The Tug-of-War Between Recognition and Engagement

The incentive industry has been struggling with putting teeth into employee recognition programs for many years.  Most of the large performance improvement companies of today were founded to create and manage incentive programs to increase sales for their clients.  But in the last two or three decades, the entire landscape of the business awards industry changed.  Executives realized that if merchandise and travel awards could motivate their sales force as well as their channel partners to increase sales and profits, many of the same techniques and strategies could be used to motivate their non-sales personnel to better performance as well.

But for one simple reason, the incentive companies ran into a roadblock and it wasn’t as easy to sell these new programs (commonly referred to employee recognition).  Sales programs had a built-in a measurement and an ROI.  That isn’t true for the employee recognition efforts where the goal was more loosely defined and based on satisfaction levels, rather than clear cut bottom line performance.  And executives wanted to see more results they could take to the bank. Recognition budgets were a hard line budget item with no or little ROI.  Sales programs were implemented based on incremental performance, often without the constraints of the budgetary process. 

So now, over a half century after the large incentive houses were selling millions of dollars of sales incentive programs, the other award companies are competing to convince the C-suite to spend more and more on their non-sales personnel, and it seems to be working.  Now they have another interesting quandary, the recognition programs have been overtaken by the employee engagement programs.  And it appears that some of the same issues exist…how to justify the expense to senior management.

This  Recognition & Recognition Network article of the same title as this blog provides a comparison and insight into  the 

world of recognition / engagement and how it has changed and grown.  Essentially, all the employee performance gurus (read research, training, communications, employee satisfaction consultants) and everyone else who wants to have a piece of this pie have now taken over the recognition industry called it engagement and simply moved “recognition” out of it to stand alone as an integral piece. 

In reading the article, there are two perspectives we feel need further examination.  First, the three “industry leaders” as mentioned amount to only a fraction of the sales revenues of the top three full service performance improvement companies who that are still with us, and still selling “recognition programs” so the lines of “leaders” are blurred.  And second, the distinctions between recognition and engagement programs offered appear to be without any empirical evidence to justify the distinctions…and the lines between recognition are still somewhat blurred as well. 

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

Unspent Recognition Budgets Don't Improve Performance.

You don't have to throw your remaining 2016 recognition budget down the drain.  Here's how you can use it in 2017.

If you have incentive dollars that are as yet unspent, be sure to use them! Often unspent funds can be “found” by the budget police looking for ways to cut back next year. So adopt a “use it or lose it” attitude and protect your employees from missing out on recognition and reward resources. Anticipate future needs and use those dollars to secure awards that will neither expire, decline in value, nor become outdated. 

When your first 2017 recognition event rolls around, you’ll be happy you did. If your organization is mandating budget cuts and perhaps suggesting that recognition is one of the “best” areas to reduce or eliminate, do not allow your reward and incentive programs to fall prey to those cuts! 

Statistics gathered from an actual program with a life-cycle of 10 years reflect that engaged employees will perform better in ANY market condition. In an up market, a recognition and incentive program will help exceed performance; and in a flat market, a reward program will help you maintain your performance. In a down market, taking care of your employees helps you protect your position and lets your key stakeholders know that you are grateful to them for sticking it out during the rough ride. 

At Ultimate Choice, we can suggest ways to ECONOMICALLY recognize and engage employees with our gift cards solutions that do not expire or decline in value. As always, we impose no program or per card fees, no expiration, and no minimums. Each employee gets his CHOICE of what is personally most enjoyable, meaningful and engaging.

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

Did You Know This About Employee Recognition?

We’ve all seen surveys that address employee satisfaction relevant to job performance.  While we are always hesitant to report on these surveys for a variety of reasons, collectively they can form a solid impression when addressing specific subjects.   In the case of employee recognition, following is another set of statistics recently released through the Employee Engagement Alliance.  Without knowing the methodology employed in conducting the survey or specific definition of terms used, in general the results might be something you may to consider:   

• The number one reason employees leave their job is because they feel underappreciated
• Employees who are highly satisfied with the job are 12% more productive
• Sales reps with high job satisfaction levels produce 37% more sales
• Peer to peer recognition produces a 41% improvement on customer satisfaction
• Companies with formalized recognition programs have 31% less voluntary turnover than those who don’t have one
• Peer to peer recognition has a 37% greater positive impact on financial results than manager only recognition
• 85% of companies that spend at least 1% of payroll on a recognition program report a positive effect on engagement
• Thanks and praise tops financial incentives for 67% of employees
• Less than 15% of companies provide managers the tools or information they need to implement effective employee recognition systems

You all heard the expression about how ‘figures can lie’, etc.  Research is often conducted by companies as a way to enhance their selling proposition with “facts” that support their positions, making their products and services easier to sell. We are not a research company, and we have no way to validate the above points.  But the one thing we do know is that employee recognition does work and will produce positive results.  We do know that a satisfied employee base is a powerful influence on the success of a company.  We have seen through the implementation of hundreds of recognition programs that it works. 

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

Just Say Thanks

We are constantly amazed at how far the employee recognition industry has come from the early days of presenting someone with crystal bowl for 25 years of continuous service.

And we at Ultimate Choice are happy it has; we have been able to build a multi-million dollar enterprise because of it.  But it also amazes us of how complex  the entire employee recognition industry has become.  When HR professionals embark on building an engaged employee culture with reward and recognition as a component, they can be bombarded with more award ideas and systems than they can be expected to consider.  Does the research, the training, the in depth communications strategies, the sophisticated feedback methods all combine to make employee recognition more multifaceted than it really needs to be? 

When you get right down to it, shouldn’t it just be as easy as saying Thank You? 

• Do you thank at least one employee a day on average?
• When was the last time your manager said thanks to you?
• When was the last time senior management said thanks to anyone, not in an email?
• When was the last time you wrote a quick hand-written note to someone for doing a good job?
• When is the last time you received one?
• When you recognize someone do you also tell their supervisor?
• Do you look forward to thanking someone, or do you consider it a chore? 

When you foster a culture of gratitude, it can be a game changer for sustainably better performance. 

Organizations aren’t necessary stingy with saying thanks, the problem is that employees do something all the time and no one knows about it.  All you need to do is create a simple process for any individual in any location to feed a suggestion for recognition of a peer up the management chain, and then have a quick and easy process to make it happen

Many organizations over-engineer their recognition programs.  Making a genuine connection with someone who has done something you appreciate is a powerful management tool.  Don’t neglect it…

Just Say Thanks!

And remember...

"the more personal the thank you is, the more value it has."

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