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Premier Farnell Tells Their Story of Successful, Strategic Recognition

Recognize This! – Incorporating the 10 Tenets of strategic recognition is critical for success.

Just before the holidays, our client Premier Farnell joined us for a webinar: “Making the Most of Recognition: Premier Farnell’s Recognition Journey.” Located in 35 countries with headquarters in London, critical to Premier Farnell’s recognition journey was multi-lingual, global expertise in recognition and rewards that are appropriate and meaningful for a global audience of employees.

Amy Montefinese, VP of global total rewards and HR operations for Premier Farnell, shared an excellent story of what the firm was able to accomplish through their iCAN recognition program. By happenstance, Amy directly spoke to several of the 10 tenets for a successful strategic employee recognition program (as explained in detail in Winning with a Culture of Recognition). Below are just a few with quotations from Amy and my comments on importance.. The entire webinar is also available here or via the video below:

The Tempo Starts at the Top

“Our CEO is a big champion of the program, which has really helped our recognition program be successful. He really gets it. He knows how important recognition can be, and in fact has been one of the top 5 nominators in the program since it launched… He set the tone and really made recognition a priority for the organization.”

By his or her actions, your CEO signals to all employees very clearly what matters most. Securing CEO sponsorship – visibly and consistently – is the top tenet for successful strategic recognition.

Base Recognition on Your Values and Objectives

“Currently, we are in a brand transition, which includes ‘Our Elements’ showing who we are and what we value as an organization. This is a very critical ingredient we use in our recognition program as we link these values to every recognition moment to help us embed them in the organization as we go through change. So, for example, our award reasons of Passion, Simple Structures & Systems, Flawless Execution, Totally Reliable and Resourceful, come straight from Our Elements.”

Whether your organization is in transition or not, linking employee recognition to what matters most to your organization (your values and objectives) is the most powerful way to bring these ideas to life for all employees.

Involve Program Participants and Invite Their Input

“We had a cross functional global team on this. I brought together stakeholders from across the globe, from line managers as well. We had definite buy-in at launch. This was a very important contributor to our success. This helped with line sponsorship and the program not being viewed as an ‘HR thing’ because we had input from across the organization.”

A culture of recognition is owned by all employees, not just HR or the recognition program champion. To get to a true culture of recognition, it’s critical to involve people from across the organization in program design and implementation.

Call All Managers to Training/Promote It or Perish

“As a partner, Globoforce brought in their expertise and their knowledge of implementing programs. Communication and training was big and I didn’t have a huge team to help me. So we leveraged the Globoforce team to help us develop a presentation that we used for a series of global webexes. We also recorded an on-demand training session available through the intranet. This really was key to a successful roll-out and implementation.”

To reach program adoption goals quickly, you must not only communicate the program through various vehicles, but train employees on why this new approach to recognition is critical to company and individual success. Use the resources available to you, and don’t shirk this critical tenet.

Touch as Many People as Possible, as Often as Possible

“In the environment today where organizations are hamstrung by sluggish sales and the need for efficiency gains, employees really are motivated by recognition. Feedback from a manager for doing a great job really does go a long way… Every quarter our team produces an HR dashboard and recognition metrics are highlighted. Employee reach is a big one – what percentage of employees in which groups were recognized. Our target this year is 80%. At the end of Q3 several divisions have already reached their goal and the rest are on track.”

Not only do you need a goal of 80-90% program participation, you need an easy yet detailed mechanism for measurement and metrics accumulation and reporting.

I encourage you to watch the full webinar, then come back and tell me what lessons you can apply in your own organization.

How to Get Working, Results-Driven, Livable Company Values

Recognize This! – When your values are real and livable for employees in their daily work, it helps increase employee engagement dramatically.

Today I wrap up my last workshop on “How to Build Your Winning Culture of Recognition” for 2012. Regular readers of this blog wouldn’t be surprised that one of the key tenets we discuss in the workshop is building your recognition program around what is of strategic importance to your organization – your company values and objectives.

Why is this such a key tenet? My colleagues at Globoforce just wrapped up a three-part blog series on the GloboBlog explaining why. Key points from each post are below:

Get Your Values Off The Wall and Put Them to Work for You (1 of 3)

In the soon-to-be-announced SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey, we found that when companies tie recognition to corporate values, high engagement levels rise by more than 100%.

