Tag: recognition & appreciation

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Engagement

Stop Treating Employees Like They’re Stupid

A friend who works for a Fortune 500 company called me in disbelief. His company held an all-employee meeting to share its end-of-year results. Among the key messages:

  1. The company had a great year and profits were up.
  2. Due to the uncertain economy, no merit increases would be given.
  3. If employees were upset, they could write to their congressional representatives because the government’s inability to make a decision on the debt situation was to blame for fiscal uncertainty.

Sadly, it’s not uncommon these days for companies to hold back from sharing the wealth. [Check out this Business Insider post, We Need To Stop Maximizing Profit And Start Maximizing Value.] But to suggest employees blame the government?! I’m guessing the internal communications folks didn’t get a chance to vet the CEO’s remarks.

Here’s the takeaway for employees who do their best to help the company achieve its financial goals: their hard work is acknowledged and recognized but NOT rewarded because senior management says it’s out of their control. Yeah, right …

Not to worry, though, as this company’s employees are still engaged – they’re engaged in updating their resumes and networking for new jobs.

 

 

Categories
Engagement Training & Development

Favorite Employee Engagement Quotes – Part 2

Continuing last week’s post on my favorite engagement quotes, here are several more gems + suggestions on how you can apply them in staff meetings.

“… the most effective way to engage your employees is to treat them like valuable people with skills, not people with valuable skills.” –  NBRI Employee Engagement Infographic

“Employees either benefit or burden every dimension of a company’s existence. The extent to which they deliver one or the other is primarily a function of company culture and leadership’s view of employees’ value to the company.” – Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, Jagdish N. Sheth, Firms of Endearment.

“The way your employees feel is the way your customers will feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.” – Sybil F. Stershic, Taking Care of the People Who Matter Most: A Guide to Employee-Customer Care.

“Culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole.” – Tracy Streckenbach interview, Clear Goals Matter More than Mission, The New York Times.

“People want to know they matter and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.” – Pamela Stroko in Tanveer Naseer’s blog post How Leaders are Creating Engagement in Today’s Workplaces.

“Employee engagement is the art and science of engaging people in authentic and recognized connections to strategy, roles, performance, organization, community, relationship, customers, development, energy, and happiness to leverage, sustain, and transform work into results.” – David Zinger, Let’s Co-Create an Employee Engagement Charter, The Employee Engagement Network.

Discuss amongst yourselves …
Here’s how you can use these and last week’s quotes to facilitate a dialog with employees. The following discussion ideas work best in organizations where management is concerned with and committed to employee engagement. However, DO NOT attempt if management is not open to improving employee engagement; such discussion can devolve into a “bitch & gripe” session leading employees to become frustrated, demoralized and even more disengaged.

  • Ask people to share examples of their experiences as customers interacting with companies whose employees are engaged vs. disengaged. Then discuss ideas on how to strengthen employee-customer engagement in your organization.
  • Employees choose a quote they find most meaningful and/or encourage them to create their own quotes. Based on the selected quotes, discuss ways to maximize engagement or minimize disengagement.
  • Present this scenario: everyone has been granted a wish to become CEO of his/her ideal company. Which quote(s) would they use to guide them in managing the organization and why?

Your turn
I invite you to share your favorite quotes on employee engagement. I’d also love to hear how you use them to reinforce engagement in your organization.

Categories
Engagement

Favorite Employee Engagement Quotes – Part 1

There’s a lot of great content written about employee engagement, and I love finding quotes that best capture what engagement is and is not. Here are some of my favorites, listed alphabetically by author. So as not to overwhelm you with too many quotes, I’ll share more in my next post.

“ … employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated as humans worthy of respect.” – Meghan M. Biro, Your Employees are Engaged … REALLY? Forbes.

“Connect the dots between individual roles and the goals of the organization. When people see that connection, they get a lot of energy out of work. They feel the importance, dignity, and meaning in their job.” – Ken Blanchard and Scott Blanchard, Do People Really Know What You Expect from Them? Fast Company.

