Engaging employees can be a daunting task, and with all of the jargon out there, it’s easy to get lost and not know what next steps to take.  In this post, we examine the eight dimensions of our Employee Engagement model, illustrated with real-life examples of companies who embody what these drivers are all about.

First, Resources and Rewards are the functional aspects of Employee Engagement. They are fundamental to the contract between an employee and a business.  Resources and Rewards need to be competitive and fair – without these basics, you cannot hope to satisfy, let alone, engage your employees. Pretty simple.

The intrinsic aspects are where it starts to get a bit more complicated…

Recognition in Accounting

One of our clients in the Accounting industry has the goal to deliver unmatched client service by aligning all employees around the company’s five core values. Using a homegrown “Twitter-like” application, employees nominate colleagues for doing something exceptional relating to these values. Throughout the year rewards and recognition will be given based on these nominations, and at the end one lucky employee will win a Mazda Miata 5 for their contributions.

Customer Focus at BUPA

BUPA is a health insurance company in the UK that is absolutely committed to their customers. Last year they won the Plain English Campaign Award for their gobbledygook-free website. In providing easy to understand information, BUPA has also built a culture of empathy toward the customer experience.

And this culture extends beyond the website. At the CXPA event this past October, our EVP Kate Feather learned of an interesting approach taken by BUPA to bring the customer front and center in the business. Specifically, the story goes that every BUPA customer service agent is given a budget to do something nice for their customers. One employee spent her budget on clothes for a baby born prematurely. In the retelling of this story the employee had tears in her eyes as she described how it felt to have the opportunity to touch someone’s life so closely.

Fun at American Hotel Register

The Fun dimension has a tendency to confuse the more practical among us. But the fun dimension captures so much more than holiday parties and water cooler chit chat about weekend plans. It’s about a sense of belonging, shared vision, and creativity. Another one of our own clients, American Hotel Register, provides every conceivable product for hospitality and specialty industries – including funeral homes. They take pride in having an open, quirky culture. The founder regularly walks the halls, greets people by name, gives employees hugs; they have daily guess the answer to the Snapple cap questions; and in January American will be hosting its second annual American Idol Competition at their annual Hospitality Expo.

Recently they had the opportunity to provide the producers of Glee with funeral urns for an upcoming episode, one of the American Hotel employees commented that American Hotel “puts the ‘FUN’ in FUNeral.” The directors liked it so much the little play on words made it into the Glee script.  

Growth at Lovett

Unless you live in Portland, Oregon, you probably haven’t heard of Lovett. Lovett has built an impressive company by focusing on employee Growth. They have built a solid training curriculum involving mentor-style orientation, options to learn skills in other departments, and even life skills like financial planning and investing. Lovett understands how important it is to have a team of smart, customer-focused employees who understand the company’s big picture vision. Even more surprising is that Lovett isn’t a cutting-edge management consulting firm, or an HR group; they do plumbing. And their staff retention rate is 100%.

Trust at Wegmans

The Trust dimension is really about trust in senior leadership – that they have employees’ best interests in mind and respect and value their work. At Wegman’s, this means involving store-level employees in the kinds of decisions typically made at higher levels, and avoiding creating policies addressing every possible scenario. The company’s philosophy is, “Employees first, customers second,” and by putting their employees first, their employees put the customers first – and Wegman’s boasts one of the best retention rates in the country and some of the highest customer ratings among grocery stores.

Purpose in Healthcare

Purpose is linked to a sense of accomplishment in work, the knowledge that a person’s work is having a positive impact on internal and external customers. Medtronic is a medical device manufacturer. They provide the opportunity for their engineers, technicians, and salespeople to attend surgical procedures so they can see the results of their work.

One of our Healthcare clients also has a great tactic for embedding a sense of purpose in their work. The patients they serve have central nervous system disorders; our client displays patient artwork throughout their hallways as well as printing mini reprints on the back of their business cards as a daily reminder of their commitment to improving the lives of the patients they serve.

What Drives Engagement at Your Company?

It’s overwhelming for any leader to think about tackling all of these dimensions at once. So we recommend starting small. Focus on one dimension that you can do (or perhaps are already doing) and build it out – whether it is getting your employees closer to your customer, building internal growth plans, or recognizing employees who do great work.

And, of course, if you are ready for some professional help, contact us. Our expertise lies in helping clients identify what their employees care about the most so they can focus action on the items that will have the greatest impact on their employees’ experiences.

Additional Resources:

Why Do Employees Deliver Great Customer Experiences? It’s Not ALL About the Money!

Using the Voice of Your Employee (VoE) to Improve the Employee Experience

Case for a Voice of the Employee (VoE) Solution

Too often, employee engagement is seen as little more than an added expense—many equate employee engagement with higher spending on benefits. This doesn’t have to be the case. Our research has shown that many employees simply want to feel that their work matters—that what they do makes a difference. This feeling can be achieved on both an individual level, by thanking each employee for their hard work, and on a company-wide level, by rallying the troops for a cause.

While “going green” isn’t quite the hot trend it was a few years ago, it has proven its staying power and is increasingly showing up in corporate strategy. We suggest developing some integration between your employee engagement and earth-friendly initiatives to maximize both investments.  Employee engagement surveys are a wonderful place to start. They can help you understand what environmental issues are most important to them,  allowing companies to invest in initiatives that matter to their people and will incite their support.

Earth-friendly initiatives can boost employee engagement by sending the message that the company is making a difference for the environment. Employees feel more connected to their employers when they know the entire company is united in an effort to be green and in a way that matters to them. Here are three ways you can energize and unify your staff while saving the planet.

Get a Conversation Going About Saving the Earth. Around Earth Day this year, commercial real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle invited employees to post short blogs on green topics at the company’s Green Blog. Employees who posted were rewarded with a gift card for a music download. (Even the gift card was green—it could be planted after use to grow into a tree!)

Other companies, such as McGraw-Hill and Portland’s Ruby Receptionists, empower employees to save the planet by forming green committees, groups of employees who meet to discuss how the company can operate in more environmentally friendly ways.  These committees often find solutions that executives have overlooked. For instance, your “Green Team” might suggest buying a company bike for employees to use during work hours, thereby eliminating many short car trips around town.

Encourage Green Commutes. Employees can feel energized and proud of the Co2 reduction their company contributes. We know from experience. Every PeopleMetrics employee commutes in a green way, whether they take public transportation, walk, or ride their bikes. Recognizing and rewarding employees for taking a green path to work can come in the form of public transit credits, or holding monthly drawings for green commuters.

Beyond building a sense of workplace community around saving the earth, green commutes benefit the company by encouraging employee wellness. Those who bike commute, for instance, see far less hospital visits and illnesses.  Furthermore, the natural release of adrenaline that comes with exercise puts bike commuters and walkers in a better state of mind when they reach the office. Even encouraging employee carpools can result in higher employee engagement, as it gives employees a chance to connect on the way to the office.

Participate in Green Events. Whether you celebrate Earth Day by joining in a charity walkathon or share how employees spent Earth Hour with their lights off, participating in green events gets employees jazzed about their contribution. Look for opportunities to invite employees to engage in events off site. Bring along a camera and post pictures to the company blog. Employees will feel proud of themselves and their employer following such an event.

