10 reasons why employee recognition software should be in your HR technology stack

March 3, 2017 in Employee Recognition

10 reasons why employee recognition software should be in your HR technology stack

10 reasons why recognition software should be in your HR technology stack

Employee recognition. It’s a simple enough concept, right?

When an employee does something great, they should get recognised and rewarded. Employees like being recognised, so businesses should do more of it. Businesses who do it well reap a whole stack of benefits; great culture, low attrition and high engagement are just a few.

But if recognition is so simple, why spend money on recognition software? The simple answer is the same reason why you’d invest in any type of software: recognition software will simplify and streamline what is normally a jarring, ineffective process and give you time and tools to increase your effectiveness. But if that reason isn’t enough, here are another ten you can add to your business case:

You’re spending your money all wrong
If monthly awards and annual bonuses were all it took to motivate people, increase their desire to stay in your company and create an enviable company culture, then Gallup wouldn’t be reporting such paltry global employee engagement figures (13%, in case you were wondering). The truth is, even though most businesses have some form of recognition or reward program, it simply isn’t achieving what they want it to. Why? Because not all recognition is equal. Businesses tend to spend a lot in measuring employee engagement, but not much in actually improving it. Get your money working smarter; invest in a tool that doesn’t just inform you, but also enables and empowers you.

Well-designed software reflects the ‘best’ in ‘best-practice’
Well-designed software simplifies what used to be challenging or time-consuming tasks. Redii was designed with HR managers, people leaders and individual employees in mind, – the goal is to make recognition easy and effective (and fun!). Instead of trialing a few different recognition methods and hoping to see positive results, you can be at peace that we’ve taken everything we’ve learned (from hundreds of different businesses) about what makes recognition programs effective and created a tool that anyone can use to drive success in their team.

You can change the recognition and reward experience for employees
According to the SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey, peer-to-peer recognition is 35.7% more likely to have a positive impact on financial results than manager-only recognition. Recognition software empowers every employee to recognise and be recognised on an equal playing field.

Give people what they want and they’ll give you what you want
Research shows that employees want a say in how they are recognised and rewarded. Our recognition software gives individuals the opportunity to tailor their experience, ensuring your investment in reward and recognition is optimised and that the rewards are personally relevant to every employee.

Enhance visibility and transparency
Redii recognition software keeps a record of all recognition and reward activity across the business, and enables reporting on all “transactions” – including financial and non financial.

Get rid of the paperwork!
Having everything online means you can streamline your reporting, automate your approvals and communications, and decrease the administrative hours involved in managing and maintaining an ad-hoc recognition process.

Employees can accumulate points for aspirational rewards
Harvard’s Teresa Amabile found that nothing is more motivating than progress. Frequent recognition, and the ability to accumulate points (for a big reward or a series a small ones) reinforces progress, and also provides a visible record for the positive contributions individuals have made in their workplace.

Be tactical in your recognition approach
You can use the program to communicate and reinforce a focus for your business/team, and activate performance-enhancing activity through high frequency and tactical recognition.

Leverage the power of social recognition
Rather than relying solely on people leaders to manage employee recognition, you can drive employee ownership of recognition with crowd-sourced celebrations of achievements. Research shows this is a faster, more effective way to create cultural change that is embraced throughout the workplace as it goes from the ground-up, rather than top-down.

Make a bigger impact
Recognition has a bigger impact when it’s specific and timely (that is, delivered immediately after an achievement or behaviour is demonstrated) rather than weeks (or a year!) afterwards. Unlike the expected annual bonus or pay increase at end of the year, specific and timely recognition that comes from the people directly impacted by the positive work/action makes it more meaningful and more likely to create long-term behavioural or cultural change.

The anatomy of a great place to work

February 14, 2017 in Employee Engagement, Team Work

The anatomy of a great place to work

It’s easy to think that becoming a ‘great place to work’ is the realm of big businesses who can afford a range of perks that keep retention high and the calibre of employees they attract even higher.

However, if you dig a bit deeper into the anatomy of what makes a great place to work, perks are at the surface. Regardless of size it seems that Great Places to Work share very similar traits.

We took a look at the blogs of many of the winners of the 2016 Great Places to Work (in the under 100 employees category) posted after they had been awarded. Here in most cases, as well as celebrating they look to provide some justification as to why they won.

In the early years, when I was CEO of RedBalloon, we featured on the BRW Best Place to Work list 5 times in a row. We were not actively trying to be a Great Place to Work. The leadership team just shared a similar outlook, we just wanted to create an environment that people looked forward to coming to everyday and that allowed them to do their best work.

So here it is. The anatomy of a Great Place to Work (in our opinion)….

1.The CEO is people-first.
What does that even mean? Of course every CEO would be people first, wouldn’t they? No, there’s a difference. People-first CEO’s believe the only way to achieve great results is through the people they employ. They believe a big part their role as CEO is to serve their people rather than be served by them. I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve sat in or had reported back to me where CEO’s and senior leaders treat their people with disdain. “They are paid well enough”, “they should be grateful to have a job”, “anyone can be replaced”, “why should we recognise them for doing what they are paid to do”. They just don’t get it. And, even if you show them the research, it doesn’t compute. It’s at odds with how they have been schooled to operate.

2. Transparent communication rules
Great places to work communicate ALL the time, so there is never any doubt around the critical drivers of the business. There are no secrets with regards to numbers. Metrics and business performance data is available for everyone to see. The vision and current priorities are communicated regularly and collaborative problem solving via open communication is actively encouraged. A strong feedback loop across the business is powered by the fact that much of the feedback is actioned within days. Employees experience action and they feel heard.

