, lack of respect or appreciation is an issue at your company, just remember that it is very hard to be negative or critical when you’re looking for ways to thank someone.

Test yourself and your own culture.  At the end of the workday ask yourself how many times you gave sincere thanks to someone in your organization, and conversely how many times it happened to you?

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services that can help you thank your employees, contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net

On the Spot Employee Recognition

On the spot recognition for non-sales employees has been all the rage within HR over the last few years.  But it’s not a new recognition concept.  It has been used by the sales profession for decades! They used to call them spiffs, and they were often done with cash.  They were prevalent in the retail world for selling all kinds of hard goods.

Of all the elaborate schemes to reward and recognize superior employee performance, this might be the easiest and most effective way to do it. All you have to do is be aware of exceptional performance and on the spot say something and/or give the employee something in thanks of that performance.

As it can be difficult to use cash in this type of program, the award most often used in these on the spot programs are gift cards.   They are easy to source, you can have them at your fingertips with instant online awards available, and you don’t have to purchase the cards upfront or carry an expensive inventory of cards that just sit in a drawer waiting for you to use them. 

All employees thrive on recognition from any level of management.  Many companies even allow peers to do the recognizing.  The more you do it, the more you’re apt to see their performance continue to rise.  And when you reward them with something they can take home and immediately include the family in the recognition you have another winner.  Recognition when it comes from peers, department supervisors or executives that is taken home to the family is a powerful combination.

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

Simplify Sales Recognition!

The best approach to sales recognition is almost always the simplest one.  The award industry offers a vast array of awards and recognition systems from which to choose and for whatever reason sales management rarely starts their investigation of how to recognize sales people using the KISS principle.  They often choose the most complex way of handling an issue that should fundamentally be very easy and straightforward.  And in the process they commit large budget dollars to the administration of these systems, essentially taking those dollars away from getting to where they will do the most good….the salespeople themselves. 

When you think about it, recognizing sales performance should be a simple (and happy) thing to do.  But for some reason everyone wants to complicate it.

Over the years, the reward companies have dreamed up elaborate schemes to sell their awards, often priced substantially over retail.  But are these elaborate systems what you really need?  We’ve seen countless numbers of them that have feature after costly feature that are rarely used.  One of these features is a training program to teach your management how to recognize employees.  Frankly it’s a shame that has to be done.  Every sales manager should have at least the ability to thank someone for doing a good job. 

To begin, throw out the complicated stuff and just tell your managers to simply recognize salespeople for doing a good job whenever and wherever possible.  Measure the managers to make sure it gets done, and give them a budget to do it.

If you think you need to give a tangible award for sales performance there are a lot to choose from.  Having managed salespeople for years, our feeling is to let them choose the award they want. 

If you want a good one with terrific flexibility and value, we’d be happy to send you samples of two high value, low cost and easiest to implement systems in the industry.

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

Are Incentives for Team Selling a Recipe for Disaster?

Well the cop out answer is no and yes.  They certainly can be if they are not well planned in the first place.  And more importantly if you don’t account for the metrics of the different departments involved, how they are measured for performance and how they are compensated, you could be headed for a calamity.

Here’s a simple example:

A sales force is challenged to sell more of their base product, let’s say a sophisticated and expensive software system.  The VP Sales offers an incentive to the sales force for incremental sales especially to new customers.  However to make the sale, the sales force must bring in service technicians because the system requires expensive implementations.  In addition engineering needs to be involved to make sure it is a proper fit and includes the proper features to do the job.  In this example lets’ assume that the sales force is responsible for managing the team.

As tradeoffs between product features and other services can exist, the sales force opts to defer features that they feel (right or wrong) can be managed by the service team, or re engineered by IT.  Sales also rely on service and engineering to ensure proposals are realistic and on budget.  Teamwork is essential.

But it may never happen.  What if the sales team is incented on gross revenue and the service team is compensated on profit margin?  And then add to the complexity that engineering earns a bonus based on project accuracy and timeliness and that bonus can grow based on overall department profitability.

In team selling, much friction can arise and has the potential to cause a loss in sales and customers, lower customer satisfaction scores and can even effect employee retention and morale.