Get Your Values off the Wall and Get Results from Them (2 of 3)

In IBM’s 2012 Global CEO Study, conducted with 1,709 CEOs, general managers and senior public sector leaders around the globe, CEO’s ranked Ethics and Values as their #1 focus, and the report recommended that companies: “Build values employees will live out. Allow the organization to collectively compose its core values. Thinking and behaving in ways consistent with the organization’s values cannot be induced. Employees must truly believe in the purpose, mission and values of the organization. And to develop a shared belief system, employees must help create it.”

Yet, interestingly, the same SHRM/Globoforce Survey mentioned in my last post found that only 50% of companies have recognition programs tied back to their company values.

Get Your Values Off The Wall and Make Them Livable (3 of 3)

Values are only as good as they are understandable and livable. If they are not clear or your people are not aligned with them, that plaque on your wall might as well be graffiti. (And as a little side rant, forcing employees to wear them on badges or submit to random on-the-spot quizzes is NOT making them livable. Believe me, I speak from experience. I worked for a company once who military-drilled the values into us, and though I could recite them on command, I still had no clue as to how those values actually affected me or my job.)

A Real-World Example of Working, Results-Driven, Livable Values

To wrap up this post, let me share with you this story of how John Duffy, the CEO of 3C Interactive, makes the value of “respect” real in his company (from The New York Times):

“We have absolutely clear discussions with everyone about how respect is the thing that cannot be messed with in our culture. We will not allow a cancer. When we have problems with somebody gossiping, or someone being disrespectful to a superior or a subordinate, or a peer, it is swarmed on and dealt with. We don’t always throw that person out, though there are times when you have to do that. But we make everyone understand that the reason the culture works is that we have that respect. And there is a comfort level and a feeling of safety inside our business.”

How real are your values in your organization? Do your employees know how to live them in their daily work or can they only recite them on command (if that)?

Rethink Recognition: Do You Trust Your Employees or Not?

Recognize This! – Peer-to-peer employee recognition does NOT equal zero-value awards.

During the last few years, I’ve noticed an increase in an unfortunate trend. More and more HR Pros and employee recognition program managers are equating peer-to-peer recognition with zero-value awards. In other words, employees are able to praise, appreciate and recognize each other through formal systems, but not assign any economic value to those awards.

Structuring a peer-to-peer program in this way communicates three messages very clearly to all employees:

We want employees to notice the good work of their colleagues.
We get it. We understand the importance of employees noticing and appreciating each other’s efforts and achievements. So please, pay attention to what your colleagues are doing and thank them for it.

Why you should rethink recognition: This is all good and appropriate. You need this attitude as a strong starting point for a truly strategic, social recognition program that can change and drive your culture.
But we don’t trust you to give appropriate levels of recognition with economic value.
We want you to notice good behaviors, actions and achievements, but putting any skin in the game… well, we’ll leave that up to the managers. We need accountability, after all. And who’s to say you and your buddy won’t just engage in a “You give me one, I’ll give you one” free for all.

Why you should rethink recognition: A properly structured recognition program must include an appropriate approval loop and real-time, easily viewed reporting. With these features in place (along with training and communications), there is no need to fear misuse of the system. Stop telling employees you want to recognize them out of one side of your mouth, while telling them you don’t trust them out of the other.
So we will undermine the program and ensure we don’t get the full benefits or bottom-line results by making peer-to-peer recognition only available as an eThanks.
It wouldn’t cost much to open recognition to all employees (and it would certainly cost less than programs proven to be a waste such as Employee of the Month or Perfect Attendance), but we’re willing to sacrifice the added benefits of increased employee engagement, retention and performance rather than trust our employees.

Why you should rethink recognition: A primary reason for implementing a strategic, social employee recognition program in the first place is to build a culture of appreciation. Kicking off a program designed and built on lack of trust undermines your efforts from the beginning.

What should you do instead? Implement a true everyone-to-everyone recognition program and structure so all employees are encouraged to express the value they see in the achievements and actions of their colleagues. Include mechanisms to guide employees to the proper award level choice, and perhaps restrict the highest award levels to management to give.

