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A Changing Workforce Requires a New Perspective on Recognition

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And make sure the handwritten note has a place in your
recognition efforts. What could be more authentic, or more Employees are
personal, than pen to paper? However you convey it, find
a meaningful way to tie reward and recognition to those
achievements that are worthy and extraordinary.
• Get Creatve. This tes to authentcity. Recogniton doesn’t have ready and waiting
to take concrete form, like a plaque or points or gif card. It can
deliver an experience. For example, if you’ve taken the tme to
really get to know your employees, you also know what their for recognition
passions are. Why not connect the recogniton and reward
to that passion? For example, the gif of a cooking class for a
serious cook, or a tennis lesson for your organizaton’s aspiring
Novak Djokovic or Venus Williams? that's attuned to
• Broadcast achievements. Use your organizaton’s Intranet,
email, meetngs, newsleters and bulletn boards to spread the
word. Be sure to note why the employee is being recognized today's realities.
and remember to focus on recognizing results versus actvites.
• Go social. Social channels support manager-to-peer, peer-to-
peer, and peer-to-manager recogniton. They ofer the further
advantages of immediacy (what has greater impact than real-
tme recogniton?), increased employees involvement and cost-
savings. And younger employees love them. If you don’t have 1. Create a collaboratve environment. This allows employees
a social recogniton program in place yet, be sure to design a to extend and contribute to recogniton by adding comments
program that fts with your organizaton’s culture and maps to and reinforcing recogniton.
its values and goals. 2. Enable recogniton to come from diferent viewpoints.
SOCIAL RECOGNITION FUNDAMENTALS Social recogniton shouldn’t be limited to top-down
recogniton. And it shouldn’t be confned to departments or
Once that’s in place, here are some fundamentals of an efectve other formal structures. In fact, any of that would defeat the
social recogniton program:
whole intenton of social recogniton.
3. Make it searchable. Be sure that your social
Fulfillment expands it from a recogniton channel to a talent
recogniton platorm ofers this feature, which
management resource. The search functon
makes it possible to fnd employees who have
contributed to certain milestones, produces
Simplified an historical database of actvity by name and
positon, and helps to make visible previously
unidentfed talent.
4. Tell stories on social. Think about using the
channel to share stories about co-workers.
Get the hottest in-demand brands, like Sol Republic, “Telling the story” makes employee recogniton
at distributor direct pricing.
more personal and social. With proper guidelines
Get it personalized, gift wrapped or drop-shipped. in place, sharing stories about employee
achievements can maximize recogniton impact.
Get 24-hour order turnaround on in-stock merchandise
with no minimums. Are you ready to approach recogniton in a new way?
If not, you can bet that your employees are ready
Get a fulfillment partner that makes doing business easy.
and waitng for recogniton that’s atuned to today’s
Over 100 brands, including... realites rather than yesterday’s.
Cindy Mielke is Vice President of Marketng at
Marketng Innovators. She has 18 years of experience
in the incentve and recogniton industry, with a strong
record of leadership and service including her roles
www.pmcusa.com • (262) 203-5440.pmcusa.com • (262) 203-5440.pmcusa.com • (262) 203-5440
www
www as President of the Incentve Marketng Associaton
in 2005 and as President of the Incentve Gif Card
Council in 2007. For more informaton on Marketng
Innovators, go to www.marketnginnovators.com.
ESM

20 engagement strategies Vol.18 Issue 2
Engagment Strategies 11-15-13_v2.indd 1 10/17/13 2:15 PM