6 Reason Recognition Programs Fail to Boost Employee Engagement

Giving recognition and sharing appreciation is a core component of Respect for People. Employee recognition programs are a great way to boost employee engagement. However, more often than not, they end up doing the opposite of engaging people. Poorly structured employee recognition programs end up causing a lot more harm than good. 

So why do 80% of U.S. employees say they aren’t recognized enough for their contributions? 40% of employees say that they would put more energy into work if they were recognized more often. From experience here are the top 6 recognition mistakes I see happen. 

1. Rewards 

When we are constantly looking to link recognition to rewards - gift cards, pizza parties, certificates, a "free" day off work - we take the focus away from the team members and their contributions and shift attention to the rewards. 

2. Generic 

When we give the generic "thanks, bud" or "appreciate you" or "you're the best" recognition, it doesn't feel like it's authentic recognition- and team members are left wondering "what for." 

3. Immaterial 

When we share appreciation for random things that don't tie back to our purpose, goals, and priorities, then the impact of that recognition gets lost. 

4. Incomplete 

When we give recognition without sharing the "so what", it's incomplete and doesn't have the same meaningful impact that effective recognition has. 

5. Infrequent 

When recognition is an event or an occasional activity, the scarcity doesn't increase the value of it - it actually detracts value. Ever hear someone say "I do ten things right and never hear a word - I do one thing wrong and never hear the end of it"? Yeah - that doesn't lead to engagement, commitment, and action. 

6. Similar 

When we give everyone the same reward or recognition it lessens the weight of the gesture. 

So what are we to do? 

Let’s see five practices for employee recognition that organizations could follow and build in their organizations. 

1. Tailor recognition to the individual 

Leading companies are now understanding the need for recognizing individual employees in individual different ways. 

2. Teams need recognition too 

Organizations are often made up of different teams. Teams are made up of different individuals. Individuals should be recognized for their contributions, but so must teams. 

3. Recognition can be shown in different ways 

Recognition does not have to have a tangible form every time. A pat on the back, a social media mention for an employee’s good work, an appreciation card on the employee’s desk, a special mention in the weekly meeting, a lunch treat and a “thank you for the good work” note, are just some of the ways in which to show recognition. 

4. Make recognition a part of your daily work culture 

Some companies create formal recognition programs and some prefer to make recognition a part of the daily work culture. When managers and organizations align recognition and appreciation with the larger company goals, daily gestures of employee recognition can boost performance and accelerate growth. 

5. Merge recognition with company values 

When companies merge company values with recognition programs, they grow faster. 

There is no one standard formula or way to do it. And there is no limit to the ways in which you can show recognition to your employees and your teams. Management must create formal recognition programs aligned with the company culture and goals. Companies should create their own ways of recognizing their employees. If possible, combine all of the above five points, to have the most effective recognition culture. 

Lean Quote: Strength and Splendor Make a Great Team

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head."   — Proverbs 20:29

A young man who was an avid golfer found himself with a few hours to spare one afternoon. He figured if he hurried and played very fast, he could get in 9 holes before he had to head home. Just as he was about to tee off, an old gentleman shuffled onto the tee and asked if he could accompany the young man since he was golfing alone. The young man was simply not being able to say, "No." So he allowed the old gent to join him. To his surprise, the old man played fairly quickly. He didn't hit the ball far, but plodded along consistently and didn't waste much time. Finally, they reached the 9th fairway and the young man found himself with a tough shot. There was a large pine tree directly in front of his ball and directly between his ball and the green. After several minutes of debating how to hit the shot, the old man finally said, "You know, when I was your age I'd hit the ball right over that tree." With that challenge placed before him, the youngster swung hard and hit the ball high! Unfortunately, it was not high enough. It hit right smack into the top of the tree trunk and it rattled its way back to earth where it thudded on the ground and came to a stop not a foot from where it had originally lay. The old man offered one more comment: "Of course, when I was your age, that pine tree was only 3 feet tall."

There are a lot of things that we could do when we were younger that, for whatever reason, we may not be able to do now. Then again, there are some things we can do now that we couldn't do when we were younger.

Those who are younger should use their strength and enthusiasm to serve mankind. Those who are older should make use of their experience and wisdom. Together, what a great team they make!

 

5 Lessons Everyone Can Learn From Soldiers On Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day. To a lot of us, it means no school, lots of doorbuster sales and, hopefully, a day off from work. The meaning of Veterans Day can be of little insight to those who have no family members or friends who have served time in the service. But, those who do may see the importance of today a little clearer.

We have supported our loved ones through their times of self-sacrifice and loyalty, as well as the most demanding, dangerous, terrifying and noble times. Their acts of valor trickle into their civilian lives, and we dedicate this day to them.