Are all employees in your organization encouraged to recognize and reward others?

Why you should rethink recognition:

Learn How to Build Your Culture of Recognition from the People Who Wrote the Book on It

Recognize This! – Join me for interactive sessions with other HR Pros to create your custom strategy and business case for your own winning culture of recognition.

Next week I kick-off my 2012 global tour in Dallas, leading interactive workshops to help HR Pros build their own wining culture of recognition.

At Globoforce, we wrote the book on this, including the five tenets and 10 associated tactics for how to build a measurable, strategic culture of recognition in which employees choose to engage and guaranteed to increase employee performance, productivity and retention.

Workshop attendees receive a copy of our book, Winning with a Culture of Recognition, along with an intensive 4-hour session as we step through these tenets and tactics to build a custom one-page strategy for strategic recognition in your own organization. You’ll leave with a compelling business case for strategic recognition in your organization.

Participants in past workshop sessions noted they were particularly valuable for the opportunity to network and discuss with like-minded colleagues from various industries on how to successfully create a culture of recognition.

Register today for sessions in these cities:

Dallas, Texas – May 10, 2012 – Hilton Dallas Lincoln Center
King of Prussia, Penn. – June 12, 2012 – Radisson Hotel Valley Forge
Greater Boston, Mass. – June 14, 2012 – Westin Waltham
(Stay tuned for more session location – or suggest a future destination in comments)

All sessions start with breakfast at 7:30, then kicking off the workshop at 8:00. We’ll end at noon with a box lunch so those who need to rush back to work can do so. But those who have time to stay and chat with us and their fellow participants further are more than welcome to do so over lunch.

Readers of my blog also get a 50% discount on the registration price. Just be sure to use code: RECOGNIZETHIS when registering.

Hermes CEO on Employee Engagement and Brand

Recognize This! – Communication and “Face Time” are critical to building employee engagement and strong brands.

If I asked you what industry you think would be the most difficult to create an environment in which employees would want to engage, which industry would you name? Retail is an industry that quickly comes to mind for many reasons, not the least of which is the mercurial nature of customers in a retail setting.

So when I saw this video of Bob Chaves, the president & CEO of Hermes US talking about the importance of employee engagement and brand, I had to share it with you.

Mr. Chaves speaks to the importance of organizational culture to brand and engagement saying:

“At Hermes, we have a very strong service culture geared towards service and quality. And that is something we extend throughout the entire customer experience.”

But how do you do that? You can’t without very intentional and robust employee communications methods.

Importance of Communication

When asked, “How do you strengthen that culture and build the bond between the employees and the brand?” Chaves replied:

“It’s about communication. This sounds so simple and easy, but it’s so very important. We have a very open and communicative company. This starts with the senior management team and how they communicate on down the line. It’s also about how I communicate with the whole company in general. One of the ways we do that is the ‘State of Company’ address doing a review of what we did in the past year and what we’re focused on in the next year. That way everyone knows what the goals of the company are. We’ve been doing this for years and years now, and it’s very effective. So that’s how we strengthen our bond and relationships among all of our employees.”

That active element of sharing successes as well as plans for the future is critical. Obviously, Hermes is committed to communication. My only quibble with this approach is that it is once a year. If Hermes implemented a system to communicate these successes and plans regularly in a way that is meaningful to employees in their daily work, then think how much more the employees would feel connected to the organization and the “service and quality” brand on a daily basis.

Importance of Bringing People Together

One last point I enjoyed in the video was Mr. Chaves explanation of shutting down all 24 Hermes stores in the US to bring all employees together at one location for a “family reunion.” Mr. Chaves explains, “The bonding and motivation that resulted from that has been astounding.”

Building the “team” is critical, but it’s simply not possible for many distributed organizations to shut down to bring everyone together. But the reward of being able to put that “face to a name” is exponential. This can be accomplished through Social Recognition in which employees can recognize and congratulate their colleagues on their achievements, interacting with them much as they would in familiar social networking tools.

How do you strengthen your team? What methods do you use to communicate past successes and plans for the future regularly and frequently to all employees?