Employee engagement research shows that workers want to have a good relationship with their managers and their coworkers, and that they want to feel that their work is helping improve the world. Ask your employee engagement people to talk to your Corporate Social Responsibility people and see how their efforts can be integrated to build a stronger workplace culture and a stronger earth.

Additional Resources:
Calculating the Cost of Employee Disengagement
How Disengaged Employees Create Disengaged Customers
HR Practices to Boost Employee Engagement and Customer Engagement

[photo: DonkeyHotey]

Restaurants have a few advantages when it comes to customer service. Unlike in many industries, restaurant employees have the chance to interact personally with customers. This means restaurants have more opportunities to deliver a positive emotional experience to each guest. On the other hand, because it’s such a guest-focused industry, the bar for outstanding customer service is set a little higher in the restaurant arena. Therefore, restaurant managers and owners have more motivation to identify and replicate employee effort that engages and delights customers. In this article, we’ll examine the general customer service landscape in the restaurant sector. Next, we’ll take a look at the characteristics all businesses must exhibit in order to win high Customer Engagement, as our 2010 Most Engaged Customers (MEC) report revealed. Finally, we’ll zoom in on the “hot button” issues for customer engagement in the restaurant space.

PeopleMetrics found a 51% engagement rate among customers in all industries. However, if we limit the focus to only the restaurant sector, we find that 61% of customers are engaged. This implies that restaurant customers generally receive better service, perhaps because this is one of the last industries in which face-time is still common. However, once we break down those statistics according to each brand, we see a wider spectrum of scores, from 51% for McCormick & Schmicks, to 67% for Ruth’s Chris. In other words, some restaurants are more successful than others at creating a compelling customer experience.

What sets apart organizations with high Customer Engagement scores? What do they know about how to improve customer satisfaction? Well, it starts with a compelling business offer. Additionally, restaurants, like all organizations, must display consistent customer care that earns their customers’ trust.  Extraordinary, authentic employee effort is also key to engaging customers. These are the traits PeopleMetrics has found influences Customer Engagement, which in turn impacts such important business outcomes such as profit margins, share price, and ROI. (To learn more about these six traits for Customer Engagement, read our blog post, “Why the Ritz-Carlton is #1 in Customer Engagement: 6 Customer Love Factors in their Credo.”)

We have discovered a few “hot button” issues for restaurateurs, namely the business offer, consistency, customer care, and employee effort. (For a complete picture of our restaurant research, order a copy of our restaurant industry Most Engaged Customers report.) The compelling business offer at a restaurant might be superior food quality. One Ruth’s Chris guest gave insightful customer satisfaction feedback on the brand’s business offer, explaining, “There are no words to describe how good their steaks are. I don’t even want to try. And the desserts are heavenly.” A wide variety of menu choices and an enjoyable atmosphere are also viable business offers.

The most critical trait in the restaurant space is extraordinary extra effort from restaurant employees. As one Cheesecake Factory respondent put it, “They do everything in their power to make certain you have an outstanding time when eating in the restaurant. The staff is always helpful and friendly. They always seem to go above and beyond to make sure that everything is just right.” We have found that Engaged Employees foster engagement among customers as well. Some chains, such as Texas Roadhouse, engage employees through fun activities, including nightly in-house competitions and line dances in the dining room. Each restaurant is unique, so a strong Customer Engagement strategy begins with Employee Engagement research to determine what motivates employees. Ultimately, attentive, consistent, authentic service is what sets apart the restaurants with the most engaged customers.

Additional Resources
Replicating Brand Ambassadors through Recognize Alerts
How the Mode of Interaction Impacts Customer Engagement
Customer Satisfaction vs. Customer Engagement: Which Should You Follow?

[photo: Zoetnet]

The human brain is wired for empathy. As Daniel Goleman explains in his book Social Intelligence, mirror neurons allow us to feel what the people around us are feeling. FMRI studies have shown that when we perceive emotions in others, our brains light up like theirs. For example, when you see a facial expression of disgust, the area of your brain that registers disgust is activated. To quote from Social Intelligence, mirror neurons “allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation, by feeling, not by thinking.” Why should mirror neurons matter to your business? Because your customers’ mirror neurons pick up on the emotional output of your employees. PeopleMetrics’ research verifies that enthusiastic, passionate employees rub off on customers. Employee Engagement breeds Customer Engagement. And companies with higher Customer Engagement also enjoy higher profits, ROI, and share-of-market. Therefore, Employee Engagement is a key component in any Customer Engagement strategy. Highly engaged employees act as ambassadors for your brand, advocating for your company to customers and fellow employees alike. That’s why PeopleMetrics has created a Brand Ambassador program to help you discover and “clone” your organization’s most engaged employees.

What does a Brand Ambassador look like? Well, one might sport a tattoo with the company logo. Another might inspire customers to write songs of praise. Literally–we’ve seen customers compose songs, complete with rhyming chorus and verses, in praise of extraordinary employees.  The point is, Brand Ambassadors are employees who consistently go the extra mile for customers and the company. They’re the ones you want other employees to emulate.

We help companies find Brand Ambassadors through our Customer Engagement Management solution. Here’s how it works. When a customer mentions a certain employee as providing exceptional service, our online CEM hub automatically sends out a Recognize Alert. Employees who receive a certain number of Recognize Alerts (as determined by the employer) are designated Brand Ambassadors. Public recognition of the Brand Ambassadors motivates Brand Ambassadors as well as other employees to provide stellar service. Beyond employee motivation, Brand Ambassadors are excellent sources of best practices information. Their expertise can be tapped to create solutions for common customer complaints. Our Customer Feedback Hub provides a common space for Brand Ambassadors to share which practices keep customers happy.

Too many companies gather customer feedback without using it to actually improve as an organization.  Through Brand Ambassador recognition, you can use customer feedback to find and learn from your top performers. Their insights can help you improve customer service, increase Customer Engagement, and increase overall sales and profits.

[photo: Zeetz Jones]

In his timeless work How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), Dale Carnegie traces all human motivation to one sensation:  feeling important.  Quoting American philosopher John Dewey, Carnegie emphasizes “that the deepest urge in human nature is ‘the desire to be important.’” Flash forward to 2009, when the most innovative business leaders are applying Carnegie’s dictum to the workplace through Employee Engagement Management.  More than just an “HR buzzword,” Employee Engagement Management is a leadership approach that values each employee’s well being and input, with the understanding that passionate, engaged employees are more productive.  This article will explain why gathering and implementing employee suggestions is an effective technique for improving both employee and customer engagement.

Making use of employee suggestions increases employee engagement because humans have an innate need to feel that their actions and ideas make a difference. In fact, human development theorist Erik Erikson tells us that the major developmental crisis of middle adulthood is generativity vs. stagnation—whether or not we successfully contribute to the society around us.  When employees see that their suggestions are highly valued, they feel important to the organization.  Later, as their ideas are implemented, employees feel generative and effective. This is why employees typically become more personally immersed in their work when staff recommendations are regularly implemented.  Personal contribution raises our attachment to any outcome. As they recognize that their ideas can make a difference, employees will often spend more discretionary effort to find ways to improve their own working conditions and performance.  A contributing, innovating employee is an engaged employee.

Moreover, taking suggestions from your employees makes good business sense, since employees often have unique insights about how to improve operations. Since they are on the front lines, your employees have a rich understanding of what your customers need and want. By harnessing their first-hand customer knowledge, you can also improve your organization’s customer service, thereby boosting customer engagement and enjoying higher profits.  (In fact, PeopleMetrics has found a clear correlation between increased customer engagement and higher profit margins.)

