Creative Employee Recognition….Think out of the Box!

A recent blog post at i2i Incentive Intelligence titled All Recognition Is Local is a must read for anyone either planning a new employee recognition effort or revamping an old one.  Too many recognition and award programs don’t produce the desired results.  Many are the traditional employee of the month activities that do little to motivate improved performance .

The cookie cutter approach is alive and well in the world of employee recognition.   With all the talk today about engaging employees and how important recognition and rewards is to that effort, using professionals who can use the right side of their brain to help in the recognition planning might provide better results  than spending the time discussing the minutia involved in the administration.  Unfortunately those tasked with the responsibility of producing the program spend most of their time on the logistical, rational, and analytical pieces rather than getting out of that box and looking at the program intuitively and as a whole rather than its parts. Without a little creativity these programs tend to follow the same rules and use much the same types of awards.

According to a study by World at Work, the #1 award items used in recognition programs are plaques/trophies/certificates of achievement.  I don’t mean to denigrate these traditional awards, but my guess is there are thousands if not millions of them that are otherwise displayed in desk drawers or closets or relegated to that mementos box in the garage.  I believe that these types of items should be used more as communication devices to commemorate the achievement rather than as awards.  Tangible awards such as a choice of gift cards or merchandise can then be used to give the recipient something more pertinent to their lifestyle. 

“Experts” say recognition programs will ideally include these components or variations of them:

•  Management commitment
• Defined goals and objectives
• Effective and consistent communications
• A tangible award commensurate with the reason for the recognition 

 To this list I would add a heartfelt and genuine presentation of thanks either individually, or in front of peers as appropriate.  If you’ve got the type of management that can do that, you are ahead of the game.  If you don’t, then train them how to do it and make sure they do it as often as possible.  Frankly when this component is a priority all the other parts of your recognition system would naturally fall in line.

 If you want to implement or change your employee recognition effort, this article would be a good place to start.  Create a program with those you want to recognize in mind.  It may take a little longer to plan, but you won’t have to reinvent your program every year to determine how to make it better.  While in the planning, consider Award of Choice as an option for the award du jour.  It offers ease of award administration, great value and the choice that your employees really want.

One of the Best Reasons to Use Gift Card Award Systems

This article does a tremendous job of explaining what it takes to provide expert fulfillment for a merchandise award program.  For years any incentive company worth their salt has been touting their ability to satisfy the award winner with nothing less than 100% guaranteed satisfaction.  That’s the way it’s been since the beginning of the industry and that’s the way it is today.  In fact that is the only way it should be.

I was in that end of the business for a quarter century and can attest to the importance of flawless merchandise fulfillment.  In fact that was a key piece in our sales presentations.  Award winners deserved the best, and we made every attempt to provide 100% satisfaction.  Frankly with the merchandise pricing we used, often substantially over retail, that kind of customer satisfaction was paramount!

Please read this article.  In fact, if you are in the position to purchase incentive or recognition awards this is a MUST READ. 

When you’re finished, contrast it with the following steps to fulfill a gift card award system like Award of Choice. 

Step one:  Choose a gift card system supplier

Step two:  Purchase the product that you choose

Step three:  Issue the gift card award to the winner

Step four:  you’re done, all the rest is up the merchants that are in your gift card system

Next:  Your program winner chooses the gift card of their choice from over 500 of the country’s most popular retailers

Which fulfillment system would you rather use?

Which Award Supplier to Use?

When you ask someone in the awards business what they do for a living you will get a remarkable cross section of answers.  They vary from “I sell awards” to “I work with companies to improve the performance of their employees or customers along their chain of distribution.”  So what’s a company to do when they decide to implement an employee or customer award system? Who do they turn to?  The internet?  If you Google employee or incentive awards you will get just about the same cross section of results…anything from trophies to award gags, to gift card suppliers to catalog based merchandise awards.   

This can be a very frustrating situation.  This industry is defined by the awards not by what it is you want to accomplish.

In another blog, I’ve railed many times on what’s wrong with the incentive industry and why so many award programs fail.  In posts such as “Do Incentive Programs Really Work?” or “Are Service Award Programs Obsolete?” or “Don’t Run a Sweepstakes to Motivate Performance,” or “Do Employee of the Month Programs Actually De-motivate Employees?” or “Everyone’s an Incentive Program Expert,” or “Baggage Claim…Which Bag Is Yours?”

There was a recent article in Enterprise Engagement Alliance that gives a pretty good outline of the “various types of suppliers available to assist corporate end-users with their incentive programs, depending on their specific needs.” While any companies in these various categories can provide you with awards, and most will do a good job in their own niche, they will all answer your award needs with their own deliverable, which may or may not be what you need use to produce results.  This industry is loaded with programs that should never have been implemented because they didn’t have a chance of success at the start! 

Would you go to a foot doctor for a heart problem?  That is the title of a white paper that can be found in the articles section of this blog.  I believe it sums up all of the above quite succinctly.