Before you plan and implement a sales incentive activity you need to gather the department heads involved and hash out all these contingencies.  Look at the metrics across all the functioning teams and make sure your teams are incented to work together.  When all the puzzle pieces fit, you will have less likelihood of program that can fail or do great harm and ultimately be very successful.

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

The Most Effective Methods to Control Absences

Employers use a variety of methods to control absences, all with varying results.  Commerce Clearing House does an annual survey of human resource executives on the subject of what method they feel is clients on which method they used and how effective it was for their organization.  The survey used a 5 point scale with 5 being very or most effective.  Following are the results of this survey:

Control Method Used	Effectiveness	Percent Use
Paid Leave Bank	3.5	67%
Vacation Buy Back	3.5	58%
Disciplinary Action	3.4	90%
Bonus (cash or non-cash)	3.3	57%
Verification of Illness	3.2	76%
Yearly review	3.0	79%
No fault	3.0	63%
Personal recognition	2.6	66%

It should be noted that the morale of the organization was also taken into consideration.  Overall, organizations with Good/Very Good morale rated their absence control policies and work-life programs more effective (3.7), than did their counterparts with Poor/Fair morale (2.4).

These methods are almost always used in combination with of other methods. The key for your company would be to choose a program that meets your specific needs

Turn Absenteeism into Presenteeism

Over the years we have seen many studies that estimate unscheduled absences cost a company $2650 - $3600 per employee per year.  Absenteeism in a manufacturing environment can be even more costly.  Safety managers have told us that absenteeism is a big cause in the increased number of incidents of injury or accidents in the workplace.  New and substitute workers just haven’t developed the safety skills that the veteran employees have. 

Absenteeism also carries numerous other indirect costs such as low productivity; disengaged, frustrated  and unhappy employees who come to work and have to carry  the heavier workload of those absent; poor customer service; lower respect for management who put up with the absenteeism; the time it takes to find replacements; the cost of part-time employees and others.

Considering all of the above, doesn’t taking a proactive approach to encourage good attendance make good business sense?  Decreasing absenteeism by even a small percentage can mean significant numbers on the bottom line.  But when companies plan to implement an employee attendance program they often focus on consequences and penalties that are associated with poor attendance.  Exposing these results of poor attendance is important, but there is more value in reinforcing good behaviors than in punishing bad ones. 

You don't want your employees feeling as if they should be paid extra for doing their job.  This is the main reason that many companies would prefer to use an award other than cash.  These programs should also be implemented over a shorter period than long term.  They should never  appear to be an entitlement.  But you do want your people to know that you appreciate and respect their positive attendance. Rewarding for being present can be just as effective for improving absenteeism as penalizing them for noncompliance.  Rewards and recognition for positive employee attendance can make a difference.

Communications is Key

Changing your communication message from Absenteeism to Presenteeism will allow you to focus on all the things that are positively affected by everyone being on the job on time.  If you have any type of employee profit sharing it wouldn’t be very difficult to show the increases in profits that come from dedicated staff always in attendance.  This simple exercise alone has motivated many companies to implement a successful Presenteeism program. 

Having special communication events linked to the program can also add to the fun.  Breakfasts served by the executive staff, luncheons with the CEO for perfect attendance employees in the first month; a special part of the employee newsletter or on company social media can keep the program top of mind. 

Maybe most important, don’t forget a personal heart felt “Thank You” to those who show up on time day in and day out.  Those habits need to be recognized.

How to Screw Up Your Sales Incentive Programs

Here are some of the mistakes that we often see companies make when attempting to design an effective sales incentive program.  These mistakes can turn your program into one that is very ineffective at best or harmful at worst.  Implementing bad incentive programs can be money down the drain.

Creating Conflict Within or Between Departments

Make sure that your rules don’t conflict with the other department procedure or worse with performance improvement programs they may have in place. You will always have some conflict, but you can work to optimize operations so that the conflicts are less likely to occur.  Consider rewarding cross-functional teams as a part of the program

Motivating the Wrong Outcome

The easiest of these to check is getting increased sales without corresponding profit, or leaning too heavily on profit that you decrease wanted sales increases.  Look for a balance in what you want your outcomes to be.

Don’t Have a Top Stop

Unless you have a product availability or service issue or will have undue increased operating costs concurrent with dramatic incremental sales results, don’t put a cap on performance.  Top stops will eventually de-incentivize outstanding performers--or at least limit their overall performance.  You can adjust rules structures for “windfalls” that may occur if necessary.

