The most successful companies today have a workforce that
is aligned behind a company’s strategic objectives and core values. As companies continue to alter their
strategic plans to succeed during a challenging economy, this kind of training
on values and objectives becomes even more critical. In fact, the Corporate Executive Board
recently released this result of a survey
of 50,000 employees, from more than 50 companies across multiple industries and
geographies:
“Simply put, almost two-thirds of all employees are
33% as productive as they can be because they don't understand what they are
now asked to do.”
Training and educating employees in company values and
objectives in a way that makes sense to them – through their daily work – is a
mission-critical goal for organizations today. Strategic employee recognition
is the most effective method for achieving that goal.
Unlike traditional, tactical recognition, strategic
employee recognition is a sound management method that moves employee
recognition from anecdotal morale-booster to data-driven business discipline.
As such, strategic recognition delivers three key benefits to training
professionals.
Benefit 1: Strategic Recognition Aligns Employees
with Changing Strategic Objectives
Strategic recognition encourages frequent, timely
appreciation of any efforts by employees that contribute to achieving a
strategic objective. Through this positive reinforcement, employees come to
understand precisely what those objectives are and how they can, personally and
individually, contribute to those objectives. This ensures the strategic
objectives are clearly understood by everyone, in the way the CEO intended
because the message is not lost in translation as it is communicated down the
ranks.
Employees also choose to become more engaged with their
work because they now see the meaning and purpose in it, not to mention the
collaboration that results from peer-to-peer recognition. They are reminded
regularly of the importance of their efforts to the company’s success. As a
group, employees become united together behind these commonly understood goals,
functioning together to achieve departmental, divisional, and company goals.
Mutual dependence develops trust, encourages learning, and fosters the sense of
belonging to something greater than oneself.
Management encourages this teamwork by directly rewarding
it and by demonstrating its importance. Doing so can be as simple as a director
instructing all employees, “Spot all the good behavior you can and recognize it
– call it out, because I can’t be everywhere.” In a consistent culture, this is
manifest in a thousand person-to-person moments.
“Recognition is about
acknowledgment and appreciation for a contribution, improvement, innovation, or
excellence – a message to employees that they are valued. The act of
recognizing an employee affirms the values and spirit underlying the
achievement. It’s also about reinforcing desired behaviors and increasing their
occurrence. Attitude and performance are closely linked; the appropriate
recognition at the appropriate moment will create a positive attitude that, in
turn, will lead to improved performance. Communicating this to the rest of the
organization creates role models and sets the standards of desired
performance.”
–Ascent
Group, Reward &
Recognition Program Best Practices, 2009
Benefit 2: Strategic Recognition Ensures Values Are
Understood & Demonstrated in Daily Work
There is great value in company values – but only if they
become so “real” for employees, they know what it means in their daily work. This
Summer, Dr. Rosabeth Moss Kantor wrote in the Harvard Business Review the “Ten
Essentials for Getting Value from Values,” pointing out: “Actions
reflecting values and principles – especially difficult choices – become the
basis for iconic stories that are easy to remember and retell, reinforcing to
employees and the world what he company stands for.”
The process for getting these iconic stories shared and
discussed across the organization is easy with strategic recognition. All
employees, at every level, are encouraged to notice and appreciate the efforts
of their colleagues that reflect and demonstrate the values. Requiring a
detailed message to highlight these points and sharing the messages of
recognition broadly throughout the company also helps others learn “what the
values look like in the work” as well.
Taking the company values off the plaque on the wall and
making them real and tangible for every employee also makes it possible to
impose clear consequences for actions or behaviors that violate the values. By
creating an understanding of company values in their own, personal work, you
give your employees a positive context for understanding and repeating those
values on an ongoing basis.
Benefit 3: Strategic Recognition is Measurable
& Reportable
Recognizing and sincerely appreciating the efforts of
employees whose performance and behaviors align with your company’s strategic objectives and
values is simply the most effective way of solidifying your company culture
around your strategy. Proving this to senior executives is now possible with
strategic recognition.
As you train employees on your company’s objectives and
values through a strategic employee recognition program, you can measure every
interaction to report on multiple critical factors:
·
Values recognized and objectives achieved:
Since a value demonstrated or an objective achieved is required as a reason for
recognition, it becomes easy to track (by individual, team, division,
department, or the company as a whole) what values or objectives are recognized
less frequently. With this information, the training organization can glean
best practices from areas of high recognition to intervene and train on areas
of low recognition.
·
Performance impact: By combining
recognition and performance management data, the power of recognition to
reinforce desired behaviors and performance improvement can be proven, along
with the increase in performance on targeted objectives.
·
Retention Impact: Training new employees
to bring them up to speed is a costly endeavor. Recognition of effort and
providing employees with insight into the meaning and purpose of their work is
proven to reduce turnover. Combining retention and recognition data shows the
validity of this approach and its impact on the bottom line.
·
Engagement Impact: Employees who feel
appreciated for their efforts and know their work is helping the company
succeed become more engaged with their work, their teams, and the company as a
whole. Gallup found in research reported in September, “We find that the path
from the individual engagement elements to financial performance is stronger
than the path from financial performance to engagement.”
That means engaged employees create financial success,
not the other way around. Combined with all the other benefits of strategic
employee recognition, the benefits of recognition as a means of training on and
reinforcing company values and strategic objectives is clear.
Derek Irvine is Vice President of Client Strategy and
Consulting at Globoforce. He recently co- authored the new book “Winning with a
Culture of Recognition” (www.recognitionculture.com),
a guide to implementing strategic recognition as a sound management method that
moves employee recognition from anecdotal morale-booster to data-driven
business discipline.
Written for TrainingIndustry.com
