Make Employees Feel Important

08/20/08

An oft-quoted statistic says it all: 46 percent of the people leave jobs because they don’t feel appreciated.

You can’t afford to watch people walk out the door — you’ve spent too much time and money developing them.

How do you keep valuable people productive and content? Show them you care and reward them for doing what you want them to do. That’s best done with a well-planned recognition/rewards program.

1. Chart Your Objective
First, figure out precisely what you want your program to accomplish. The choices are many and depend on your organization’s culture and unique situation.

Your program can:

Improve morale

Increase retention

Improve quality or service

Improve safety

Increase sales

Improve attendance

Many of these benefits go hand in hand. Improving quality, for instance, improves sales and morale.

Make sure your objective is consistent with the company’s true values. Such mismatches frequently occur, according to Dr. Joan Brannick, president of Brannick Human Resource Connections in Tampa, Florida www.brannickhr.com. Says Brannick: “companies often say they want employees to work together as a team. Yet they reward and recognize only outstanding individual performance.”

2. Brainstorm the Program
Get together with key people to agree on the goal and to begin to hammer out details. You have two kinds of programs to consider, but you may want to do both:

Formal. These include safety, quality, or length-of-service programs.

Informal. Programs in this category offer managers flexibility or discretion in how or when to make an award. They may give authority to award spot bonuses or gift certificates, reward a team for extra effort by throwing a party, or buy gifts for employees on a whim.

The value of informal programs is that they avoid “one size fits all” awards. That’s important, because it’s essential to tailor an award to the individual.

Once you choose a type of program, decide what it takes to earn recognition. Keeping an eye on your overall objectives, answer the questions, “who, what, why, when, and how.”

Be precise, because consistency is an important part of any program—it’s the only way to protect yourself against cynicism and charges of unfairness.

A danger, says Joan Brannick, “is an unclear decision-making process regarding the reward or recognition. Companies need to communicate to all employees clearly how managers will decide who gets rewarded or recognized.”

Then consider the kinds of rewards you’ll offer. The options are endless: merchandise, gift certificates, tickets to sporting or cultural events, inspirational posters or cards, money, or personal services like massages.

3. Predict Quantifiable Results
Do your best to set and track quantifiable targets you believe your program can achieve.

In some cases this is easy. Say you have five accidents a month. Your goal is to reduce that figure to two. It shouldn’t be difficult to quantify the savings when you achieve your goal—savings in workers’ compensation premiums, lost time, damaged goods, and so on.

Your job quantifying is tougher when it comes to morale-building programs. But it’s not impossible. Brannick: Your programs “should result in decreased turnover, improved individual and organizational performance, and increased employee satisfaction.” How can you quantify satisfaction? Through a survey.

4. Budget!
Now think about what your program will cost. Consider:

Cost of rewards (or the discretionary budget for managers)

Administration

Training

Selling the merits of the program.

For large programs—or when you’ll need to get approval from a numbers-oriented manager—figure return on investment (ROI). In its simplest form, that’s the program’s anticipated returns divided by the investment (expenses).

For example, say your quality improvement program will cost $24,700 over the next year. You guess it’ll save $52,500 in costs—mostly waste avoided. ROI: 213 percent. That’s a return good enough to turn the head of any tightfisted controller—and gain her approval for the program.

Whether you need a formal budget to sway the boss or not, keep track of costs. You’ll need some way to gauge whether the program is working.

5. Start Pre-rollout Activities
Before you present your programs to the troops, you have lots to do. At the top of the list are getting senior people to buy into it. If they think it’s a waste of time, so will everyone else. And you’ll fail to reach your objectives.

Next, get together with a few key people and opinion leaders who will be affected by the program. Explain it and get feedback on such things as:

The value of the rewards. Are they good enough?

The criteria for achieving recognition. Are they simple and clear?

Perceived fairness.

Understanding and effectiveness. Do they understand why you want to launch the program and do they think it will accomplish it’s objectives?

Listen to their ideas. It’ll help get the buy-in you need to make the program a success.

Brainstorm either with this group or a group of peers what problems may arise. What if two people tie for an award? What if some people prefer private recognition instead of public? What if people get too competitive?

Last, train the managers or supervisors involved. Not everyone will be graceful in handing out awards or recognizing people. They many need help and advice.

6. Roll Out the Program
Roll out the program with fanfare and as much hoopla as you can muster. Advertise it in meetings, company-wide assemblies, email messages, flyers, and posters on bulletin boards.

If possible, have the CEO or another top dog help launch the program, or at least circulate a heartfelt memo or email on its importance.

Managers and supervisors have an important role in ensuring that the program remains effective. They must:

Talk up the purpose and goals constantly. Keep the momentum going until you reach your goal. “We’re at three defects per thousand this month. We need to get it down to two by mid-year. Once we do, we’ll get that extra day off.” Use visual reminders like charts that show progress toward the goal.

Get ongoing feedback. Ask questions like, “How are people feeling about the safety program?” “Does anyone think the employee-of-the month award is hokey?” You want to uncover cynicism. It rots improvement efforts. And don’t come down hard on the cynic. Maybe there’s a good reason people are snickering.

7. Calculate Results
Is the program paying off? Monitor your chosen measures on a weekly basis. If the news is good, advertise it widely in the company. If not, figure out why and change or end the program.