The Japanese have a name for the end result of respecting every employee’s ideas—kaizen, or continuous improvement. By listening to your employees’ suggestions, you can boost engagement while ensuring that your organization continues to grow and improve.

~Kate Feather, Executive Vice President

Additional Resources:
Using Customer Engagement Management to Create a Culture of Accountability
1001 Ways to Energize Employees
Kaizen Teian 2: Guiding Continuous Improvement Through Employee Suggestions

Photo credit: Alosh Bennet

In his book The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard L. Florida highlights the factors that motivate creative workers like programmers and scientists.  One of his conclusions is that increasing numbers of modern workers are motivated, at least in part, by peer recognition. This is why, even in today’s rocky economic climate, many people are willing to work for free on projects that they feel will win the respect of their peers.  Fortunately, progressive managers are beginning to recognize the power of peer-to-peer recognition.

In addition to the motivational factor, many managers encourage peer recognition because they know that it is usually accurate. As Judith A. Hale explains in Performance-Based Management, peers may deliver more detailed, effective feedback, since they have more opportunities to observe their coworkers’ performance.  As Ms. Hale writes, “It is not uncommon for the manager to be removed from where the work is performed and, therefore, rarely see what people do or how they do it.”

If you’re looking to develop a peer recognition program for your workplace, keep a few general feedback guidelines in mind:

1. Remember that specific feedback is more effective than general praise.  Encourage your employees to be precise when complimenting their peers.
2. Additionally, you should involve employees in designing your peer recognition program.  Avoid launching new recognition programs without ensuring that the whole crew is on board.  Your new recognition procedures will be far more likely to take root if everyone in your organization understands why they are being implemented.
3. It’s also important that everyone in your firm has equal opportunities to give and receive feedback.  Set up a level playing field. Make it easy to give recognition.
4. Your system should aim for immediate gratification.  Don’t let peer compliments pile up for weeks or months, since employees will be more motivated by timely feedback.
5. Finally, keep in mind that employees follow their managers’ lead; your managers and executives must lead by example, especially in providing helpful, positive feedback

As you discuss possible programs with your team, here are a few examples of how companies incorporate peer-to-peer recognition.

1. The Recognition Raffle. Each time an employee receives recognition from a peer, he or she is entered into a raffle.
2. Let the Most Kudos Win. Employees fill out a card or form to thank, compliment, or recognize their peers.  The cards are then displayed on a central bulletin board to foster a positive work environment.  Regularly, managers review the kudos board and award the employee who has received the most peer recognition.  (If you choose this method, you might also incorporating a raffle, to avoid popularity contests.)
3. The Company Store. Employees receive points for each peer recognition.  Points may be accumulated and traded in for prizes at The Company Store.  Your prizes don’t have to be big; perhaps five compliments would be enough to earn an extra hour off, for instance.

~Monica Nolan, Account Manager

Additional Resources:

Three Ways to Mix Up your Employee Recognition Routine
Employee Recognition: Engagement Fuel
Creating Community at Work

Employee recognition has proven to be an influential factor in employee retention, engagement, and motivation. Organizations that successfully and consistently implement employee recognition enjoy long-term stability and higher profit margins. To better understand effective employee recognition, we’ve outlined five guidelines for this management strategy, along with real-world examples for each approach.

1. Tailor your recognition program to your organizational culture. No one company’s program should be exactly the same as another’s. Your employees are unique and part of a similarly unique culture; thus, they require a culture-specific recognition program.

Example: In Keeping the People Who Keep You In Business, Leigh Branham highlights Henley Healthcare, a Texas maker of non-invasive medical products.  Henley Healthcare polled its office staff to learn what kind of reward they would like for working long hours.  The results were clear: 42% preferred time off, 22% preferred clothing, and 20% preferred tickets to cultural events.  This information allowed Henley Healthcare to create a recognition program that reflects what its employees actually want.

2. Money is not the catch-all solution to employee recognition; in fact, it should take a backseat to other methods. For instance, time, affirmation, and personally-expressed gratitude are much more valuable commodities.

Example: Buttoned Up Inc., an organizational firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, rewards its employees with flexible schedules.  As Sarah Pierce writes for The Business Insider, “Depending on their job, some employees are allowed to work one day a week from home to save on gas money while others can choose between getting their work done in two days or spreading it out over the entire work week. ‘As long as everyone gets their work done, we’re very flexible,’” Buttoned Up Founder and CEO Alicia Rockmore explains.

3. Be specific and consistent. Employees should know exactly why they are being rewarded. Additionally, they should know exactly which behaviors will elicit recognition.  Your employees will quickly discount any program that appears to favor certain employees unfairly.

Example: As described in The 24-Carrot Manager, “Mandy Assi, concierge manager at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, is a passionate practitioner of specific recognition. ‘Managers realize how hard it is to find good people, and that it’s even more challenging to retain them, especially in the hospitality industry, where shift work can be difficult. You need to be specific.  For example, I [recognize] you because I saw you checking in Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith was upset, and you handled that with immense ease and calmed him down. Mr. Smith left with a big smile on his face. You also stayed late after your shift even though you were tired.’”

4. Encourage peer-to-peer recognition. Recognition doesn’t always have to come from the top. In many cases, co-workers know more about real employee performance than managers do. Create a culture of encouragement and recognition among your employees, and watch employee engagement grow.

Example: As Donna Deeprose explains in her book, How to Recognize and Reward Employees, marketing, travel, and hospitality provider Carlson Companies has a peer recognition program called Bravo.  Through their recognition website, CarltonRewards, any Carlton employee can recognize any other employee for a job well done.  Furthermore, the system catalogs praise according to company strategies. Employees can recognize their colleagues for actions in the following categories: Build Our Team, Satisfy the Customer, Deliver Our Family of Business, or Work Smarter, Not Harder.  The heads of business units deliver certificates to employees who receive peer recognition, and employees also receive redeemable Gold Points.  Carlton’s reward program is effective because both executives and peers can easily applaud good work.

5. Be creative continually, not just in the beginning. No matter how tailored and specific it is, over time, your recognition program will become stagnant. Keep employees on their toes by creating and adapting new methods of reward and recognition.

Example: As described in The 1001 Rewards & Recognition Fieldbook, Doris Hausser, former director of performance management for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, had a tough job: guide and inspire 1.8 million federal employees in dozens of different departments. Hausser’s technique?  Encourage departments and individual employees to be creative with their recognition programs.  For instance, as she explains, “One agency has started the Giraffe Award to recognize people who stick their necks out, where you are really awarding risk taking, and that’s the whole idea.  The award is symbolic of the nature of the contribution that the employer wants to see.”

~Monica Nolan, Account Manager

Additional Resources:
Three Ways to Mix Up Your Employee Recognition Routine
Five Frugal Ways To Recognize Employees
Customer-Based Employee Recognition: How to reward your unsung brand champions

Top photo by Sasha Wolff.

