1. Changing your company’s culture is a
marathon, not a sprint. And you wouldn’t
run a marathon without stretching, right?
Set business objectives
Define corporate values
Identify desired behaviors
Set a budget
Survey your employees
to find out what kinds of
recognition will motivate
them the most
Before you tackle the Employee
Success obstacle course, try these
warm-up exercises:
Your employees are your business, but creating a recognition-rich culture that amplifies brilliant performance can be a
challenge. We’ll help you navigate the recognition obstacle course to fuel Employee Success™—a win-win scenario
that improves employee engagement and drives successful business results—and get you to the finish line. Let’s go!
DISENGAGEMENT
OVERCOME THE OBSTACLES OF
DISENGAGEMENT
TACKLE THE RECOGNITION OBSTACLE COURSE AND TURN DISENGAGEMENT INTO RESULTS
OVERCOME THE OBSTACLES OF
Think again! Recognition drives employees’
intrinsic motivation to achieve, increasing
their engagement and amplifying key
behaviors that drive results—especially
when recognized by peers. Enable peer-
to-peer recognition in your organization
to abolish top-down hierarchy and allow
everyone to participate.
1 second
30 seconds
45 seconds
60 seconds
90 seconds
Saying “thank you”
Sending an email
Leaving a voicemail
Writing a card
Giving a gift certificate
If you have time to refill your coffee cup, then you have time
to recognize someone for a job well done. There are multiple
ways to recognize that take less than 2 minutes:
Recognition programs cost less than you think, and will save your company far more
than you spend.
When you consider that disengaged
employees cost the American
economy up to $350 billion per year
in lost productivity8
, you can’t afford
not to create a culture of engagement.
for recognition
A good rule of thumb is to
budget 1-3% of an employee’s
base salary for recognition7
.
Remember, you’re on the same team: you both want to drive business success. Buy-in
from the senior leadership is critical to the success of your program, so explain to them
what a successful recognition strategy can do for their bottom line.
Managers are actually the most crucial piece of the Employee Success puzzle—for
better or worse, no one else has as large an impact on company culture.
1. “Hewitt point of view: What Makes a Company a Best Employer?” Hewitt and
Associates. 2009. Web. 8 Apr 2013
2. Lockwood, Nancy R. "Leveraging Employee Engagement for Competitive
Advantage: HR's Strategic Role." HRMagazine Mar. 2007: 1-11. SearchSpot.
ABI/INFORM Global (PQ). McIntyre Library, Eau Claire. 28 Mar. 2013
3. Towers Watson: The Power of Recognition from Managers (October 2010)
4. Watson Wyatt’s (Towers Watson) Study of three million employees, as quoted in
Forbes magazine (2004)
5. National Business Research Institute,
http://www.nbrii.com/blog/employee-engagement-infographic/ABI/INFORM
Global (PQ). McIntyre Library, Eau Claire. 28 Mar. 2013
6. Bersin, Josh. "Predictions for 2013."Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
Web. 28 Mar. 2013
7. Recognition Professionals International (RPI). Web. 28 Mar. 2013
http://www.recognition.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=863
8. Karsan, Rudy & Kruse, Kevin (2011). WE – How to Increase Performance and Profits
through Full Engagement.
Get more tips to maximize your Employee Success strategy at www.achievers.com.
You overcame the obstacles of disengagement!
You’re ready to launch your recognition strategy,
but don’t stop now—keep training and you’ll
improve your future performance.
Your training regimen:
Solicit feedback from employees
Set benchmarks and checkpoints
Plan for ongoing optimization
Solution: Get rid of that ad hoc
Franken-system and consolidate your
efforts into one online program.
Once you identify the behaviors your
recognition system will reinforce, you
can generate reports to measure the
change in those benchmarks over time.
Increased sales
Improved morale
Lower turnover
WHAT YOU WANT HOW TO MEASURE IT
Sales reports, KPIs
Employee engagement surveys
Employee retention reports
x01
EMPLOYEES WON’T PARTICIPATE
Obstacle 01
03
SENIOR LEADERS DON’T SUPPORT RECOGNITION
Obstacle 03
05
OUR BUDGET IS TOO SMALL
Obstacle 05
o 02
NO ONE HAS TIME TO RECOGNIZE
Obstacle 02
04
MANAGERS DON’T FEEL IT’S THEIR JOB
Obstacle 04
THE WARM UP
READY, SET, GO!
x
o
THE FINISH LINE
x
06
WE CAN’T MEASURE SUCCESS
Obstacle 06
Educate managers on
why recognition is
important, and provide
training so managers
understand what’s in
it for them to jump
on board.
The good news: A culture of
recognition decreases involuntary
turnover by more than 30%.6
Three out of four people leaving
their jobs aren't quitting their
companies; they're quitting their
managers.5
(Yikes!)
o
Strong manager performance in
recognizing employee performance
increases engagement by almost 60%.3
“Companies who recognize their
employees generate 27% higher
profits, 50% higher sales, and 50%
higher customer loyalty.”4
50% 50%27%
Organizations with high engagement
rates are 78% more productive than
disengaged organizations.1
Engaged employees are 87% less
likely to leave their organization.2
78% 87% 60%