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