You’re stuck in traffic, your dog threw up just as you were leaving the house, and you haven’t had your morning java.  Yet, as you savor the exhaust on the expressway, you remember Allison, that certain employee who clearly needs some encouragement.  Allison’s been working long hours on some tough projects—and doing a great job!  You know timing is important.  If you don’t recognize Allison soon, she may just feel like she needs to move on.  But you don’t have time to draft a complex recognition plan—in fact, she needs to get some recognition today.  So, how can you deliver thoughtful, specific employee recognition when you’re short on time?  Read on for a few general techniques for quick employee recognition, inspired by Ken Lloyd’s 151 Quick Ways To Recognize and Reward Employees.

1.  Write a note.
In this era of electronic communication, hand-written notes have more impact than ever.  Keep a stash of stylish, simple notes in your car, briefcase, and nightstand.  That way, when a certain employee’s heroic deeds come to mind, you can just reach for the pen.  Remember to be as specific as you can in your praise; this will help Allison understand which actions you’d like her to repeat.

2. Visit for No Reason.
Unfortunately, many managers only visit their employees’ offices when they have an agenda.  When was the last time you chatted with Allison with no checklist running through your mind?  Employees appreciate your attention; they like knowing that you care about their work.  As Ken Lloyd quips, “Your presence is often the best present you can give your employees.”

3. Include Employees in Screening Interviews. Your packed schedule (once you finally get into the office) includes an interview for that new position.  Why not include Allison in part of the screening procedures?  Especially if they will be working directly with new hires, employees savor the chance to help contribute to the hiring process.  Including employees in hiring procedures makes them feel valued.  Bonus:  Allison will likely have unique insiders’ insights to contribute, since she’s on the front lines.

4. The Gift of Time. Let Allison know that you appreciate her dedication by letting her leave an hour or two early.  Even if she loves her job, Allison will savor her extra hour of freedom.

5.  Personally deliver paychecks. Don’t let HR have all of the fun.  If a certain employee has been delivering a stellar performance, turn paycheck delivery into an opportunity to deliver praise.  As you personally hand Allison her paycheck, tell her exactly what she’s been doing well lately.  She’ll probably remember your specific praise longer than she’ll remember how she spent that paycheck.

~Monica Nolan, Account Manager

Top photo by William Warby

Western cooking traditionally recognizes four major tastes: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. The Japanese, however, add a fifth taste called unami, or savory flavor. Unami is beloved for its ability to enhance all of the other flavors of a dish. As in cooking, managers must maintain a delicate balance of key ingredients to maximize their workforce. Ingredients like salaries and benefits, feedback mechanisms, and good training are all important to strengthen Employee Engagement Management (EEM), and even bolsters your Customer Engagement. But there is usually one ingredient that is often forgotten.  Just what is the unami of the business world? Fun.

Fun is the unexpected ingredient that can enhance your firm’s Employee Engagement.

Many managers are probably wagging their heads right now, scoffing at the idea of focusing on employees in such hard economic times. It’s hard enough to keep customers these days–why focus on the employee? Because doing so increases Customer Engagement. As PeopleMetrics’ Vice President Kate Feather stated in a podcast about the link between EEM and CEM, “If customers see and feel the engagement of the [employees] they’re interacting with, they come away with a better feeling about the organization, and then they’re more inclined to come back in the future, and more inclined to recommend the organization to family and friends.” Customers notice and like engaged employees, partly because engaged employees go above and beyond the call of duty for the customer. Additionally, customers enjoy interacting with engaged employees because it’s just more fun. As Kate explains, “There’s a real connection between customer and employee behaviors, driven by how much the [sales] experience is memorable and enjoyable, either for the employee, or for the customer.”

PeopleMetrics has found a direct correlation between customer engagement and key business indicators like ROI, Revenue Growth, and Return on Assets. Furthermore, PeopleMetrics’ research indicates that the companies with the most engaged customers also have highly engaged employees.

To see how the free flow of fun impacts an organization’s operations, let’s examine one fun-loving company: Trader Joe’s. This line of grocery stores is known for its happy, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing employees. Fortune has named Trader Joe’s one of the best places to work. And as Len Lewis writes in his book, The Trader Joe’s Adventure, “Few employers–particularly in retailing–can boast of having such high levels of employee loyalty, not to mention extremely low turnover.”

The employees at Trader Joe’s have plenty to be happy about. Especially compared with workers at other grocery stores, Trader Joe’s employees make more, get better benefits and perks, and enjoy more flexible scheduling. Mr. Lewis explains, “In a world rocked by layoffs, cutbacks, corporate scandals, and labor unrest–particularly in retailing–Trader Joe’s has long adhered to the philosophy that happy employees make for happy customers. Happy customers spend more and visit the store more frequently. This attitude is rare in the retail industry at large, where employees are often seen as expendable.”

While at work, Trader Joe’s encourages employees to have fun, and customers consistently notice this lighthearted attitude. In his book, Mr. Lewis delivers evidence of this from customers and non-customers alike. He quotes regular Trader Joe’s shopper Dan Raftery, who notes, “I think it’s probably fun to work there because they don’t take themselves too seriously. It’s a very positive environment, not oppressive, stale, or negative.” (Sounds like a fun place to shop, too!) Neal Stern, VP of Chicago firm McMillan/Doolitle, agrees, saying, “It’s a cool place to work–fun, informal–and they sell great stuff… It’s no coincidence that great stores to shop at are also great places to work. You can create a great marketing campaign, a billion-dollar ad campaign with glitzy flyers, but you can’t fake store morale.”

So, if you’re looking for a magical ingredient to boost your employee engagement (and your bottom line), try tossing in a little fun. Throw a staff appreciation party, open the next meeting with a silly icebreakers, or give employees the opportunity to be creative. (Trader Joe’s employees, for instance, use a system of pirate-ish bells and language to communicate in code with their peers, so it’s a lot more fun to report a “clean up on aisle five” at Trader Joe’s than it is at other grocery stores.) Finally, don’t leave your employees in the dark; include them in your investigation of how to make your workplace more fun.

See the PeopleMetrics’ 2009 Most Engaged Customers Report to learn more on the connection between Employee Engagement and Customer Engagement.

~Monica Nolan, Account Manager

Plenty of people will tell you how the American health system is broken.  And yet, it’s not all doom and gloom.  Even in America’s bloated health care system, some hospitals manage to hold down costs while maintaining high levels of care.  As they look for ways to improve patient outcomes, many health care organizations are focusing on boosting employee engagement.  Our research has shown that hospitals with higher levels of employee engagement also enjoy higher levels of patient satisfaction, quality outcomes, and staff retention.  This article will explore how one health care organization, Sanford Health, improved operations by researching and boosting Employee Engagement.

Sanford Health’s more than 10,000 employees provide care across four states.  Sanford’s directors knew that in order to be a leader in health care, they needed to increase productivity and cooperation among employees while boosting the quality of care and the number of positive outcomes. They decided to take an Employee Engagement Management (EEM) approach to help meet and surpass their goals.

The first step Sanford Health took was conducting an organization-wide study to learn the existing drivers of employee engagement. The results of this employee survey revealed areas of focus to increase engagement. Once the survey results were compiled and analyzed, over 400 managers were granted access to an online EEM tool provided by PeopleMetrics. The tool allowed managers to analyze survey results and develop detailed action plans for their teams.  Upper management could review managers’ action plans, determine areas of improvement, track progress, and share action plans across the organization.  Thanks to actionable results and easy-to-use management tools, Sanford continues to boost employee engagement and improve patient outcomes.