3. They are powered by autonomy
I once read somewhere that there’s an inverse relationship between autonomy and ‘intention to quit’. You take away a great employee’s sense of autonomy and their intention to quit goes sky high. Both from my own personal experience, to managing a team of 60. It’s autonomy above everything else that great employees value. It’s clear that the truly Great Places to Work know this too. They empower their people, they encourage curiosity and support them to do their best work and try new things.

4. Company values are lived and breathed
I haven’t found a Great Place to Work that doesn’t have values. So if you know one let me know….. 😉 In businesses with values – their values underpin everything. From how they communicate with each other, to how they solve problems and interact with customers. When they talk about their values the words, ‘family’ or ‘binds us together’ often feature in their descriptors. It’s clear that this shared code keeps these working communities tight knit and respectful.

5. They focus on continuous improvement of body and mind
Great Places to Work understand the importance of an ‘always be learning’ environment for their people. They are committed to professional development, in many cases offering unlimited formal and informal learning opportunities. But here’s the kicker, they are equally as committed to personal development. Including mental and physical health. From brain training, to onsite yoga or trampolining at lunch-time to team sports and healthy nutrition. These workplaces understand that a holistic approach to their people keeps them at peak performance.

6. Regular recognition and appreciation is currency
Great places to work understand the impact of regular recognition and appreciation. In either a formal or informal structure. Allowing employees to recognise the peers for living examples of your values or for extraordinary achievement has been proven in numerous studies to impact employees level of engagement, productivity and intention to stay.

7. Someone has culture as their job…….
Wouldn’t that be the best job ever? A lot of the Great Places to Work have a person or a committee of people dedicated to culture either as their whole job or as part of their job. Being the champion of the recognition program, organising celebrations, training and making sure the little things are taken care of. It’s an investment in the productivity of the whole team.

8. They celebrate as a team
Great places to work celebrate with their team regularly. Rather than being a drain on time and resources, team get togethers serve as important bonding rituals. Fostering proximity and familiarity in order to create workplace friendships actually works for you, not against you. Friends work in synchronicity…..they work better together.

9. They care about giving back
More often than not there is a formal commitment to projects that benefit communities outside of the employee’s work environment. From volunteering to structured giving. These employers can see the positive benefits of connection to causes that matter to their people.

10. The customer is everything but employees come first
An unrelenting commitment to a great customer experience is the core theme running through all of the Great Places to Work. But they all agree on one thing. It is impossible to deliver a great customer experience without a great employee experience. As one of the Great small businesses said “Our job is to take people and grow them, and turn them into people clients consistently love to deal with”.

So if you want to start on your journey to becoming a Great Place to Work. Consider how well your business stacks up against this list.

How to Align Culture and Strategy

January 24, 2017 in Employee Engagement, Team Work, Work Culture

How to Align Culture and Strategy

There’s a shift underway that puts workplace culture first

Creating a great culture hasn’t traditionally been on the top of the business priority list.

But heightened awareness of a more mindful, people-first leadership style, sees those businesses that prioritise culture winning the war for talent.

When the big dogs of business – like Gordon Cairns (Chairman of David Jones and Origin Energy), Neil Thompson (CEO of Virgin Velocity) and Arianna Huffington (founder of The Huffington Post) – openly share that mindful and people-centred leadership is their secret to success, people sit up and pay attention.

These leaders understand how important it is for their employees to find meaning and connection in their work and the people they work with. These leaders, along with many others, get the importance of building ‘community’ in the workplace and providing a place for employees to belong.

In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Dr Brene Brown describes ‘belonging’ as:

“..the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

In Australia’s Early Childhood Education framework, “Belonging”, “Being” and “Becoming” form the core pillars supporting how we prepare and teach our future generation.

“Belonging acknowledges children’s interdependence with others and the basis of relationships in defining identities. In early childhood, and throughout life, relationships are crucial to a sense of belonging.”

So, if from our earliest age, we’re encouraged to ‘belong’, why has the concept fizzled out in the workplace in favour of ‘conform’.

It’s because the impact of culture hasn’t been linked to the business outcomes. Uniting the two is so important and here’s how you do it.

1. Give your people a clear purpose

The purpose of an organisation needs to be clearly defined and communicated from day 1 of the hiring process. Recruitment isn’t just about assessing skillset. Use it to assess if a potential employee wants to contribute to your success. Hire people who not only understand your purpose, but are also driven to help you live it and succeed daily.

2. Be transparent about what you value

Whether conscious of them or not, every company has values. Values are what shape the decisions you make every day – from the way you treat your customers to the way you run your meetings. Identify these values and make a point to communicate them to every employee regularly. Businesses with high employee engagement make a point of recognising and rewarding employees who demonstrate and live out their values.

Want high employee engagement? Recognise and reward employees who demonstrate your values.

3. Be clear on what success looks like

Your strategy should have clearly articulated measures of success. Whether that’s achievement of a project, meeting a metric or goal. Unless people know the core metrics that define success for your business, they will never know when they are winning.

4. Combine both in a recognition program

Recognising an employee for their contribution is the simplest and cheapest way to give their work meaning and motivate them to do more. And acts and words of gratitude don’t just increase individual motivation and performance; they also create meaningful connections between co-workers, which enables them to work together more effectively which increases collaboration and innovation.

The purpose, values and moments of connection are the fabric that make your company culture and build a sense of community. You’ll get the best results when your people feel a sense of connection between what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and the people they do it with. Building community is not about making everybody friends; it’s about creating working relationships based on a common purpose (which will guide individual goals) and values (which drive individual behaviour).

You can create awards around your strategic goals, for example if you have a goal around customer centricity. Create this as an award that people can nominate and recognise each other for. This creates a sense of momentum and achievement along the way to reaching a milestone.