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