So why does employee engagement management improve patient outcomes at hospitals?  Why does it improve hospital operations?

First, EEM works because health care is a people-based industry.  Nurses, doctors, and other health professionals need to feel supported and respected by their managers.  If they do, they are more likely to feel enthusiastic about their work and be inspired to do a great job.  Passionate, dedicated employees are more productive, period.  EEM also helps to improve retention.  When health care employees feel jazzed about their workplace, they’re more likely to stay for the long haul.  This allows them to better understand the procedures and requirements of their workplace. Basically, when health care employees are engaged, they are personally invested in their work. They find fulfillment in their work, and are more likely to put forth their best efforts.

If a job represents little more than a paycheck, then why would employees act otherwise?  Everyday, employees decide (consciously or unconsciously) whether they will go above and beyond the basic expectations of their position.  When they are engaged in their work, they have the motivation to strive for their very best.  As Peter Lanser wrote in an article on health care workers’ engagement for HR Pulse, “Engagement is when your employees give it their all, not because you are paying or rewarding them to do so, but because it is who they are.  Their own personal identity is caught up in the performance of their job, and their personal identity and their work role identity become one and the same.” Like workers in other industries, health care workers are more likely to produce excellent work when they are engaged with their work.  Engaged health care workers provide more efficient and better patient care, making Employee Engagement Management an excellent approach for improving patient outcomes.

~Kate Feather, Executive Vice President
PeopleMetrics

Additional Resources:
How Health Care Organizations can Increase Patient Satisfaction
Dream Jobs: Companies with the Best Employee Engagement Scores
Job Satisfaction and Location:  How Linked Are They?
Sanford Health Case EEM Study (.PDF)

Top photo by Lauren Nelson.

When should you recognize employees?  Well, in an ideal world you would reward them every time they did something right.  Even if that “reward” was just a pat on the back paired with honest praise, your employee would understand that you liked what they did.  This “carrot” approach to motivation signals to the brain that a certain behavior should be repeated.  Consistent employee recognition has been shown to increase retention, engagement, and motivation. However, you can’t very well hover over every single employee, rewarding them for every properly done task.  Managers and owners must instead prioritize the most important occasions for recognition.  The following tips will help you understand when to recognize employees.

1. ASAP. If you take nothing else from this article, remember this:  employee recognition is most effective when it’s given immediately after the performance you hope to encourage.  So don’t wait.  If you do, the employee won’t associate your praise with their performance. Dole out your praise quickly if you have the chance.
2. Annual Organizational Recognition. Many organizations hold an annual picnic or party to reflect on the previous year’s accomplishments.  This is a great venue for recognizing group efforts, long-lasting or especially difficult projects, and overall company growth.
3. Jump-Start Recognition. Organizations move through cycles, and sometimes teams get stuck in a certain pattern.  If your employees seem to be in a rut, creative recognition can jolt them out of the doldrums. Arrange a positive experience and pepper it with sincere praise.  Perhaps you’ll throw a party and come up with funny titles or awards for each employee.  Or you could show up with popcorn, sodas, and a projector and show an inspirational or appropriate film, complete with a confidence-boosting awards ceremony for your team. Your employees will likely enjoy a burst of productive creativity following your surprise recognition.
4. Just Do It. As you look for opportunities to recognize your employees, remember that financial rewards are nice, but not necessary; humans respond to recognition regardless of monetary value.

Additional Resources:
25 Staff Appreciation and Recognition Ideas that Won’t Break the Bank
Customer-Based Employee Recognition: How to reward your unsung brand champions
Three Ways to Mix Up Your Employee Recognition Routine

Top image by photos8.com

In many organizations, miscommunication acts like an undercurrent of inefficiency, tugging away at limited resources and dragging down performance. Although its pull may seem slight, miscommunication between staff can have unexpectedly disastrous effects.   Miscommunication among healthcare employees, for instance, often leads to improperly written prescriptions.  According to the Joint Commission, such miscommunication “harms an estimated 1.5 million people in the United States each year, [and results] in upward of $3.5 billion in extra medical costs.”   In this way, miscommunication can affect an entire organization, through outcomes like incorrectly ordered materials and other production breakdowns. Furthermore, employee engagement wanes in the face of poor communication.  This is because employees who don’t have a strong understanding of their own role often struggle to stay passionately dedicated to their work.   When they feel they cannot excel due to communication issues beyond their control, cynicism often poisons an employee’s mindset.

Nobody wins when miscommunication strikes. The Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health found that the lack of two-way communication is the #2 cause of stress in the American workplace.  Clearly, improving communication can create a better work environment for your employees.

On problem is that many people fail to distinguish between information and communication.  In their book Effective Internal Communication, Lyn Smith and Pamela Mounter write that, especially for managers, “Information and communication can be mistaken for the same thing.  Information is not necessarily processed at the receiving end; dispatch does not automatically lead to results.” True communication cannot be one-sided and effective at the same time.  To truly communicate a message requires active focus on all sides. Listeners must actively draw themselves back to the topic at hand when their focus wanders, and speakers must monitor their audience to see if their message is sinking in.  Below, you’ll find a few strategies for effective communication.

Techniques for Avoiding Miscommunication:

• Allow thinking time. Many speakers believe that they must fill all empty space, or lose their audience.  The next time you’re delivering a message, ask if there are any questions, and pause for three deep breaths.  Sometimes it takes that long for a question to rise to mind.
• Require active listening. To make sure that your audience is following you, ask them to repeat your directions or ideas in their own words.  This technique clarifies incorrect interpretations before they are passed on to others.
• Be Specific and Set the Next Step. As you communicate, be honest and particular about what you mean.  Once your message has been transmitted (which you will, of course, check by asking your listeners to repeat back your ideas), you can set a deadline or next step so that everyone knows where to go from here.
• Consider the Emotional Environment. Communication often fails when emotions run high. It is difficult for anyone to listen when they have steam coming out of their ears, so be empathetic about how your audience feels.  Strive to set a positive emotional background, especially when you have an important message to deliver.
• Be Selective about your Audience. As you get the word out, make sure to include all people who are involved in the process or project.  Communicating directly with all the people involved will limit the ‘whisper down the lane’ affect.
• Follow up Verbal Communication with Written Communication. Walk triumphantly away from that big meeting—walk directly to your desk, that is, to send follow-up emails to confirm what was agreed upon and name the next steps.

Finally, remember that clear communication is a skill that requires practice.  As you develop procedures and protocols to support excellent office communication, accept that there will be hiccups along the way.  Once good communication practices are in place, new policies can be smoothly implemented without as many growing pains.  Even better: your employees will feel they are “in the loop.”

Additional Resources:
Best Practices In Employee Communications
Top Ten Sources of Workplace Stress, and How to Fight Them

Top photo by WrestlingEntropy.

Every new hire aims to please.  Fresh-faced and energetic, they begin with grand visions of how they can help their new employer (and how their new employer can help them.)  For about 90 days, that is.  By then, most new hires have reflected on their onboarding experience.  Many of them have taken on the dominant attitude of the rest of the office. Even if you’re only bringing on one new employee, it’s important to remember that the first few days often set the tone for an employee’s entire experience with your company.  In fact, employee engagement can begin even before you make an offer of employment.  With a little strategy and careful planning, you just might be able to preserve that new-hire enthusiasm.

