The Simple ROI on Recognition

Invest in recognition or invest in new people – the simple ROI on Recognition.

Employees that are recognized are happier and work harder. Equally obvious, employees that feel ignored will look elsewhere. Is it a black and white compassion, no., of course not. Is lack of recognition the kryptonite to business success? Again, no. There are tremendous and varied number of reasons that businesses succeed, or fail. However, if you want to hedge your bets, please consider recognition programs for your employees.

Recognition programs have come a long way since the basic giving of gift cards for a job well done. The application of advanced psychology applied to business, motivation, learning, and behavior has produced an extremely effective (and low cost) approach that would greatly affect employee performance. Today’s recognition programs are tailored to the specific business and also the specific need. Safety, performance, hourly production, creativity, or other behaviors join the “old school” recognition programs of attendance or sales.

Today’s recognition programs are tailored across the spectrum of employees from the hourly folks up to the executive suite. The important step is defining the population and precisely defining what success looks like. A satisfied client wanted to increase hourly production of call center sales. Our incentive program looked at sales numbers, of course, but more importantly looked at what drives the sales. The end result was a comprehensive plan identifying and recognizing correct sales behaviors. The recognition did not come from the sales, but instead performing the correct behaviors that would generate successful sales. The program produced and cumulative ROI worth millions of dollars.

Another very happy success story involved the recognition of a safety program. Again – defining what success looked like for this client was paramount. Of course “days without incident” mattered to the overall team statistics, but individual ownership and empowerment were what moved the mark. Employees were empowered to recognize a coworker for correcting an unsafe behavior. If an employee was practicing an unsafe behavior, and is corrected by a co-worker, it is considered “no harm-no foul” and the pair are required to submit the situation – with the offender remaining anonymous. Of course, certain situations of legal or extremely serious situations are escalated and addressed. But the smaller behaviors, the ones often overlooked in the name of efficiency or production, are what was targeted. The end result – safety is not an idea, but a culture.

What does this mean for you? Driving your business, building, growing, and exceeding goals can certainly be achieved. With everyone rowing together, the boat moves much faster. You do not have to know the end result to talk with us. You do not have to know what every step of the program entails, but, you do need to start the conversation, explore the possibilities of how Award Concepts can turn the small investment of recognition grow, and avoid the investment of replacing dissatisfied employee turnover.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *