Employee Recognition Can Make a Difference
By David Saxby

As I approached the drive-up window of a fast-food restaurant, I noticed a young employee who was jumping up and down, flailing her arms and screaming with excitement. As soon as she noticed she had a customer at the window, she bolted from across the room where she had been doing her dance of joy. In my limited number of visits to fast-food restaurants, I have never seen an employee who was that excited at work. Curiosity had the best of me; I had to ask what caused her to be so enthusiastic about her job in the middle of a lunch rush.

It seems that another employee had just been shopped by a mystery shopping company that was evaluating the restaurant's customer service skills and the staff's ability to increase the amount of customer orders. The restaurant passed with flying colors and each on-duty employee received a small prize to recognize them for their team efforts and for doing what they were trained to do - create a quality experience for the customer.

I thought about what I had witnessed as I drove away from the restaurant. What a powerful tool recognition can be in getting people excited about doing their job to the best of their ability! That small prize had a tremendous impact on an employee's attitude about her job, the customer and the company she works for.

I'm amazed by the number of companies that spend thousands of dollars to improve their technology, increase their marketing efforts and set up that next killer sales program. Yet they don't quite see the benefit of making an investment in recognizing the most valuable asset they have: their front-line employees. These are the people who interact with the customer every day, handle customer-service conflicts and generate revenue for the company.

You should give serious thought to the following tips for giving your employees more recognition!

Recognize small improvements. Recognition is not just about saluting the top performers; it's about recognizing people who improve their skills every day to provide better customer service and sell more product. Your investment in recognition will have a stronger impact when it touches more people.

It's not just the money. Recognition comes in many forms, from a hand-written thank-you note, to the manager or president of the company praising their work, to the plaque with their name on it that sits in the lobby for the world to see. If you're looking for new ideas on how to recognize employees, buy "1001 Ways to Reward Employees" by Bob Nelson. His book is full of strategies that companies are using to offer recognition to their employees.

What is important to them? Ask your employees for their ideas on how they would like to be recognized for a job well done. You might be amazed by the low-cost suggestions they share with you. The more personal the recognition is to the employees, the more impact your efforts will have and the longer they will remember it.

Provide immediate recognition. Recognition is not just the annual awards banquet or the monthly meeting where people are acknowledged for their efforts. You need to recognize a positive attitude or behavior immediately. Have you ever received a thank-you note 30 days after you bought a product or service from a company? Did it leave you with a warm feeling that they appreciate your business and that you're an important customer? Or did you have a hunch a computer finally reminded the company they had better thank you? Compliment and reward people when they are using those skills they have learned. Create that special recognition award that you can put in their hand to reward them on the spot for a job well done.

Is it working? Most companies have a hard time investing money in something that doesn't give them measurable results. Establish a process to measure the impact that recognition has on sales and service. Survey the customers, survey the employees and track sales or productivity before and after you implement the recognition program.

If one small prize can make a young woman jump for joy, how much impact could a well-thought-out incentive program have on the bottom-line profits of your company?

 

David Saxby is president of Measure-X, a Phoenix, Ariz.-based measurement, training and recognition company that specializes in customer service skills and employee retention. He can be reached at 888-644-5499 or via e-mail at david@measure-x.com. Visit the Measure-X Web site at www.measure-x.com.