Why worry about enthusiasm?, you might ask.  Isn’t it more effective to focus on an employee’s performance, rather than their emotions? Actually, employee’s emotions greatly impact performance. PeopleMetrics’ research indicates that engaged employees—those who are enthusiastic, loyal, and energetic about their work—are the ones who will best serve your company.  Employee engagement has been linked to a number of key HR and business indicators, including lower turnover, increased customer engagement, better sales performance, and reduced sick leave.

In other words, an employee’s first few days are important.  As in any relationship, the rules of engagement are determined fairly early on.  Managers have a limited window of time to communicate to new hires that they are dedicated to keeping them engaged.  HR expert Debbie Benami-Rahm suggests the following tips for employers who hope to encourage engaged employees, even before they’re actually employees:

• Focus on the strengths of the potential new hire in the interview process.  Communicate your awareness of what your potential new employee will bring to your firm.

• Use these strengths as a negotiation tool in the offer process.  Let the candidate know exactly how they will be able to use their talents in the organization.  Everyone likes to feel useful.
• Within the first 90 days of employment, specifically tie the strengths and talents of the candidate to the overall mission of your organization.  Show how they fit in and strengthen your team.
• Through your orientation or onboarding program, help new hires see how their strengths and talents will directly tie to the mission and vision of your organization.

As Ms. Benami-Rahm points out, the Corporate Leadership Council has found that employees are more likely to be fully engaged when they understand how their personal strengths, talents, and accomplishments contribute to the organization’s overall mission. Ms. Benami-Rahm also suggests that managers and stakeholders ask themselves the following questions to help increase new-hire engagement:

• How can I work with the HR/Staffing professionals to provide information and a plan to tap a potential hire’s talent during the interview and hiring process?
• How can I contribute to the successful onboarding of the new hire?
• How can I integrate a welcome from senior management addressing the mission of the organization from day one?
• How can I help a new hire tie their strengths and talents to the mission of the organization?
• How can I let a new hire know about opportunities to further strengthen their skills, knowledge and abilities?
• How can I help make a mentoring program or a “buddy system” successful for new hires?
• How do I measure the results of the engagement efforts?

Your answers will help you see how to maximize the engagement of new hires.  Learn more about increasing the engagement of your entire workforce by visiting our page on employee engagement management.

~Kate Feather, Executive Vice President

Additional Resources:
Introduction to EEM (Employee Engagement Management)
Best Practices in Employee Communications
Five Frugal Ways To Recognize Employees

Top photo by Christopher Matson.

Most Americans are members of at least one loyalty program, if not several. Whether they carry around a R.E.I. dividend, a key chain tab for their grocery store, or a card for their airline, Americans love to get a little something extra for their patronage—and loyalty programs claim to give it to them.  The American love for loyalty programs is strong, even in the recession.  As loyalty research firm COLLOQUY’s Rick Ferguson put it, “Despite the recession, more consumers across all demographic segments are participating in rewards programs than ever before.” In fact, COLLOQUY found a 25% increase in American loyalty program memberships since 2006.  So, reward programs are popular, but are they effective from a business perspective?

The effectiveness of loyalty programs may be defined in several ways, but we’ll look specifically at how loyalty programs affect Customer Engagement.  Engaged customers have a positive emotional connection to a brand, they are loyal, passionate advocates for a company.  Engaged customers will go out of their way to do business with you.  We focus on customer engagement because we have found that Customer Engagement is a predictor of overall business success.  Companies with more engaged customers see higher profit margins, more loyal customers, and even happier employees.  For us, then, the real question is how loyalty programs impact customer engagement.

From a customer engagement perspective, rewards programs are not automatically successful.  Many companies hope their loyalty programs will increase sales, help gather customer data, and entice customers into trying new products. However, none of these outcomes guarantee higher customer engagement.

This is because loyalty programs, in and of themselves, do not change the way a company does business.  Doling out customer rewards for shopping with you won’t elevate the caliber of your service.  Piling on loyalty points cannot change how customers feel about their interactions with your employees.  Do your customers feel that their complaints, suggestions, and songs of praise are heard?  Do they see evidence that their ideas are taken seriously?  Do they see new products and procedures based on their ideas?  These are the questions that determine whether or not your firm is actively listening to customers.  This is what runs through your customers’ minds when they reflect on their emotional connection with your brand.

Competing loyalty programs operate much like lower prices—they may win a fair-weather customer, but they won’t guarantee lifetime patrons. Such loyalty programs can turn into a corporate version of “Keeping up with Joneses” when competitors attempt to woo customers with more extravagant rewards.

In the end, loyalty systems may have many business benefits, but without engagement companies will not create passionate lifetime customers.  As Harvey Thompson, former IBM executive and  author of Who Stole My Customer?, points out, “The key to effectively competing for loyalty is ensuring the quality of customer service, not the quantity of customer rewards.”  The first step in improving the quality of your customer service—and increasing customer engagement—is researching what your customers actually want.  You can’t buy loyalty—it must be earned.

~Monica Nolan, Account Manager
PeopleMetrics

Additional Resources
Customer Engagement Management resources
How to Use Customer Testimonials to Increase Engagement
What to Look for in Customer Engagement Feedback Tools

New jobs are hard to come by these days, and good help is always hard to find.  In any job interview, almost all of the power seems to go to the employer.  Still, the process of finding and keeping excellent people is not easy.  In fact, the currently flooded labor market has made any hiring manager’s job much more difficult.  The path to employment is a dance in which both parties—the potential employee and the hiring entity—can gracefully execute powerful moves.  And what comes after the dance can be a wonderful or hellish experience, depending on the fit between the employee and the workplace.

For the next couple of PeopleMetrics blogs, we’ll be writing about the hiring process in today’s dismal economic climate.  Today’s entry advises potential employees on how to find a good fit—but don’t let that throw you off if you’re on the hiring side.  Put yourself in your potential employees’ shoes as you read this article, and ask how your company would look in a new hire’s eyes.

If you’re currently unemployed, consider this transitional period in your life an opportunity to find your dream job.  Given how difficult it is to find a job, once you land one, you’ll want to stay for a while. Make sure that you’re entering a supportive, personally fulfilling environment by running through the following tips before you say yes.

1.  Know yourself. Before you can figure out if employers have what you need, you have to figure out what you need and enjoy in your ideal workspace. What would it look like?  Do you work best in silence, or do you like music while you work?  Do you work better on your own, or on a team?  In other words, to land your dream job, you must spend some time meditating on what you want.

2.  Put on your Anthropology Cap. Ask the potential employer if you can hang out in the office for a day.  Chat with people.  Take them to lunch and pick their brains.  Sit and just observe the office flow for a half hour. Write down what you notice, and see if you can draw any conclusions about the underlying office environment.  Not every office will allow you to do this, but it’s usually a good sign if they will:  it means they’re confident that their employees are happy with their work.  Try to get a sense of how the office operates on a cultural level, and whether you would fit into that culture.

3.  Ask about alternative benefits. Everyone knows to ask about traditional benefits, like health care, salary, and vacation time, but many people don’t appreciate the lesser-touted benefits until they realize what they’re missing.  As they often can’t afford to pay higher salaries, many employers are finding creative ways to offer new benefits.  These alternative benefits may include free passes for public transportation and showers for freshening-up after your morning bike.  Flexible hours and the ability to work from home may make your next job a joy—so do your best to figure out what alternative benefits your potential employer offers.

