The importance of recognition in a recession

Who knows where our economy is right now – Is it just “soft”? Are we in a recession? Is a depression coming? Regardless of where you stand, recognition should be at the forefront of your company’s strategy.

Employees at companies are scared. Are their jobs at risk? Will they get a bonus this year or a raise next year? How will they afford the rising cost of living and their mortgage? While compensation is important, don’t forget about the effect of reassurance, appreciation and recognition. These three factors are crucial in maintaining or even increasing performance, innovation and your company’s bottom line.

To illustrate this point, I offer you a hypothetical situation with 2 potential solutions.

Background: An employee hears rumors about their company – sales are slow, people may be laid off. Finances are tight at home and both you and your spouse become concerned about whether or not you are in the right job.

Solution #1:

Stay the course and ride out the downturn. Do your job and collect your check. Begin to entertain the thought of changing employers. Lose sleep at night and keep your thoughts to yourself. You don’t tell your spouse about your anxiety and don’t discuss your feelings with your co-workers or your boss.

Although this option is easiest, I offer it may not be the best. It provides no solutions for your company and sets forth a path of complacency and mediocrity.

Solution #2:

Do something. Be bold. Think outside the box. Innovate!

If you have these feelings, don’t you think your boss or co-workers do, too? Most managers do not want to hear complaints or fears. With that being said, I feel a combination of discussing your concerns along with offering solutions is a great path. If you start with your concerns and follow that with several ideas of how to improve the energy and innovation in your workplace, your manager will listen. Since this where my work lives, I want to give you some help. These are a few thoughts that will get your ideas flowing. Please feel free to apply in depth specifics to these ideas and present them to your supervisor and let me know the results! I am also here if you need help.

• Sales
  1. If your company doesn’t have a sales incentive program, put one into action. If you already do, consider refining it by adding new goals or adjusting it to recapture the hype behind the program. You can also add a short-term program for a one-time sales boost.
  2. Collect ideas from outside your sales department. Oftentimes great ideas are overlooked by the sales team. Bring in the whole team and collect ideas from customer service, operations, shipping department and management. Several ideas are sure to come from the meeting.

With either of these ideas, keep in mind that recognition for sales improvements is both a short and long term proposition. To recognize them today helps boost their ego, self-worth and confidence. The recognition will also pay-off in the long run with the employee feeling like their contributions are important and vital to the company’s success.  Sales awards are a great tool to provide this recognition. You can also choose an acrylic award, plaque or crystal award.

• Innovation Contests

Contests are a great way to build hype around the common good. Appreciating employees with awards, gifts and recognition in front of their peers are great ways to celebrate contest successes. Here are a just a few contests that we have provided awards for in the past.

1. Product improvements
2. Systems improvements
3. Cost cutting measures
4. Customer service improvements

• Training

Feel like yourself or co-workers are not trained well enough to provide a great value to the company? Suggest certification training or other types of training that improve and enhance the value to the company or customer. In difficult times, it is important to focus on improvement, not complacency. After training, make sure the employee is recognized with words of affirmation, a spot in the newsletter, or a smaller acrylic desk award so that the recipient’s accomplishment is reinforced.

• Motivation and Team Building

When the business environment is in turmoil, it is important to be aware of employee’s motivation as well as the health of the team. While contests are a great way to inject innovation and competition to the workplace, they are not the cure for happiness. If you need some fun and joy in the workplace, suggest it to your manager. Come up with a few activities that can occur either during the workday or off-hours. If there are costs involved, it is likely that your employer will be willing to contribute. Remember, anything that contributes to the employee’s happiness and well being is in the best interest of the company, both in good times and bad.

• Appreciation

Oftentimes, the biggest issue is feeling under-appreciated. Although this feeling can be real to you as an employee, asking for appreciation and getting it from your manager dilutes the feeling. As a solution for feeling under-appreciated, try taking a pro-active stance. Suggest different types of informal day-to-day recognition to your manager. This can take the form in a number of different ways such as posting thanks on a company bulletin board, intranet site, or simply thanking a co-worker in person or by email. These small words of affirmation are very effective in boosting morale and helping your company thrive in difficult times.

It is also important to work from inside out. Focus on your company’s issues first, and then perhaps recognize others outside your organization. While it is great to have a great internal structure, it is also important to note that there is a company brand that you are upholding. The time might come for your company to recognize vendors or others outside your organization. This can help with the long-term success of your company just as the internal recognition has.

At Trophies2go.com, we are committed to providing meaningful recognition to individuals and businesses. If you wish to discuss, please give me a call at 877-926-4700.

Positive Affirmation – Recognition Programs for the Year Ahead

With the year coming to a close I want to take a minute to discuss the importance of positive affirmation.  Everybody knows that this year is different.  Companies are downsizing their staff and tightening their belts.  Uncertainty is at an all-time high.

I feel now more than ever, it is time to put aside some of this uncertainty and look more positively to the future.  The recession will not last forever.  There will be a time that your company grows and thrives again.  With that being said, what is the message that you are sending your employees if you do not thank them or appreciate them for a job well done?  Even though sales might be down and morale might be low, the time is now to create the foundation for the future.

Consider implementing a sales contest.  Recognize and reward your top performers.  Create a service award program that assists with longevity and retention.  Think about safety, product enhancements and creative thought.  Implement recognition programs around a couple of your most important business challenges.  When done properly, these programs are one of the most powerful and inexpensive ways to attain your company’s goals while building a loyal and fulfilled staff.

Positive affirmation and recognition for a job well done are keys to a successful company.

Visit us today at www.trophies2go.com for a wide array of recognition awards or give us a call to assist with the creation or refinement of your recognition program.