Make Recognition Viral: Register for Free Webinar to Find Out How

Recognize This! – Your recognition strategy can’t deliver results if nobody knows about it.

It doesn’t matter how well thought out your employee recognition and rewards program is if nobody knows about it or uses it. That’s why rapid, total program adoption is critical to success.

Indeed, the most successful recognition programs those adopted virally. Communication is the key.

I’m leading a free webinar next week, Thursday, 8^th December, at 1:00 Eastern (18:00 GMT), to share innovative, powerful communication techniques that can turn your recognition strategy into unequivocal success.

Whether you have an existing recognition program or are seeking a new one, this session will provide you with tangible strategies to make your recognition program overwhelmingly successful. You will learn:

Top 5 communication techniques to drive viral adoption
Best practices to measure adoption and impact of recognition
Insights from leading companies who have used communication to drive success

You’ll also learn what Justin Bieber, RayBans and Nike sneakers have to do with making your recognition program go viral.

Be sure to register today!

How to Successfully Build YOUR Winning Culture of Recognition

Recognize This! – Recognition programs are owned by HR. A recognition culture is owned by everyone.

Last week I had the honor and pleasure of leading two “Build Your Winning Culture of Recognition” workshops in Atlanta and New York City. In both workshops, it was clear people have a great desire to discuss employee recognition — especially to share with and learn from their peers from other organizations and industries. I owe all participants a tremendous “Thank You!” for their generosity in sharing their experiences, knowledge, and concerns with everyone, making each workshop truly relevant.

A common theme through both workshops was participants sharing their own practices and learning new best practices to implement in their organizations. The power of creating a true culture of recognition also resonated with numerous proof points around proven double-digit increases in employee engagement.

Another frequent point of conversation during the workshops centered on: “We’ve got a lot of those elements you’re discussing in our programs, but we don’t see the same results. Why?” This led to productive discussions around perhaps having the recognition “cogs, levers and wheels” so to speak, but needing to ask: “Have you got the right calibration of these for best results?”

For example, do you have strong executive support? Are you generating the right level of recognition across your organization on a weekly basis in order to achieve your annual goals and a true culture of recognition? Are you using Social and Mobile Recognition? Do you have a recognition dashboard showing program impact in real time? Is your management team focused on the impact of your company culture and the dissemination of your core values into the daily work of all employees? Or is your recognition program reporting only about how many toasters were redeemed last month?

Of course, company culture was also a central theme. We discussed at length whether a culture comes about by accident or if it can be deliberately created and managed. We uncovered how global strategic recognition is a powerful method to do just that, and especially focused on how a true culture of recognition is something that becomes owned by EVERYONE and not just HR!

I was most flattered to have participants tell me they appreciated the educational value and format of the workshop. Many left with a changed perspective on recognition, seeing it as an underutilized tool for HR, yet a tool they see could be more powerful if better deployed, and a more strategic contributor to HR and the business overall.

If all this sounds interesting to you, you still have two more opportunities to join me and your peers to “Build Your Winning Culture of Recognition.” Register today for workshops in:

Chicago, IL: Monday, Nov 14, 2011
San Francisco, CA: Thursday, Nov 17, 2011

Blog readers, be sure to use registration code RECOGNIZETHIS for half-off the registration fee.

How to Increase Productivity without Increasing Headcount

Recognize This! – Your employees want to help you achieve your goals, but they need clear communication, priorities and recognition to do so.

Companies are looking to grow again – but not grow their workforces. A recent article pointed out research showing:

“Companies that are targeting high levels of growth need to spur worker productivity. The question is how can they do that when many companies are operating with an already lean workforce?

“A new study, Strategic Performance Management, suggests that if U.S. companies are to reach their ambitious growth targets of 4.9 percent for 2011, which is well above the U.S. economic growth forecast of 2.8 percent released by the International Monetary Fund, they need to find new ways to increase and better manage employee performance. …

“To meet their growth targets, the U.S. executives involved in the study estimate that their workforce productivity must increase by an average of 6 percent, with 69 percent of these leaders aiming for even higher productivity gains. Not surprisingly, two-thirds of these executives admit that these targets represent a challenge, particularly since 54 percent of these executives admit that their employees may already be too stretched to deliver current business objectives.”