4.  Demand Respect. Employee engagement research indicates that employees are more engaged when they feel that their contributions make a difference.  Engaged employees also feel like they have a good relationship with peers and management.  Finally, they feel empowered to do their best work thanks to support from management and the team aroudn them.  If you don’t see this in the organization, don’t take the job.  Why work where you won’t be appreciated and nurtured?

~Kate Feather, Executive Vice President
PeopleMetrics

Additional Resources:
Dream Jobs: Companies with the best employee engagement scores
Top Ten Sources of Workplace Stress, and How to Fight Them
Costco Case Study: Employee Passion Increases Employee Retention and Customer Engagement
Introduction to EEM

Top photo by Jesse Dill.

When a customer interacts with one of your employees, what emotions do they have after the experience?  That may seem like a rather touchy-feely question, but in reality, your customers often rely on their emotions to determine who they do business with.  They may not realize it, but they are far more likely to return when their last interaction with your business left them with a happy, excited feeling. This dictum applies to both B2B and B2C firms.  A Engaged Customer is almost always a happy, loyal, passionate customer.

Most businesses train their employees to follow procedures, be polite, and meet expectations.  Some organizations have found that this isn’t enough to win loyal customers, so they also require their employees to act enthusiastic about their work.  This tactic often backfires when cynical, embittered employees recognize that they really have no reason to be enthusiastic about their job.  This gap between management’s expectations and the employee’s impression of their work situation is like a ticking time bomb: eventually an employee is going to let their true emotions show to the customer, who certainly doesn’t want to do business with a company that appears to mistreat its employees.

So, if you can’t require an employee to be enthusiastic, how can you get them to shine for the customer?

In an article for HR Pulse, Peter Lanser and Suzanne Coshow explain that Employee Engagement is more than just a show: it must be organic.  Unless employees enjoy genuinely positive, fulfilling relationships with their managers and peers, they are unlikely to feel engaged.  Lanser and Coshow urge managers to:

Think of your employees like a delicate flower you are trying to grow. You wouldn’t want to just measure its height and the fullness of its bloom.  You would check the soil to see if it has enough water.  You might see whether it needs special plant food to thrive.  In short, you would make certain that it has everything it needs to grow and bloom to its fullest.  Your employees require the same sort of attentiveness to their environment in order for them to more fully engage in the performances of tasks at work.

The first step in achieving an engaged employee pool is to find out what they need.  Although the above metaphor conveys the idea that Employee Engagement Management requires a holistic approach, it’s important to recognize that human needs and wants are quite complex.  Each employee and each workplace is different, so you must communicate with your employees to figure out what they need to perform at their highest ability.  Our Key Driver Analysis identifies the items that will have the biggest impact on engagement, so that managers can prioritize their engagement-boosting strategies.

Additional Resources:
Ritz Carlton Case Study:  Luxury Retailers Know Customer Engagement.
The Customer Engagement Boost:  Why Your Customers’ Emotions Matter.

Top photo by Paul Sapiano.

Employees are the heart of any business.  Disgruntled or apathetic employees can suck the energy out of the sales transaction they perform.  On the other hand, engaged employees pass on their enthusiasm to customers.  In fact, customers are more likely to become engaged if they are served by passionate employees.  In other words, Engaged Employees are a boost to any business’ bottom line. Yet most office environments inspire apathy, not excitement.  As psychologist Tom Muha recently wrote in an article for The Capital, recent polls show that “only 29% of employees in a typical company are actively engaged in their job.” Fortunately, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to boost employee engagement.  Affordable staff appreciation activities can boost engagement, partially through relationship building.

Employees who feel they have a positive personal relationship with their supervisors are more likely to be engaged, and staff appreciation get-togethers provide opportunities for employees to connect with their peers and their supervisors.  The following 25 staff appreciation and employee recognition ideas can be executed with very little cost.

1.    Arrange for a team to show the fruits of their labor to upper management. Employees feel more engaged when they feel that their ideas and efforts are recognized as important and helpful.

2.    Ask peers to nominate and vote for employees of the month. Team members will appreciate the recognition that they often notice and appreciate the day-to-day actions of their peers. If you do award Employee of the Month awards, be specific: write out and publicly explain exactly why a certain employee was selected.

3.    Start a staff appreciation program. Like a rewards program for supermarkets, Staff Appreciation Programs can award points for punctuality, and any traits you would like to encourage.  Points may be redeemed for small prizes, or certain privileges, like leaving a half hour early one day. The institution of a such a program can energize your employees.

4.    Plan a surprise achievement celebration for an employee or a team of employees. Even if you just put on some great tunes and provide the fixin’s for ice cream sundaes, the employees you recognize will be delighted that their work was noticed and appreciated.

5.    Pass on the praise. If you hear a positive remark about a person, repeat it to that person as soon as possible—perhaps via email.  Copying managers and supervisors on such comments is an especially powerful way to help employees feel appreciated.

6.    Publish a “kudos” column in your employee newsletter. Ask employees to submit kudos for their peers.

7.    Call an employee to your office to thank them. Since most employees assume that something is wrong when they are called to a supervisor’s office, they will be especially pleased to receive your honest gratitude for a job well done.

8.    Set up a suggestion program. This can be as simple as setting up a suggestions box or as thorough as completing company-wide questionnaires.  Employees who feel that their opinions and ideas are taken seriously are more likely to be engaged.  (See PeopleMetrics’ Employee Engagement page to see how we can help gather, analyze, and act on employee feedback.)

9.    Express interest in your employees’ professional development. Even if your firm cannot fund the employees’ professional development at this time, your employees will appreciate your interest and guidance on achieving their dreams.

10.    Post and follow a large Celebration Calendar in your office. Celebrate employees’ birthdays and employment anniversaries.

11.    Hone your communication skills. Refer to employees by their first name.  Listen actively and carefully to their thoughts.  Even non-verbal communication can provide encouragement and recognition; when was the last time that an honest smile or strong handshake brightened your day?

12.    Establish relationships between staff and upper management. Employees like to feel that they know upper management, even if they don’t work with them on a daily basis.  Perhaps you’ll encourage interaction across your organization’s hierarchy by sending new employees out to lunch on their first day with your president.  As a manager, take time to get to know your employees.

13.    Ask staff members to nominate and vote on employee awards. In addition to awards for Top Manager, Rookie, and Most Valuable Employee, consider offering a “Behind the Scenes” award for humble employees who perform well, even if they’re not in the limelight.  Your employees will likely have even more creative ideas for awards.

14.    Send thank you notes to employees who work long hours. This method may be even more effective if you send thank you notes to employees’ home addresses.  This acknowledges that you understand how much home-time the employee sacrificed to complete that complicated project.

15.    Allow employees to select their next assignments. If you can allow employees to choose their work, they will be more engaged and dedicated.  (Everyone loves to have choices, right?)

16.    Designate successful teams and employees as office consultants.

17.    Include  an employee in a “special meeting” they wouldn’t otherwise attend.

18.    Recognize your employees’ personal accomplishments. Did Joanne just finish running a marathon?  Or has Jose donated gallons of blood to the Red Cross?  They will appreciate your recognition of their personal accomplishments, even if all you do is acknowledge them at the beginning of your next staff meeting.