Protect Current Business While Motivating for New Customers.

Salespeople will be the first to see they can earn incremental commissions by focusing on new customers over current customers.  You can and should adjust rules structures to accommodate for this possibility.  One way is to simply set a “must maintain” type of rule in order to earn for new business, or tie the new business earnings structure to the maintenance of current business. 

Reward Behaviors Your Salespeople Control. 

Move your objectives to the lowest possible level that your salespeople can control.  Nothing will kill a sales incentive program faster than tying it to unreasonable objectives or to corporate objectives out of their control. 

Compete Your Salespeople Against Themselves

It has been standard practice for managers to compete their salespeople against other company salespeople.  Don’t!  You should want them trying to beat the brains out of your external competition.  The most successful incentive programs challenge salespeople to want to excel on their own.

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

The Cost of Incivility

Every day you can encounter incivility in the workplace.  Every day you can see rudeness given to an employee, a customer or to yourself.  Every day, customers leave that place of business never to return.  What does that cost? 

Everyone who experiences workplace incivility will respond negatively, in some cases overtly. When an employee feels disrespected they are less likely to work with engaged effort and many just get tired of it and leave.  What is the cost of turnover?

Research tells us that incivility is expensive.  It also tells us that few companies actually recognize it or take action to curtail it. 

We’ve all heard of (or experienced) the “boss from hell.” The stress of ongoing hostility from a manager takes a toll, sometimes a big one, but unchecked rudeness can be surprisingly common.  This is especially the case when the recurring incivility comes from the C-suite. Oftentimes the managers who are uncivil don’t even realize they are that way.  There’s an adage in sports that “you can’t coach speed.”  So to it is very difficult to change a uncivil person’s character type or personality save a threat of job loss.  And unfortunately in that regard there is a tremendous emphasis by companies placed on the cost of litigation as a solution.  Believe it or not, the opposite can occur, the person being offended is at risk of losing their job so the company can avoid the conflict altogether.  No wonder unchecked incivility is so common.

The Costs of Incivility

While all managers must realize that incivility is wrong, many don’t recognize the true costs.  Through a poll of 800 managers and employees in 17 industries, research found in Harvard Business review conducted by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson found that of employees who had faced incivility:

•        48% intentionally decreased their work effort.

•        47% intentionally decreased the time spent at work.

•        38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work.

•        80% lost work time worrying about the incident.

•        63% lost work time avoiding the offender.

•        66% said that their performance declined.

•        78% said that their commitment to the organization declined.

•        12% said that they left their job because of the uncivil treatment.

•        25% admitted to taking their frustration out on customers.

Obviously People are less likely to buy from a company with an employee they perceive as rude, even when the rudeness isn’t directed at them.

At a time when employee engagement is high on ever company’s priority list, it just makes good sense to do all you can to eliminate incivility in your company. An added benefit of incorporating an employee recognition reward effort and put it in the hands of front line management is that it will uncover incivility.  This disrespect is easy to spot when you’re looking for just the opposite.  Every time you reward respect you reduce the tendency toward incivility. And turn this negative into a positive.  When you model good behavior you will influence good behavior.

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

The Customer / Employee Experience Link in Service Centers

We find all the recent attention given to the importance of linking a satisfied customer and an engaged employee to be quite startling. Why?  Well because for as long as we can remember didn’t we all just know that when we have pleasant, happy and engaged employees helping the customer that a positive customer experience followed?  “The customer was always right” was the model which exhorted the service staff to give high priority to customer satisfaction.  We traded where we were given the kind of service that pleased us; we usually avoided places where the experience was less than desirable.  Don’t we still do that?

I guess not.  Now it would seem that marketers are just waking up to the critical role that employees play in business.  Certainly the advent of the non-human connection built into the digital age has something to do with it.  We can literally stay in our own small cubical world, doing almost everything we need to do to live, and never interact with another human being unless it’s a call center employee we finally get to after going through three robots.

In a recent article from CMSWire.com, the author Phil Britt found that companies feel that a motivated and fully equipped workforce may have been critical to the customer experience in the past, but that employee engagement and enablement was at the bottom of their priority list, not the top. 