“Engaged employees stay for what they give (they like their work); disengaged employees stay for what they get (favorable job conditions, growth opportunities, job security).” – BlessingWhite, The State of Employee Engagement 2008 [updated link]

“It’s sad, really, how a negative workplace can impact our lives and the way we feel about ourselves. The situation is reaching pandemic heights – most people go to work at jobs they dislike, supervised by people who don’t care about them, and directed by senior leaders who are often clueless about where to take the company.”  – Leigh Branham and Mark Hirschfeld, Re-Engage: How America’s Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times.

“Highly engaged employees make the customer experience. Disengaged employees break it.” – Timothy R. Clark, The 5 Ways That Highly Engaged Employees are Different.

“Dispirited, unmotivated, unappreciated workers cannot compete in a highly competitive world.” – Francis Hesselbein, Hesselbein on Leadership.

I’ll share more quotes in next week’s post PLUS how you can apply them to facilitate discussion about employee engagement in your organization.

Categories
Engagement

Beyond Employee Appreciation Day

This Friday, March 2nd, is Employee Appreciation Day.

I’ve written about honoring this holiday before with the message that “recognizing and affirming employee value is critical to creating and sustaining employee engagement” – and this reinforcement is needed more than once a year.

We all want and need validation – to know that our work matters … to know that we matter. According to noted psychiatrist and author Dr. Barrie S. Grieff:

“No one dies just from working too hard. But when people don’t get any recognition in their work, the stress of that lack of control can kill them.”

For ideas on expressing employee appreciation, here are great resources:

Categories
Engagement

Employee Appreciation Day: Cause for Celebration or Not?

This Friday, March 5, 2010, is designated as Employee Appreciation Day. (Created in 1995 as a way to focus employer attention on employee recognition, this “holiday” is traditionally observed the first Friday in March.)

Truthfully, I have mixed feelings about this day. Effective employee recognition shouldn’t be relegated to a once-a-year event, and smart managers know this. If employee recognition is already part of your organization’s culture and you want to honor this day, then have fun with it. (Here are some additional ideas to consider.)

BUT … if employee appreciation is alien to your workplace, forced observance won’t work. Employees know the difference between lip-service and sincere recognition.

Tell me what you think
Is some recognition better than none?

 

Categories
Musings

Still Celebrating Administrative Professionals Day?

Next week office workers will be honored as part of Administrative Professionals Week, an event that includes Administrative Professionals Day (April 22, 2009).

Wondering how the current economic situation is affecting this holiday, I asked a friend what his office was doing for this event and he replied, “Nothing.” After watching my jaw drop, he quickly explained that he demonstrated his appreciation for his office staff year round – publicly praising them for jobs well done and taking them out to lunch or dinner to celebrate completion of a major project – and that his staff didn’t feel the need to participate in this designated event.

I found a mixed bag of responses in my unscientific poll of other friends. Several said they’ll continue to observe this “holiday” by taking their staff out to lunch (paid for out-of-pocket, not company funds) or giving a small gift of a plant or gift card. One colleague told me her office does not participate because company policy does not allow them to single out certain groups (non-exempt vs. exempt employees). Another colleague spoke with pride about how her office finds the event a good excuse to honor the office manager who provides exceptional service; she was also quick to add her firm recognizes staff (when deserved) year-round, not just during this event.

If you’ve participated in Administrative Professionals Day/Week in the past and plan to continue, what adjustments, if any, will you make this year?

Happy Birthday, Dilbert!

I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize the significance of this week when Dilbert turns 20. Scott Adams unleashed this gang of comic cubicle characters to the masses on April 16, 1989. Thanks, Scott, for helping us laugh at the absurdities that (unfortunately) still exist in the workplace.

Categories
Customer service Marketing

Customer Care – Why Sweating the Small Stuff is Good

I loved Sean D’Souza’s article about creating “accidental evangelists” in a recent issue of Marketing Profs.com.  And it got me thinking how it’s the little things that truly make a difference in connecting with customers.

This reality was also reinforced by a client’s Customer Experience Team who met recently to report on what they’re doing to improve communications & relationships with their customers; for example:

  • Sending a small welcome gift to new customers and acknowledging a current customer’s order with a thank you card
  • Referring a customer to another supplier for a product line that the client doesn’t yet offer
    (shades of “Miracle on 34th St.” … customer response was just as positive as in the film!)
  • Checking on product ship dates to ensure there’s no disconnect between a promised ship date and delivery
  • Letting customers know where to access their account numbers when they need to call in for something
  • Identifying the source of a problem with frequent repairs & letting Customer Service know so they can help customers avoid future problems.

