Tag: years of service programs

Are Your Employees Tolerating the Awful?

employees tolerating the awfulYears ago, I read an article entitled Tolerating the Awful, and it has stuck with me to this day.  It was a corporate piece that discussed the effects of misguided practices and policies on employee morale and corporate culture.  When misguided or negative practices and policies exist, employees may be inclined to just give up, having no confidence in the organization’s leadership, culture, and direction.  More importantly, they have no way to gauge their value to the organization.  Feeling unappreciated, they become apathetic.  As the article stated, all become doomed to tolerate the awful.

In a recent discussion with a prospect, I learned that the company’s service program was woefully insignificant.  Upon reaching a service milestone, employees receive an impersonal, canned letter from the CEO.  No gift, no lunch, no recognition from their manager. Nothing.

This less than perfunctory expression and lack of personalized recognition resulted in one employee shredding the letter and posting a photo of it (accompanied by some very provocative words) on the company’s intranet.  Yikes! A black eye indeed. Just awful.

Your employees are, at the end of the day, consumers. They understand value and want to know that they are valued by you and the organization.  When constructing a years of service program, here are some helpful best practices.

  • Establish a budget that conveys respect and appreciation; one that properly honors your employees’ loyalty and commitment
  • Incorporate social recognition when celebrating accomplishment, acknowledging employees in front of management and peers
  • Recognizing early career milestones is important in today’s workplace, as employees may be prone to changing jobs more frequently than in the past
  • Doing nothing is likely better than a token gesture

If considering a years of service recognition program, or evaluating an existing one, refer to these best practices – and contact us if we can help.  And avoid tolerating the awful in your organization.

Effective Communications Improve Engagement

Effective communications are instrumental to the success of any business, organization or enterprise.  As Rob Miklas colorfully illustrates in this post – A Smoother Flight with Effective Program Communications – without effective communications your recognition or incentive program will most likely never reach its full potential. Like regular announcements from the flight deck, pertinent program… Read more »

Employee Recognition: Countering the High Cost of Turnover

A recent article by Jim Pawlak entitled “Turnover costly, retention less so” appeared in our local newspaper (The Commercial Appeal, November 17, 2013) about the high cost of employee turnover and how companies are struggling to find solutions that address the issue successfully. The article mentioned everything from implementing flextime, job sharing and telecommuting programs,… Read more »

Using Employee Recognition Programs to Drive Business Results

In this recent WorldatWork Post, Rose Stanley discusses an increase in the number of employee recognition programs that include specific business results objectives – in addition to the more traditional years of service, above and beyond and peer to peer, etc.  One additional reason for including business results in your employee recognition program is that… Read more »