In honor of the veterans, here are five valuable lessons only a strong-willed veteran can teach us civilians about life:

The 3 D’s: Determination, Discipline and Dedication

There are few, if any, jobs in which ability alone is sufficient.

Those words, spoken by William B. Given Jr., help emphasize the need for the three D’s for a successful life.

To be determined is to know you are capable of doing the task at hand. Regardless of a soldier’s insecurity, he or she is determined to be of value and of service to America.

Regardless of the pain, sweat and tears that come to a soldier in order to serve and survive in the harshest circumstances, discipline is what drives him or her forward.

Lastly, dedication is what gives meaning to the reason solders do what they vowed to do. A soldier is dedicated to serving his or her country through thick and thin; a soldier is dedicated to freedom. With the three D’s, your journey through wherever you have found yourself becomes more meaningful and successful.

Work as a team.

There have been many circumstances in which, in order to suffice and sometimes live, soldiers have had to appreciate diversity and assemble a team of very diverse individuals.

They have gone through very traumatic and life-changing experiences together, which has taught them the importance of a team. When it comes to life-and-death situations, external issues take the backburner, and people must come together to accomplish whatever needs to be done.

Teamwork is a building block to a successful life in the professional, personal or educational level.

Learn to work under stress.

A veteran is someone who, at one point, wrote a blank check made payable to The United States of America for an amount up to and including his or her life.

Imagine the stresses of a battlefield and making quick decisions with incomplete information with enemies at every corner hunting for a quick victory. There is no time to stress over these life or death situations.

Soldiers learn to analyze, plan for the best result and execute it. Take this lesson into your daily life when you are up to your ears in debt, or when you feel there's not enough time in the day to finish your work. It could be worse; stop agonizing over it and make a plan.

The value of our freedom

Not everyone in this world has the luxury of living without fear. Imagine the fear and anguish people feel where bombs are flying overhead, close to their homes.

Or, how about the countries in which the desire for education is reprimanded and confiscated from those who seek it?

There are people out there who don't have the right to make the simple decisions we take for granted and make for ourselves. We overlook our blessings as Americans, sometimes, and hearing it from a veteran is the most valuable wake-up call.

Veterans sacrifice everything to ensure our country continues to be “The Land of the Free.”

Embrace change; it’s not the worst thing in the world.

Change is inevitable in the military world; vets learn to cope with it and learn from it.

Embrace change, even if it is outside of your comfort zone. The most successful people have learned to overcome this obstacle and actually use it to their advantage.

Soldiers are constantly learning to cope with change of plan in missions. Instead of obsessing over change and trying to resist it, they learn how to change gears quickly and respond to change in an effective way.

We will all face drastic change throughout our entire lives. The way we respond to change is what makes the difference.

The best thing you can learn from a veteran is to appreciate where you are at this moment in life. You have the ability to determine where life takes you. Most of that freedom wouldn't be ours if it wasn't for the men and women who devote their lives to make America what it is. This day is for you; we salute you for your bravery, your perseverance and your passion for our country.

Happy Veterans Day!

 

7 Ways to Encourage Innovation in the Workplace

Smart leaders know they have to maintain a competitive edge within their industries in order to sustain their slice of the marketplace pie. It remains essential, therefore, that a business continually improves what it offers and how it operates. But ideas for improvement that lead to success don’t just happen–it takes a concerted effort to encourage innovation from your staff.

There are many easy-to-implement ideas that can help creativity and passion flow within your organization, one's that can ensure your company doesn’t get left in the dark ages.

Give employees a reason to care.

The fact is, if people aren’t feeling connected to your company, there’s little incentive for them to be innovative. Make sure you keep your team in the loop on your firm’s strategies and challenges, and invite their input. Employees who are involved early on in processes and plans will be motivated to see them through to completion. Their active participation will fuel more ideas than if they learn of initiatives second-hand.

Empower your employees to make decisions and take action.

People who are trusted to take safe risks and attempt new ways of doing things just may stumble across that next great business solution. Be careful about being too critical when things go wrong, though, because employees will take note. No one wants to be the centre of negative attention, and people will hold back on making suggestions if they’re worried about potential consequences.

Don’t make staff jump through hoops.

You may think that it’s easy for employees to offer their ideas, but is it really? If managers are constantly behind closed doors and meetings tend to be one-way discussions, the message to staff is that their feedback isn’t welcome. Make sure you and other leaders keep your office doors open as much as possible, let employees know directly that their ideas are always valued and keep formal discussions on a two-way street.