In today’s hectic world we’re told “don’t sweat the small stuff.”  But often times it’s the little things we do that matter the most.

In what small, but impactful ways, do you show your customers that you care?

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Engagement Marketing

Got History? Part 3

To wrap up this series of posts, here are some ways you can plan & leverage your organization’s anniversary celebration, according to Phyllis Barr, founder of New York-based Corporate Culture Marketing by Barr Consulting Services.

Why Celebrate?

Start with why you should consider celebrating.  Phyllis suggests the following as sample objectives :

  • To enhance corporate or product identity
  • Rejuvenate an aging brand
  • Educate staff and stakeholders (including customers, investors, local community and/or the public-at-large)
  • Reinforce the corporate culture
  • Enhance donor awareness & fund raising efforts (for nonprofits).

How Should You Celebrate?

Consider how long you intend to celebrate:

  • on the day of the anniversary itself?
  • a week- or month-long commemoration?
  • throughout the year?

Then consider how you’ll celebrate; for example:

  • Special events – such as hosting an open house, customer and/or staff appreciation activities, etc.
  • Exhibit highlighting your organization’s history & memorabilia – can be off-line and/or on-line; for example, set up a traveling exhibit at schools, malls, trade shows, etc. (whatever is appropriate for your organization)
  • History documented in a special book, newsletter, and/or DVD
  • Special promotions and/or giveaways
  • Sponsorships – another great idea for nonprofits: link up with a local business that’s been in business for the same length of time to develop a joint celebration.

Phyllis laments that too many corporate histories tend to be “cut & dried” & put together in dull fashion, but they need not be that way.  You can be creative as your imagination & budget allow.

Also, you don’t have to do it alone – include oral history interviews with staff and customers.  (What a great way to recognize the folks who’ve been with you the longest!)  You can also solicit old photos and artifacts related to your organization.

Whatever you do to celebrate your organization’s history, make it meaningful and make it fun!

Categories
Engagement Marketing

Got History? Part 2

My last post introduced the concept of corporate & nonprofit anniversaries as a marketing tool.  Here are some actual examples of how organizations have celebrated their anniversaries, shared by “Corporate Memory Marketing” expert Phyllis Barr.

  • To celebrate its 150th anniversary, a popular magazine co-sponsored a special exhibit with one of its long-time advertisers.  The exhibit opened in the city where the magazine was headquartered (also one of the advertiser’s locations) and then toured the country.  The magazine also compiled a brief history handout for distribution.
  • A specialty toy company organized its archives and included oral history interviews with its executives and key staff.  They also shared historical notes on their phone system’s on-hold message.
  • In honor of its 285th anniversary, a church created its own museum with special exhibits tied-in with the history of the surrounding community; created a special lecture series; sponsored a historic pageant as part of its celebration; conducted historical walking tours; and published a book of its history (dating back to the American Revolution!).  Not only did these efforts result in increased awareness & media attention for the church, but its historic research was also used in the church’s building restoration.

Besides garnering great press and public exposure, all these organizations used their anniversaries to recognize staff contributions to their longevity & success … a great way to stimulate and reinforce employee pride.

Stay tuned for my next post which will feature tips from Phyllis on how to leverage your corporate or nonprofit anniversary celebration.

Categories
Customer service Marketing

Customer Discrimination is Risky Business

A recent posting on Adrants featured a bank promotion that’s getting some bad press in the blogosphere.  It’s one of those promotions that offers a great premium to (attract) new customers, while offering ‘bupkis’ to existing customers.  A great lesson in How to Alienate Current Customers 101.

It’s a business development dilemma for most companies — how to recruit new customers and not alienate current customers in the process.   The challenge is current customers are likely to notice ads from companies they deal with, and when they see a promotion for new customers, they’re likely to ask the company “So what have you done for me lately?”

Delivering customer value on an ongoing basis is key.  The smart companies are driven to continually ask: “How do our loyal customers know we value their relationship?” and they focus on delivering that value.