19.    Give employees an extra long lunch break on occasion.

20.    Get creative in your praise. Although you pay your employees, it’s often the thought that counts in employee recognition.  If you know an employee is into rock climbing, for instance, you could give them a book on this topic with an inscription of your thanks.  Or perhaps you’ll Photoshop a million-dollar bill with the employee’s face on it, as a way of saying, “Thanks a Million.”

21.    Make it personal. It can be tempting to have your HR department handle such events as workplace anniversaries, but without manager involvement, such recognition can come off as cold lip service.  You can certainly automate and standardize employee recognition like this, but be sure that managers personally deliver recognition gifts.

22.    Ask for employees’ ideas on retreats, meetings, and other “fun time.” Why should the administrative assistant get to decide where your next company outing will be?  You can include employees in planning company events by collecting feedback from every employee, or asking a certain dedicated employee to volunteer to help plan an event.

23.    Make it formal: write a letter. Here’s a simple, free, influential method for recognizing your employees: personal letters.  Write a letter explaining in detail why a certain employee deserves praise.  Deliver a copy to the employee and their manager(s).  Place a copy of the letter in the employee’s file.

24.    Establish a Rock Solid Award to recognize employees who consistently do their job well. Too often, employees are only recognized for one instance of going above and beyond company expectations.  And yet many employees work very hard to accomplish the regular duties of their job.  Encourage consistency by recognizing employees for doing their job well—after all, it’s not easy to find good employees.

25.    Support employees by providing space for their fliers. If you highlight and support employees’ personal endeavors in this way, they will know that you care about their personal well-being.

With so many ways to frugally recognize employees, there’s no reason for any employee to feel invisible or under-appreciated.  As an executive, you can foster a supportive, productive workplace environment by honestly and enthusiastically recognizing your employees whenever possible.

Additional Resources:
Five Frugal Ways to Recognize Employees
Creating Community at Work
Employee Recognition: Engagement Fuel

Top photo by Clever Cupcakes.
Source: The HR department at the University of Washington

As we’ve discussed in previous posts, resilience allows companies to survive and even thrive in challenging business climates. This is because resilient organizations adapt quickly to new challenges while staying loyal to their core values. Of course, resilient organizations are made up of resilient individuals. In this post, we’ll define resiliency at the individual level and review how organizations can encourage resiliency in their workers.

Focus, Adaptability, and Stress are key concepts in resiliency. Resilient individuals maintain their focus while adapting to changes. Even in the face of difficulty, they can manage their stress in the workplace. To further define this trait, resilient individuals:
1. See opportunities for growth in their position.
2. Are able to find work/life integration.
3. Imagine future professional roles for themselves within the company.
4. Have access to a support network.
5. Feel they are involved in decisions that affect them.
6. Have adequate control over work and priorities.

PeopleMetrics works with organizations to analyze and improve resiliency. PeopleMetrics begins by gathering data through an online survey of targeted employees. Often, organizations choose to begin by measuring the resiliency of “mission critical” leaders and managers. The result of this research is a Resilience Index (RI). From this RI, PeopleMetrics provides targeted recommendations for improvement. Online dashboards may also be created to allow managers across the organization to monitor and improve resilience. Such data often reveals macro-level trends. On the individual level, self-assessments provide an opportunity for individual employees to understand and improve their own resiliency.

Additional PeopleMetrics Resources:
Five Key Traits of Resilient Organizations
How to Build Employee Resilience, Even in a Recession

~Kate Feather, Executive Vice President

Top photo by Charlie Ambler.

While the pressure to produce ever-higher levels of productivity can de-prioritize employee recognition, lack of personal recognition in the workplace can have negative impacts on employees and the bottom line.  As Robert W. Fuller writes in Somebodies and Nobodies: overcoming the abuse of rank, “Eliminating deficiencies of recognition in the workplace is proving to be as good for the bottom line as eliminating nutritional deficiencies were in the past for the productivity of day laborers.” Consistent workplace recognition increases employee engagement, which has been shown to increase customer engagement.

Fortunately, the thought usually counts more than the cost in employee recognition.  You don’t have to spend big bucks to make your employees feel like a million bucks.  Here are a five simple, inexpensive ideas to help you start recognizing your employees as the superstars they are:

1.    Post positive customer feedback. Positive comment cards make everyone feel good.  Highlight what your employees do right, and they’ll better understand what kind of performance you’re looking for.

2.    Encourage and facilitate peer-to-peer recognition. Management is not the only place that recognition should come from.  In fact, employees often know more than management does about how their peers perform.  Take advantage of this by creating opportunities for employees to recognize each other.  For instance, as Cindy Ventrice highlights in her book Make Their Day! Employee Recognition that Works, Wells Fargo Internet Services Group created a system of internet-based e-cards (for specific actions) and e-wards (for excellence over time) to encourage peer-to-peer recognition.  A more informal approach would be to simply provide the materials and time for employees to write thank-you notes to each other.  Speaking of which…

3.    Give Hand-written thank you notes. Did an employee put in the extra effort to make sure that a project got finished on time?  Or do you appreciate how a certain employee is always on time, pleasant, and ready to work?  Sit down and write three or four sentences to thank them.

4.    Include small treats. Even a treat as small as a five-dollar gift card to an employee’s favorite coffee shop can make a huge difference in their day. Individualized presents like this don’t have to be expensive to be effective.  Sometimes, intangible treats are the most rewarding.  For instance, if you’d like to acknowledge that Sally is a great team player, why not let her decide which team she works with next?

5.    Give Them Time, not Money. There are many ways to give your employees more time.  For example, if they had an especially productive morning, you could give them an extra long lunch break.

The “pay it forward” nature of recognition in the workplace means that peer-to-peer recognition increases once employees feel recognized by management.  As Cindy Ventrice writes, “People who get recognition are more likely to give it…working in an environment where recognition is common predisposes people toward offering it themselves.”

For a plethora of inexpensive employee recognition ideas, check out this list of 101 Ways to Celebrate People from UMatter, the University of Michigan’s Staff Recognition Program.

Top photo by Lynn Lin.

~Monica Nolan, Account Manager
PeopleMetrics

As our recent post on how to build employee resilience explains, resilience is a key trait of any successful business.  Think of resilience as consistent strength and flexibility, even in difficult situations. In general, resilient individuals and organizations can adapt quickly, are confident enough to manage stress, and stay focused on their goals. The most resilient organizations can weather even the harshest economic storms with grace and innovation.  How can you spot a resilient organization?  Resilient organizations have:

1. A Clear and Compelling Company Purpose.
2. Trust in Leadership.
3. Open Communication.
4. Supportive Management.
5. Adequate Tools and Resources.

These five traits allow organizations to quickly change what’s not working while staying true to their core values.  Leaders in such organizations are trusted because they support employees and provide the tools needed to allow employees to do their best.  Open communication eliminates confusion, inaccurate expectations, and other potential productivity black holes.

By gathering employees’ opinions of the company’s performance on these traits, organizations can better understand what they need to change or maintain.  Organizations can then create and implement strategies for improvement.  To ensure the success of the plan, the strategy must be clearly communicated to all employees and managers should create team-specific plans to track and report on throughout the year.  This will help to engage employees and increase the resilience of the organization.

More on improving business and employee performance.

~Monica Nolan, PeopleMetrics

Top photo by R-Z.