Wellness Incentives – Short Term or Long Term?

This post from our friend Paul Hebert from I2I-Incentive Intelligence is an interesting take on Wellness Incentives.  It is well worth the time to read it if you are interested in wellness incentives as a piece of a business strategy to reduce the cost of healthcare.  Wellness incentives are a relatively new phenomenon for the incentive industry, but with all the discussion on the cost of healthcare these days, they have taken off.  As Paul says, every award company seems to be selling a wellness solution, and we are no different.  In fact we have several clients who have used our Award of Choice as a very cost effective award to initiate and add communication impetus to the program.  Enough of the advertising…

Whenever you have a business problem that can be addressed by motivating the workforce to perform better, the incentive award industry will be there.  But in the case of wellness, maybe they shouldn’t be, and Paul takes a convincing position that wellness should be more about compassion and caring for the employee than about bottom line results.  While he does use incentives as the award in his wellness structure, he chooses one that directly impacts the “psychology of loss conversion,” an increase or reduction in premiums…a cash award.

Sustaining a long term wellness effort, in our opinion, will work much better than the short term incentive solutions that most award companies recommend.  However we also feel that short term incentives, such as our Award of Choice model, can be an important part of a wellness program.  Getting people to start the effort to improve their health needs a push.  The long term desire to achieve a healthier lifestyle is a grand goal, but you need to get them to start, to get off the couch, away from the refrigerator, going to the gym, or taking a smoking cessation program.  As mentioned in the article, communication and lots of it is a key element.  Helping the communication with minimal awards that can be earned for just starting can be very helpful.  You won’t win any races until you get to the starting line and take that first step.  We’ve posted on this subject in this article for World at Work.

Bottom line.  In business we should do whatever it takes to get everyone in the workforce to strive for a healthier lifestyle.  Not just to reduced costs, but because it’s the right thing to do.  When you consider incentives as one of your strategic steps, consider both the short and long term aspects of your strategy, we think you will be better served.

Why Do Incentive Planners Put Awards First?

Was wandering around the net the other day and came across this article from Enterprise Engagement Alliance that reminded me of a post on the same subject last year.   

The incentive industry sells awards, that’s  how we make money, and we’ve done a great job of it.  But by and large we’ve done a horrible job of showing clients how to use those awards.  We’ve been so intent on selling the award that we often forget to ask the client why they are using them and offer our expertise to make their programs as successful as they can be. 

Not so long ago when a client approached us with a need we would assemble a room full of subject matter experts and spend some quality time in putting together recommendations for a successful program.  Now clients approach us with a need for an award and we spend our time putting together a pricing proposal…not much thought in that!    

So what changed?  Clients haven’t necessarily become more sophisticated in their understanding of how to implement programs, but they are often challenged to do it themselves.  More often, the sales folks in the incentive industry are not well trained in the nuances of successful incentive programs and there is pressure to just “make the sale.”  So they cut all the corners and go straight to the pricing proposal and don’t muddy the waters with suggestions of ideas to improve the program.  Frankly we’ve made the buyers just want to talk about the awards first. 

It’s a shame the majority of the industry has evolved to be proficient peddlers of prizes.  But such are the times.  Frankly that’s about all we do these days.  We do ask the client if they want help in the other phases a well-run incentive program, but all too often they decline.   It’s sure less stressful.  If you are a customer that is implementing an award activity you might want to consider asking for experience from your supplier before you ask for the awards, you may be surprised at the outcome.  Then again if all you want is a prize, we’ve got lots of ideas for those too!

Brilliantly Presented Employee Recognition Research

Ok, I’m a nut on research and analysis.  It’s what floats my boat and as often as not becomes the backbone of most of the recommendations I make to clients about reward and recognition programs.   As my first thirty years in this business were mainly in the true performance improvement world where we used research, analysis, measurement, feedback communications and rewards to change performance I saw first-hand how these pieces to the incentive puzzle, implemented in unison, could drive spectacular results.   However in the last ten years or so I have been more in the employee recognition side of the business where there has always been a dearth of any real analysis that you could show a client to prove the effectiveness of employee recognition.   

Analysis in the recognition field has always been kind of soft dollar proof.  Something like this: when employees are recognized they are more satisfied and more satisfied employees produce more satisfied customers who tend to be longer termed and repeating customers who then buy more and contribute more to the bottom line, etc. The most compelling collection of evidence on the value of employee recognition is compiled in the book The Carrot Principle by Gostic and Elton.  Loved the book, it’s definitely worth the read.  Unfortunately the authors are employed by my largest competitor, one that I am in complete disagreement regarding award recommendations…they typically recommend a collection of traditional service merchandise awards that are highly overpriced with limited choice.  In my opinion, there are so many more award options that provide better choice and value to the employee.

