The Impact of Organizational Recognition
By Bob Nelson

Dear Joan:
Many companies may wonder: Why bother with organizational recognition? Because --- unlike individual and team recognition, which tend to be limited with rarely more than a momentary impact on the organization as a whole, organizational recognition has the capacity for a much broader impact on the organization as a whole. (read more...)

Recognition And The Underpefmormer
By Cindy Ventrice

"My manager only tells me when I do something wrong, never when I do something right."
I've heard this complaint from many employees. Focusing on the negative is a major demotivator. Every employee should be receiving some recognition each month, even your underperformers. The proper mix of corrective feedback and praise usually produces the greatest improvement. Usually... (read more...)

101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work: Tip #9
By John Putzier

Take Your Family to Work Day
Remember, "Take your daughter to work day" which was intended to introduce young girls to the world of work and presumably chip away at equalizing their career opportunities? Have you notice that it has since been expanded to "Take your kid to work day" because no matter what we do anymore, someone cries discrimination? (read more...)

The Impact of Organizational Recognition (^ top)
By Bob Nelson

Many companies may wonder: Why bother with organizational recognition? Because --- unlike individual and team recognition, which tend to be limited with rarely more than a momentary impact on the organization as a whole, organizational recognition has the capacity for a much broader impact on the organization as a whole.

Essentially, there are three primary reasons why organizations find it desirable to establish industry-wide recognition programs: improving performance, modeling core values, and showing appreciation.

Improving performance: Recognition, which is targeted at helping an organization achieve a desired goal, should be an integral component of every organizational improvement effort. In one of the most frequently cited applications of recognition to work performance, Emery Air Freight used positive reinforcement to dramatically reduce its cost of doing business. Emery was losing a lot of money because its containers were not fully loaded when shipped. Workers knew that they were supposed to ship fully loaded containers; the performance expectations had been communicated to them many times. However, while workers reported that their containers were fully loaded 90 percent of the time, a review found that the containers were actually fully loaded only 45 percent of the time. Through the use of positive reinforcement and feedback on performance, the percentage of full containers increased to 95 percent, saving the company millions of dollars.

Modeling core values: Sometimes the purpose of organizational recognition is to provide models for other employees to emulate desirable core values of the organization. For example, when Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM Corporation, was at American Express, he instituted a highly visible Great Performers program, in which posters of outstanding employees were displayed along with posters of more famous American heroes.

Showing appreciation: Organizational recognition shouldn't be restricted to rewarding people for quantifiable results. Appreciation is recognition that is not based on the achievement of predetermined goals. For example, management at Dow Corning Company hosts ice cream socials where managers make and serve sundaes as a way to thank employees for special accomplishments. Another company sends flowers to the spouses of employees who have to travel extensively for work. Many organizations host surprise celebrations when the staff meets major milestones.

Organizational recognition, such as the examples given above, energizes employees to work hard and improve their performance. They also become ingrained in the company's culture and part of the organizational folklore.

Recognition And The Underpermormer (^ top)
By Cindy Ventrice

"My manager only tells me when I do something wrong, never when I do something right."

I've heard this complaint from many employees. Focusing on the negative is a major demotivator. Every employee should be receiving some recognition each month, even your underperformers. The proper mix of corrective feedback and praise usually produces the greatest improvement. Usually...

Recently, I've heard several versions of the same question asked in a number of manager training programs. "What do you do when an underperforming employee ignores corrective feedback and points to the praise you give as proof that he is performing sufficiently?"

In cases where employees are (or appear to be) confused about their performance, it may be that the managers aren't setting clear expectations and checking for understanding. But what if it is actually the positive feedback that has caused confusion?

Mixed Messages

In an era when companies are concerned about wrongful termination, managers worry about sending mixed messages to underperformers. Can a reasonable employee misinterpret positive feedback? I can think of at least one instance where the answer would be yes. You can probably come up with several more.

Scenario: A manager realizes that, for the past two years, she hasn't been offering enough positive feedback to employees and resolves to make a change. In the course of a month she praises every employee several times, including the underperformer. At the end of the month, the manager and the underperforming employee meet to review overall performance. The employee is surprised to discover that the manager has observed only minor improvements.

