Give your employees the gift of recognition this festive season

As another year starts to come to a close it is only natural to reflect on the year that was, both personally and professionally. If you run a business or a team, has this year been one you are proud of? Did you lead in a way that served your team? Did you recognise and reward the valuable contribution of your employees?

One of the biggest myths that surrounds leadership is that as a leader, you are responsible for the everyday happiness of your team. “People don’t quit companies, they quit bosses” has been the mantra for decades. And yes they do, but they also quit teams…

As a leader it’s not enough to just focus on you and your relationship with each individual. It’s about how your team functions together. It is your job to bolster the cross functional relationships, the inter-personal relationships and ensure high performance as an outcome. Often you hear teams referred to as ‘a family’ in order to communicate a desired sense of connectedness. But who has a normal family? So often our families are dysfunctional but yet we are wired to love unconditionally.

First you need to ensure everyone is 100% aware of the goal they are working towards. One single metric, one simple statement. What is it you want your team to deliver?

Next you need to ensure each member is playing to their strengths. Work with them on what they should stop doing, start doing or keep doing. They might surprise you with their suggestions.

Finally get them to understand and appreciate the unique skillset of the other members of the team. How do they approach each relationship to get the best overall outcome? Emotional intelligence coaching and strengths based leadership will play a huge part in giving your team a sense of ownership for the relationships with each other.

Lastly, and arguably most importantly, is to recognise each other for great performance. This constantly keeps the bar rising and keeps everyone driven to success and supporting each other.

The one thing your employees probably want more than anything this Christmas is recognition from you. Recognition that the contribution they made this year mattered. Christmas is a great time to start a recognition program. People are more open to change and are already in the mood for spreading cheer and gratitude.

Not ready for a Recognition and Rewards program? Why not reward your employees with a voucher from our partners at RedBalloon this festive season!

Seasons greetings from the Redii Team!

Successful business strategies are strong people strategies

For many CEOs, the cost of attrition alone can be enough to lose sleep over. Some studies say the average cost of replacing employees ranges from $70K to 1.5x their salary! In a 1000 person business with an 11% attrition rate, that’s a $4 million loss that you could avoid. But what if we said prioritising and investing both time and money into your recognition and reward strategy could decrease company turnover by 31%? Would you sit up and listen?

You might lack the time to go over the minute details of each HR initiative and how it’s going to keep your top talent from walking out the door, but what you do have is the prerogative to give someone in your team the autonomy, accountability, and budget to make people a priority for your business. Why do it?

Put simply, because your Business Strategy needs a strong People Strategy to succeed. Here are just a few examples of how it can work for your business.

Issue:

Getting employees on the same page during periods of change

What it looks like:

Employees haven’t bought into the company vision.
We’re going through a period of change and it’s hard to get people motivated during the journey.
We need to pivot and/or reprioritise – how do I make sure this change in direction is understood across the business?

How to use your people strategy to support your business strategy:

Use every opportunity to reinforce and retell the story (or stories) that illustrate where you’re company is headed, what you want to achieve, and who you’re impacting. Company meetings are the obvious, traditional channel and shouldn’t be overlooked, but communication platforms (e.g. blog posts, email newsletters, videos and posts on a company social site or recognition wall) are great ways to stay connected and keep that story (vision + purpose) front of mind each day.

The added benefit to using dedicated tech to link people to purpose is DATA. You’ll be able to see exactly who is/how many employees are logging in, reading and engaging with content. A dedicated recognition platform like Redii can also provide insight into which values are resonating across different teams or geographies, so you can see, at a glance, which teams or individuals need attention and support.

Issue:

Achieving productivity and collaboration with a physically distributed workforce

What it looks like:

People are working in silos and – they aren’t connecting or collaborating efficiently.
Productivity/growth remains low despite the introduction of new technology.

How to use your people strategy to support your business strategy:

In its Human Capital Trends Report 2014, Deloitte stresses that social media is changing the way we do business. Employees expect tools that enable immediate, two-way feedback. Platforms that incorporate chat and social media components (where employees can “like” or comment on messages) promotes transparency and open, proactive communication are worth your attention and investment, because it allows for a faster flow of information sharing, and sets the expectation that efficient, effective communication is a priority for your business.

Another way to do this is to support secondment or training programs that enable and encourage cross-departmental learning and collaboration. This not only allows you to keep the talent within your business, it addresses your employees’ need for learning, development and mastery (which is critical for keeping them engaged).

Want more tips on how to get your business ahead? Download our ebook Why Should I Care? How a well-designed employee recognition strategy can achieve big wins for CEOs, GMs, HR practitioners and People Leaders.

Employee recognition: just one piece of the people puzzle

In a constantly (and rapidly!) shifting global economy, your people are your only true competitive advantage. It’s possible to replicate and rip off product, but it’s impossible to replicate people and culture. An engaged team makes execution easy because your people are motivated to learn, deliver, and adapt quickly. An engaged team has bought into your company’s vision and purpose, and wants the business to succeed because it means they succeed (and vice versa).

How do you tap into the power of your people? By making sure your people strategy contains the building blocks to a strong, engaged culture, and using your recognition and reward framework to reinforce those blocks.

Gone are the days when employee recognition was just about acknowledging how long someone has stuck it out with your company, or waiting for a manager to pick an “employee of the month” for any reason under the sun.

Now, recognition and reward can (and we argue, should!) be used to support and strengthen your ability to:

unite disparate or siloed teams

help employees understand your strategic goals and prioritise against them,

recognise and motivate people when they achieve those goals/make progress,

reinforce the right values and behaviours across the business,

provide continuous feedback to proactively manage performance,

identify talent with transferable skills.

That said, recognition is no band aid solution or a quick-fix.

It’s naive to assume that implementing a recognition program will solve all your people problems.

As Ron Friedman writes in The Best Place to Work – The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace, you need the fundamental building blocks of a positive employee experience in place first – without them, anything perceived as an extra (like recognition, rewards, or in-office perks like free food) will either be rejected or received with cynicism by most employees.

For example, if your compensation packages are not up to the industry standard, any recognition or reward will be viewed by most as tokenistic. If the workspaces or tools employees use are frustrating, job descriptions are vague, or managers lack the communication skills or emotional IQ to lead effectively, recognition will do little to move the needle on employee retention or productivity. Each piece of the puzzle is critical (without one, the employee suffers). Recognition is an equally critical piece, and can be used to support and strengthen the pieces around it.

CAPTION: A holistic approach to talent and employee experience means acknowledging each piece of the puzzle is important. Recognition and reward can be used to strengthen and support the pieces around it, but on its own will not solve your people/culture issues.

If you’re smart and intentional with your approach to employee recognition and reward, you can use it to address specific issues and mobilise and engage your team to perform at their best.

Download our latest ebook Why Should I Care to find out how strategic R&R can help your business address the common issues leaders face, and how businesses can use recognition and reward strategically to address these, and to support, reinforce and celebrate change.