The emphasis on that last sentence is my own. A consistent story throughout the media is employees stretched to the breaking point. Those remaining after multiple rounds of layoffs labor on under the strain of survivor’s guilt, an increased workload for colleagues who have been laid off, and growing expectations.

If managers are now tasked with increasing productivity from these already stretched employees, they better:

1) Communicate – clearly tell employees what senior leadership expects as the business is likely changing to keep up with rapidly changing market requirements

2) Reprioritize – help employees jettison tasks that are no longer critical to achieving new expectations for growth

3) Recognize – reinforce these new priorities by recognizing and rewarding employees for progress and achievements in these areas.

Is your organization looking to increase production without increasing headcount? What’s the plan to achieve that goal?

Get More of What You Want with Employee Recognition

Recognize This! – Appreciative Inquiry is a powerful management practice. Strategic Recognition is an effective methodology for implementing it.

Why am I so passionate about strategic employee recognition? It’s simply this – I care very deeply about the work environment of employees. After all, I’m an employee myself. I just happen to be lucky enough to work in an organization that values me and my contributions and never fails to let me know that.

I also believe strategic recognition is the most effective way of communicating to employees what the company values most – achievement of strategic objectives in line with company values. The two cannot be separated or unintended consequences will result.

Strategic recognition is the most positive and effective approach for looking at what you want more of in your organization and getting it. Dina Medina, an internal communications manager at HP, recently addressed this topic from a different angle: Appreciative Inquiry (AI), explaining:

“Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an organizational development methodology that looks at finding what works well in an organization and how to make more of it. …

“The implications for employee communication are tremendous. First, it’s about recognizing that organizations are human systems and that communication sits at the center. How we talk to each other and about what does matter. … Communication becomes the enabling force and an energized, committed and engaged organization is the outcome.”

Dina’s description of AI mirrors quite well the principles of using strategic recognition in the workplace. In fact, the correlation is so strong, I venture that strategic recognition is one methodology for AI in the workplace by using the positive power of employee recognition to focus employees on demonstrating your company values in contribution to achieving strategic objectives.

Frequent recognition of every employee – by managers and peers alike – is the most effective way of making the values and objectives meaningful and real in the daily work of every employee. How better to encourage what you want to see more of than by saying “thank you?”

Do you use any AI approach in your workplace to look for what you want more of and encourage it, or do you simply seek to stop what you don’t want? Which approach do you think is more effective in both the short- and long-term?

“Push” and “Pull” Communications & Training Techniques for Recognition

Recognize This! – For best effect, communicate in ways that both intrigue (pull) and deliver needed information (push).

I enjoyed leading a webinar yesterday with HR.com on “The Art and Science of Recognition Training and Communications: The Push and Pull Effects.” In the webinar we looked at common marketing phenomena to understand how to best engage employees in recognition program training and communications for rapid adoption.

For example, Justin Bieber started his career with classic “push” marketing by posting his videos on YouTube. This led to fans requesting (pulling) Bieber sing their favorite songs. Both in combination led to Bieber very quickly becoming a viral phenomenon. Product placement strategies are a classic pull effect – think Ray-Ban sunglasses in the movie Top Gun, or Nike sneakers in Back to the Future - with stars “pulling” fans into using the products.

What does this have to do with employee recognition?

Look to these proven ways to create intrigue (pull) and share information (push) with employees about your recognition and rewards program. For example, how can you ensure the CEO and all of the C-suite are overtly seen to be using the recognition program? Or perhaps have your CMO or COO include statements about the recognition program in key speeches or employee communications they give quarterly. The goal is to get your recognition and reward program “product placed” in your company.

Why should you care about communications and training techniques?

The goal of any strategic recognition program is to create mass mobilization – to get employees excited, involved and focused on achieving the goals your program (whatever those goals may be). It’s this mix of both push and pull that makes mass mobilization possible.

Do you wish you’d participated in the webinar?

I’ll be giving this webinar presentation again through our own systems at Globoforce in mid-October. If you missed it and are intrigues by the topic, stay tuned here for more information on how to register for the October webinar.

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