Consider which internal processes might be stifling innovation. For instance, it can be demoralizing if recommendations must go through multiple layers of approvals in the organization and take a significant time before they’re implemented, if at all. Look for ways to streamline the process so people can see their good ideas in action quickly.

Reward employees for ongoing learning,

There are lots of ways you can encourage your employees to expand their horizons and broaden their skills. It's a win-win, too, since they benefit from new experiences and opportunities for advancement and you benefit from better-rounded and more confident employees.

Shake things up.

There’s no better way to get your employees thinking outside the box than to assign them new and exciting projects outside the scope of their daily activities. While some employees may initially react with a fear of failure, ultimately they will be engaged by the chance to try something new in your supportive “no idea is a bad idea” work environment.

Allow your employees time to innovate.

Innovation needs to be part of a companies’ day-to-day work. In order to do so, there needs to be both the time and budget allocated for experimentation and pushing internal products, sites and teams to the next level.

Reward success.

The reward for succeeding is higher than the cost of failure. Their team members are willing to try an idea because if the idea succeeds, the company does better. No one is labeled a failure if an idea doesn’t work or achieve different outcomes from what was expected. In fact, what is emphasized is a maximum return on learning, regardless of the outcomes. The cost of not trying is higher than the cost of learning in the long term.

There are many ways that you can start to bring innovation to your company, and major change doesn’t happen all at once. Start small, with any one of the above ideas, and slowly layer in more until your company is a pinnacle of creativity and innovation.

The future requires innovative thinking and it requires a shift away from thinking of innovation as a concept and instead as a mindset that needs to be embedded into the minds of all workers. When organizations have a dominant focus on innovation as an inherent requirement of every single worker we will see a rapid acceleration in the improvement of both customer experience and employee experience in the future of work.

Lean Quote: A Desk is a Dangerous Place From Which to View the World

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world."   — John le Carre

All too often, attempts are made to solve problems without knowing anything about or not being familiar with a particular area or process -- resulting in a misdiagnosis or failed solution. Many managers rely on gut instinct to make these important decisions, which often leads to poor results. 

In my experience answers come from the floor, from the 'gemba,' where the condition occurs. No matter what your position is or what you are working on you can not underestimate the importance of going to the gemba. You need to go to the real place and experience the conditions for yourself before being able to take solve problems. 

You can’t solve problems at your desk. Going to the gemba is a great way to get the entire team involved in identifying and solving problems. It is grounded in fact finding using actual conditions from the actual workers who perform the work. This activity creates energy within the team solving the problem leading to experimentation, ideas, and discussion on improvements.

When managers insist on incorporating facts and evidence, gathered from direct observation at the source they make better choices and their companies benefit. 

5 Ways To Improve Employee Development At Your Company

Investing in the development of employees is the most important and rewarding thing a manager can do. For some reason, though, it’s often the last thing on a manager’s “to do” list.

Employee development is a long-term initiative, but it also leads to short-term benefits like increased loyalty and improved performance and engagement. Here are five ways you can begin improving employee development at your company:

Lay a Foundation of Trust and Mutual Respect

Employees need to know that discussing their development isn’t just a sneaky way to get them to admit their weaknesses. To inspire them to take ownership of the process, you have to start by building trust. Help them to see that you're invested in their success and on their side.

Turn Weekly Meetings Into Learning Opportunities

Employee development isn’t something that happens only in an annual review, nor something you can just pass off to the HR department. All of your regular interactions, from reviews, to project check-ins, to weekly meetings, are chances to develop your team. Consider ways to integrate a development mindset into your regular meetings.

Ask Questions

Few people respond well to simply being told what they need to do. Instead of dictating the process, involve your employees by asking good questions. Coaching questions force employees to figure things out for themselves. Those queries can also be revisited after an assignment is completed as a way to reflect on lessons learned and cement the new knowledge or skill.

Remove Barriers

Many organizations are rigid in their organizational structure and processes, which can make it challenging to implement some cross-functional development and facilitate dynamic growth and high-performance training. It’s up to leadership to bridge silos, knock down walls, and design a system that encourages a fluid approach to learning and working. Today’s generation of workers are used to change and enjoy open work environments that let them explore. Take the barriers away and watch people flourish.

Set the Example

An employee will see the value of the development process when they see their current leadership continue to develop personally and professionally. By modeling this behavior, leaders build credibility and the trust necessary to encourage employees to participate in development-building activities. It shows employees that development is part of the organization’s culture. It sends the message that it’s important for, and expected from, everyone in the organization to be part of a continual improvement process that nurtures from within.

When people are given the tools to do their jobs well and training to advance in their careers, they feel supported and happy. Not only are they likely to stay longer, but they will also perform better and contribute to overall company growth. And your reputation for stellar employee development might just encourage the best and brightest candidates to join your team.