It is so easy today to let all the bells and whistles of the latest “app” or platform do all the work.  The sale is conducted from start to finish and you never connect with the customer.  In a customer contact center where constant turnover can be a major challenge, a positive, talented and engaged employee is much more likely to have a positive impact on the customer.  In many instances  your customers often prefer self-serve options for convenience, but this can also help with employee engagement by allowing your contact employees the time to focus on more challenging and value added customer interactions.

Recognition awards have long been a part of call center strategies to increase employee engagement. They work, they always have.  In most companies call center positions are entry level, fairly low salary or hourly positions where a small recognition award can be very meaningful.  These employees are usually the first contact point between the company and customer.  Every one of us has had the experience of dealing with these hard working employees.  And we know immediately which ones of them are engaged and which are not, which are tired and just going through the motions and which sincerely want to help.  Recognition, respect and meaningful thanks for good performance will go a long way in maintaining and even improving their engagement and corresponding customer satisfaction.

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

Not Another Employee Engagement Survey - Please

Are you really thinking of doing another employee engagement survey?  Do you really want to take on this huge annual project spend many months analyzing the data to  spend another couple months planning what to do with it in order to take action a year or more after on whatever was driving those scores in the first place?

Maybe more frequent data collection to uncover short term issues with a program designed to address performance improvement issues on the spot would be a better use of your time and money?  These frequent short term surveys, referred to as pulse surveys, offer the ability to quickly and frequently measure feedback within entire groups.  You can judge real time engagement and react accordingly. Think of these as a way of gathering data that is current, rather than on an annual basis.  Reacting in a timely manner can often make all the difference.

Traditionally, employee engagement data has been reported in the aggregate when it is really a metric about individuals.  Why not design the survey to specific needs and challenges and not ask everyone the same question? This would lead to more targeted action, better supervision of performance improvement issues, and the ability to use proven techniques of employee recognition to drive results. The one area of concern in an individual approach is that the data would no longer be anonymous, but frankly, there’s not much about attitude and performance that is anonymous in any case.  If you want to improve discretionary effort you can look for the signals of them in the data that point directly to it.

The safety industry for years has been using the psychological based principles of behavior to improve safety performance.  This approach observes performance that can lead to accidents and rewards individuals who perform those safe behaviors in the described manner.   This just in time approach to changing performance can be done to improve performance on any number of the issues that help to build employee engagement throughout the organization, not just safety.

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Instead of another employee engagement survey, and considering the new technologies and analytical tools we have, isn’t it time to experiment with new approaches to determine what kinds of data might help with that?

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

Tips to Create a Better Wellness Program

When it comes to employee wellness, we all want long-term results, not just quick-fixes. Unfortunately, once we’ve decided to implement a wellness initiative we can get caught up a mindset of getting it done “now.”  And that attitude more than any can sink a wellness effort before it even gets going. When we realize that wellness is a collection of old habits that die hard.  We can then understand that our focus needs to be on changing those habits…something that takes time. 

According to Psychology Today, it takes 66 days to form a habit. Whether that habit is thirty minutes on the treadmill, running a mile, or eating more fruits and vegetables, it takes more than two months for it to stick. The key then is to focus a program on turning those kinds of wellness actions into regular habits.

Here are some ideas to help you create a program that focuses your employees on forming healthier habits:

• Do research to know what your employees want to gain from the program and help them with their goals; exercise, weight loss, lowering cholesterol or blood sugar, etc.  Every company finds different results so it’s important to find what the participation motivation is for your organization and their demographics 
• Test different formats, offer different program activation dates, different days of the week, times of the day, etc. Know the best design for your situation that allows the most participation.
• Measure your performance often. If your program structure or incentives aren’t motivating positive change, the program won’t be effective. Adjust and relaunch the structure when necessary.
• Embrace feedback. Make sure your employee population likes the program. While it may be tough to get in shape, or learn to eat healthy, employees should be able to see the value to their overall well being. Getting feedback ensures your program is on the right track, and if it’s not, you can change it in process rather than waiting weeks or months and having to overhaul the program. 
• Use incentives strategically. They should be about the kind of things that your employees want, not what you think they want or what you want them to have. The longevity and memory of the reward helps drive motivation to the next program milestone, and the more milestones, the more success your program recognizes.
• Communicate your successes.  It’s true that nothing succeeds like success.  Your employees like to see success and want to emulate those who are having it. 