The employee didn't know that the manager had changed her behavior and was now offering more recognition for the same level of performance. The employee assumed his performance had improved. The manager could have handled this better by stating her intention at the beginning of the month to help the employee improve his performance by noting both improvements and declines.

Clearly, when an employee misunderstands the manager's feedback it is important for the manager to look at his or her own behavior to see what how he or she has contributed to the situation.

But What If

What if the manager seems to be doing everything right? What is the next step?

Occasionally a manager may encounter an employee who will still ignore corrective feedback and choose to see the positive feedback as proof that all is well. If you were the manager of such an employee, which of these options would you choose?

1. Stop offering any praise and focus only on the need for improvement?
2. Continue to praise improvement when you see it but always note how much work still needs to be done?
3. Have weekly one on ones rating performance and noting overall improvement and/or decline in writing, putting praise in context during the one on one?

• Find out if anything, other than the misunderstanding is getting in the way of improved performance.
• Set a performance standard. Make performance goals measurable if at all possible. Objective standards are always better than the subjective.
• Agree on a plan for improvement. Think in terms of what the employee should start, stop, and continue doing. Be specific and leave as little room for misinterpretation as possible,
• Once you are in agreement, put everything in writing.

• Review the employee's progress against the plan established in the initial meeting.
• Develop mutual understanding of the employee's progress towards meeting minimum performance standards.
• Praise positive behaviors and progress in the context of the overall and weekly performance objectives.
• End each meeting with clear objectives for the coming week.

101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work: Tip #9 (^ top)
By John Putzier

Take Your Family to Work Day
Remember, "Take your daughter to work day" which was intended to introduce young girls to the world of work and presumably chip away at equalizing their career opportunities? Have you notice that it has since been expanded to "Take your kid to work day" because no matter what we do anymore, someone cries discrimination?

Forget about whether your kid is a boy or a girl, or even if it's your kid! Just open your doors to children once a year for all kinds of reasons, beyond just "look what Daddy or Mommy do all day when they're not being parents."

Whether you do it purely for public relations, or to allow your employees to share their work lives with their dependents, the experience is a win-win. Organize the day to include lunch with the CEO, or to see the "fun" parts of the company (the parts that may not be considered fun by stiff old adults) like where the trucks come in and out (shipping and receiving) or where all the scrap ends up. Don't assume that just because you are enthralled by watching tech service answer all those phones all day that kids give a darn about it. Put yourself into a kid's perspective and mindset. That alone may be worth the exercise!

Be sure to have ice cream, entertainment, activities, contests, banners, and all kinds of kid friendly ambiance available. Include your employees in the planning and implementation because it is, after all, for their kids! And don't forget the souvenir trinkets and trash with your logo on them.

Finally, if the CEO or some other VIP is going to address the group, be sure to have someone review the script or speech ahead of time. I have seen little eyes glaze over quite rapidly when some old guy starts talking about market share or total quality improvement or some other corporate gobbledygook. Use the 3rd grader test. That is, have an 8 year old read the speech and ask her to circle any words s/he doesn't understand, and change them or don't use them. Keep is short; keep it simple; keep it fun(ny).

Having curious, innocent little minds and bodies running around once in a while invigorates the entire workplace, and introduces your potential future workforce to your organization through a fun and positive experience. Another win-win!

If you want to take it all the way, just expand it to "Take Your Family to Work Day!" Since family values and work/life balance have become the cause du jour, why not recognize that you have hired a family man or woman and that the more their significant others feel like they are "in the loop," the more understanding and positive they may feel about sacrificing their partner to the company. One way of doing this is to have an Open House or reception for employees' families, friends or whomever else they include in their non-work lives. You may even find a new recruit in the process!

One company that tried a variation of this idea ("Bring Your Parents to Work Day") was Organic, a New York City Web-design and e-services firm. Roughly 125 parents spent half a day learning what their Web-obsessed kids actually do for a living. The parents first participated in a sort of talk show, during which they did their best to explain what their children do. Then parents were told what their kids really do, and why.

Family Day can be done departmentally or organization-wide. In fact, conducting departmental open houses allows other employees to drop in and see what other people in the company are doing. And again, don't forget to have food and beverage, and maybe some kind of logo gift or other memorabilia. It's a generous but cost-effective way of advertising. They get a gift and you get your name out there in all kinds of other venues.

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