7 Tell-Tale Signs your Corporate Culture Sucks

Culture is a vital and unique part of every organization. It’s what makes people decide to join a team and is the biggest reason employees choose to stay or leave. It’s the key to gaining (and maintaining) a true competitive edge—one that makes work a place people want to be.

A healthy company culture is crucial for a business to operate efficiently. Given that employee well-being often depends on how well they interact with each other, fostering a positive company attitude helps growth within the business as well as promotes a healthy work environment.

However, it can be easy for leaders to miss when the corporate culture might actually suck. There are many tell-tale signs of a toxic work environment, including these seven big ones that send good employees running for the door:

1. Turnover is High

Let’s get the obvious red flag out of the way first. It’s rarely a good sign that people aren’t sticking around for very long.

If your workplace is a revolving door of new faces, you definitely have a turnover problem.

I’d argue further that turnover is not the only problem here. All the hush-hush about turnover signifies an unnerving company culture. No one seems to care enough to ask, “Hey, where’d John go?” Or maybe they do care, but they are afraid to ask about a disappearing coworker. That is a clear indicator of even more flaws in the culture of the company.

2. Employees Don’t Spend Time Together

I’m not saying your colleagues need to be one big happy group of best friends, but the word on the street is that it’s good for business to have friends at work.

After all, friendship = trust,  and trust = better on-the-job performance. There are some drawbacks with the biggest being that having friends at work is more likely to deplete our emotional energy more than if we didn’t give a rat’s about our coworkers. However, it’s pretty clear that emotional connections built at work foster a more productive, more culture-conducive environment.

If no one spends time together outside work, your organization could be missing out on a big chunk of employee satisfaction. The lack of emotional connection and trust might contribute to a clog in the flow of good ideas.

3. Lack of Ideas from Employees

In my experience, if you seldom hear “I have an idea!” in the workplace, you have a problem.

The problem is probably not that your colleagues don't have ideas. They’re human. With working brains. Those brains spend 40 hours per week at the office. It’s preposterous to think that they don’t have any ideas on how to improve things a little around here.

It's more likely that your colleagues aren’t sharing their innovative thoughts. Oh, they have them—trust me. Where is the engagement of employees gone?

4. De-energized and Unmotivated Workers

This usually indicates a fear-based culture lacking the practice of encouragement and respect often found in a caring environment led by strong servant leaders.

A toxic work culture does not welcome employees to offer their ideas, input, creativity or strengths to the overall company strategy because they are merely worker bees.

Managers dismiss the value of their people and employees are seen as cogs rather than worthy colleagues and business partners in producing excellence. This will suck the life, energy and motivation straight out of your employee.

5. Fear of Failure, Discourage Risk

Part of learning and growth is trial and error. Not everything can be predicted, practiced and projected. If your company culture awards short-term performance and punishes risk takers, you’ll be cultivating a norm of anti-innovation. Allowing employees to fail quickly without repercussion encourages your team to explore possibilities and be more innovative. Your team will feel more valued when it has a voice and that will benefit your business.

6. Shareholder Value is More Important than Customer Value

I believe that relentlessly driving up customer value will lead to increased shareholder value. But relentlessly driving up shareholder value might not help customers at all. The financial markets are a fickle beast at best, and today’s trophy businesses are tomorrow's turkeys. The markets seem to act like a lake full of fish (Piranhas), chuck in a good looking piece of food, and everyone wants a piece of it. The current trend is for businesses to buy up highly prized companies, and sometimes this works when the sum is greater than the parts. But if your business sucks, buying one that doesn’t won’t help you and will just spoil a perfectly good business. You can’t graft success onto a failure.

7. Everyone is Stressed and Under Pressure

The surest sign your organization is sick is when it makes its employees sick. Too much pressure or stress on people doesn’t work or isn’t sustainable. Good employees will put more pressure on themselves than any manager could. They are self-motivated, and know what needs to be done. An organization needs to nurture and nourish talent then focus it. It is that simple.

Different people react differently to stress. Some thrive, others give up and some even subvert the pressure into negative feelings and behavior. But does your company offer praise as well as pressure? Or does it beat you with a stick when you don’t perform, and then beat you with a carrot when you do?

Most companies want great company culture, but only a few do what it takes to actually have it. It certainly doesn’t come easy but pinpointing your weaknesses and shifting your work environment will put you on the right path.

Building great company culture is about being inclusive of all employees, creating a shared philosophy to guide your decisions and protecting that foundation by bringing on and empowering the right people.

When you have great company culture, you’ll feel it, and so will everyone in and around your company. It is not easy to achieve but, once done right, it can't be ignored.