A Positive Approach to Reduce Absenteeism

Absenteeism is expensive. Some estimates put the direct costs of unscheduled absences at $2600 - $3600 per year, per employee, and those are just the potential direct costs. Indirect costs of high employee absenteeism can range from low productivity of the frustrated employees who have to make up the slack to a lowered respect for management for putting up with it.   

If you periodically experience a spate of absenteeism try taking a positive approach to it in the form of well-planned incentives.  It can be a good strategic decision that can save a great deal of bottom line profit and add to a positive and engaged employee base.

Most company attendance policies focus only on the consequences and penalties associated with poor attendance.  While it is important to have this "stick-side" as a policy, consider the alternative of using the “carrot-side” as well.  Simple behavior science knows that reinforcing good behaviors has more lasting value to you than punishing bad ones.  Including incentives for employees who exemplify good attendance can be just as effective for improving absenteeism as penalizing them for noncompliance.

A Presenteeism Program

Things to consider when planning your incentive program:

• Set the timing for the program to include seasons where you have the most absences,
• Have a clear start and stop date
• Set clear goals for the program that are based on realistic expectations and use past performance as the measurement to start.  Unrealistic goal setting will guarantee that you program will fail.
• Communicate the program measurement and improvements before, during and after program completion
• Start awarding minor awards at achieving an improvement to the base, with escalating awards for incremental improvement. Think inspirational yet achievable when setting attendance rewards.
• At program conclusion make sure you recognize those employees with perfect attendance.
• The logic of the program should be as transparent as possible to avoid disputes.
• Finally, make sure the program isn't penalizing employees for allowable absences.

How Can Incentives Promote Healthy Behaviors?

Seema Verma, the CMS Administrator, and Adam Boehler, the Director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, have been outspoken regarding the need to address proactively keeping people healthy, instead of waiting until they get sick and require expensive services.  In today’s healthcare world this is known as value-based care. 

In value-based care, providers are rewarded for the relative health of their patients, instead of getting paid to treat them when they are ill.  The management of chronic conditions is a key to lowering healthcare costs and improving patient outcomes. 

What’s the Cost?

60% of all Americans have at least one chronic condition, and 40% have two or more.  These are the leading drivers of the nation’s $3.3 trillion in annual health care costs.

The Center for Disease Control estimates that that eliminating three risk factors – poor diet, inactivity, and smoking – would prevent: 80% of heart disease and stroke; 80% of type 2 diabetes; and, 40% of cancer.  While elimination might be unattainable to some, reduction of these is certainly a real goal.

The Need for Incentives

A survey of 2500 consumers conducted by Survata in association with HealthEdge in 2018, found that 53% of millennials want more incentives for healthy behaviors from their health plan.  It is well known in the award industry that properly designed wellness incentive programs can and will produce results.  When just the communications of the desire for a change in wellness habits doesn’t work, incentives have.  They can get employees off the couch, eating right, smoking less and enrolled and involved in the classes and programs offered to help them along the way  And they can keep them on the path.  Changing habits is hard, but motivation can help get it done.

A survey conducted by Incentive Research Foundation revealed that almost 59% of wellness programs contain gift cards as awards for certain objectives such as weight loss, exercise, smoking cessation, and enrolling and completing parts of the program.  An Aflac study found that 61% of employees agree that they have made healthier lifestyle choices because of these types of wellness activities. 

And among those incentives and programs for healthy behaviors, it has been proven that cash rewards do not have a sustained impact on life habits. Incentives such as gift cards for healthy habits make a long-lasting difference, helping to contain costs of healthcare, improve overall health outcomes and boost employee engagement.

A Good Reason for Peer to Peer Employee Recognition

Current incentive research shows that over 80% of businesses use rewards to overcome business challenges.  According to Gallup 57% of baby boomers, 76% of gen Xer’s, and 81% of millennials say that receiving recognition better connects them to their organization’s products and services.

Employees today want to work at companies where they are recognized for their performance.  And it’s not just management to employee recognition that is important.  Incentive research also shows that 80% of millennials say that the act of giving someone else recognition makes them want to stay at a company longer when the company cares about and invests in their employees.

Take the time to look through your organization for award opportunities to increase engagement.  Get your employees to become more engaged in company initiatives, like taking a company survey, signing up for a service, or joining a committee.