 But the book does a terrific job of convincing us that recognition taken collectively with many other business strategies can drive substantial bottom line results.  So take a look into employee recognition as a strategy to improve your performance.  If you’re not running a program for your employees you’re losing a valuable tool to produce results.  The best time to do it is now, when the economy is in this terrible state and where employees are concerned for their future.  Take the time to thank and recognize them for their performance, you might be surprised to see how much your business can improve.

Why Do So Many Incentive Programs Fail?

This was one of the most popular articles last year on Incentive Magazine online.  In it the authors discuss the following as the top three reasons why so many incentive programs fail are:
1. Most companies don’t address all issues related to performance and human motivation
2. Most companies lack the knowledge or will to create properly constructed programs
3. There is no pre-program evaluation that leads to program-objective setting, ongoing measurement, and post-program evaluation.

Having been involved in hundreds of recognition and reward programs we would offer another reason that programs fail.  It’s because the reward choice used to motivate is not what the participants want or is not useful to them.  Unless you use an award that is appealing to the audience, you won’t have the buy-in to the program that you’ll need for it to be successful.

 Click here to view award systems that offer tremendous choice to ensure that your participants will receive the reward that motivates them to improved performance

Team Culture and Employee Recognition

The above article in Incentive magazine online brings up a great point about knowing your audience when you are implementing any kind of recognition program.  All too often companies try to make the standard size 8 shoe fit every size foot.   

The article paints an excellent picture of how different people in different walks of life don’t want the same things. According to the article and research mentioned, “patterns to employee recognition preferences are directly related to the kind of work people do. Some personalities are attracted to certain jobs, and these personalities seem to share some likes and dislikes.  

The traditional awards that were uniformly used to recognize our parents and grandparents don’t provide the choices that most workers want today.  Sure, when presented with a traditional award today they take their “prize”, but they are often disgruntled that they didn’t have better choices.  If you could compare the award selections used in 1970 by the prominent recognition award companies to the ones used today, you would find they are appreciably the same.  Why?  Well the companies would say that’s what you should use to recognize performance, when in reality, those are the items that provide the most profit to the selling company.  This point has been proven by insightful research on the subject available on request. 

The incentive industry has made great strides in developing various awards to address this problem.  Today you can find life experience awards such as hot air ballooning, spa treatments, special dining experiences, gourmet food, cooking classes, various collectibles, and special music venues and of course the most popular of all…gift cards.  When presented with this kind of choice, your participants will set their sites on the award they want, not the one you think they want or what your award company wants them to have.  A great example of this kind of system would be Award of Choice where they can choose from virtually any gift card that will provide an award to their own likes and needs.

Largest Manufacturer’s Representative in the Incentive Industry Broadens Gift Card Lines

In a recent newsletter from the Enterprise Engagement Alliance, it was noted that the largest manufacturer’s representative in the incentive industry is adding gift card lines  “across several categories, including department stores, clothing and accessory stores, dining, sports and recreation, toy stores, travel, entertainment, books/DVDs/music, health and beauty, experiential, auto and home.” 

For those of us who have been in the gift card side of the incentive industry virtually from its inception, we found this news to be quite interesting.  First, it wasn’t but a couple or three short years ago, that this same company vigorously competed for a piece of business with us saying that gift cards were poor award to use because they were too much like cash, they had no trophy value, and various other nebulous reasons why their incentive merchandise was a much better award to use. 

So why the change of heart?  Could it be that they were losing business to gift cards systems because that’s what the participants really wanted?  Or that the price of a gift card system provided the same real value to the participant as retail?  Or that with hundreds of gift cards to choose from, the award choice was virtually unlimited to the participant vs. the very limited selection provide by traditional merchandise?  

Regardless, more and more traditional merchandise incentive companies are now grudgingly adding gift cards to their award mix because that’s what companies want.  

When you are investigating which supplier to use for your award program, and gift cards will be an option, experience shows that over 90% of all program redemption will be in gift cards.  When you decide on your gift card supplier, make sure they have the selection of cards that your participants really want.  Compare our merchant list to the one that they are proposing.  We have the most extensive list in the industry; no one else even comes close.

Can Incentive Gift Card Programs Help Motivate Weight Loss in Wellness Programs?

This article in ISHN News speaks to the major problem we have in this country with obesity.  It also mentions YourWellnessAdvantage.com a new website launched by a partnership between the Health Weight Fitness Foundation and the National Business Group on Health  focuses on “everything you need to get your workplace wellness program up and running.”   

We would agree that the new site does provide great tools to help companies develop a successful wellness program.  But we would also offer this article in “WorkSpan”, the e-newsletter from World at Work that discusses how incentives can play an important role in these programs as well.  Every procedure that is necessary to managing health has one common denominator…they are totally dependant on human behavior.  And incentives have proven to be an effective tool to change behavior.   

The Award of Choice was developed with wellness programs in mind.  They can be low cost, and fit into any wellness budget, yet they provide the choice and value that employees really want.