Show appreciation and build a company culture where employees and customers feel valued. When you do you will have a workforce that is more likely to feel good about where and for whom they work.

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

The Confusion Surrounding Employee Engagement

“Employee Engagement” as a term (and now culture) has been around a long time. Before that it was called “Employee Satisfaction.”  Not to oversimplify it, but employee satisfaction had little or no connection to performance.  With major changes in industry and more emphasis on service, there began a more pronounced link between HR and the “service-profit” chain and Employee Engagement was born. 

We googled “employee engagement” in preparation for this post and were rewarded with over 83 million answers.  HR consulting firms, training consultants, research companies, statistical analysis firms and even the award industry each define it in relation to their own revenue.  Is it any wonder why executives seem to be a little chagrined by the entire subject?  A simple concept it isn’t.  From 1996 to 2012, nearly 25 million employees in almost 3 million workgroups from 195 countries have completed Gallup's Q12®survey…the father of the statistics used in the design of how best to measure EE. This does everything except answer the one question everyone wanted to know…why.

You can readily see how things became confusing when the major HR consulting firms jumped onto the employee-engagement fray with their own, branded, proprietary, employee-engagement surveys, also based on statistical analysis. Even the academic community is confused by the term “employee engagement” because it was developed by consulting firms outside of the normal channels of academic research. 

The award industry hangs their hat on seemingly general concurrence that employee recognition helps promote employee satisfaction, which in turn is an important fundamental of employee engagement.  This was reinforced by the Conference Board and the Harvard Business School with a meta-analysis that compared the main employee-engagement approaches side-by-side.  

This meta-analysis concluded that “employee engagement” boils down to an emotional and intellectual connection between employees and their employers that results in improved performance.  

This was reconfirmed by two academic researchers, Nitin Nohria, the dean of the Harvard Business School, and Paul Lawrence, an organizational-behavior pioneer, in their books “Driven,” and “Driven to Lead.” These books built a new 4-drive motivational model of Employee Motivation.  This model created the emotional connection discovered by the meta-analysis…when these universal drives are satisfied; employees experience emotional pleasure and feel engaged.  Employee recognition helps to drive that emotional pleasure.

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

Do Your Employees Feel Respected?

“Respect is like air. As long as it’s present, nobody thinks about it. But if you take it away, it’s all that people can think about.”

                                                            “Crucial Conversations” by Ron McMillan

In research of nearly 20,000 employees worldwide conducted by Christine Porath, respondents ranked respect as the most important leadership behavior.  Yet many surveys also report that over half of employees claim that they don’t regularly get respect.  What’s the disconnect?  One answer may be that leaders may simply be unaware of the problem.  While those employees who aren’t shown respect are keenly aware of its absence, others, especially those in managerial or other high-status jobs don’t think about it very much. But there are other issues to consider.

Respect and Recognition Go hand-in-hand

Do leaders have a good understanding of what constitutes workplace respect?  If not, even well-meaning efforts to provide a respectful workplace may fall short.  With the ‘PC” nature of today’s culture, it’s hard to imagine a workplace where respect isn’t accorded equally to all members of a work group or the organization; it meets the universal need to make them all feel included. It should be standard practice.  We have no doubt that management consistently affirms that respect is owed to all personnel.  But when employees display valued qualities or behaviors that exceed expectations they are not just owed standard respect they have earned the respect that should be confirmed with recognition, and at times formal recognition. 

In fact some research by Arizona State shows…

“When the standard owed respect and earned respect is not in balance it can create frustration for workers. Workplaces with lots of owed respect but little earned respect can make individual achievement a low priority for employees, because they perceive that everyone will be treated the same regardless of performance. By contrast, workplaces with low owed respect but high earned respect can encourage excessive competition among employees…possibly good for some environments (sales force) but can hinder people from sharing critical knowledge about their successes and failures, and it often promotes cutthroat, zero-sum behavior”

Respect in any organization is important because it is a great feedback mechanism and provides the building blocks for growth.  So too, recognizing the respect earned through achievement helps to solidify that respect in the organization. This will bring tremendous benefits to the company.  It is no secret that employees who say they feel respected are more satisfied with their jobs and more grateful for—and loyal to—their companies.

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