Are you Recognizing your Overachievers?
We often talk to our clients about the power of a rewards and recognition program for their value analysis team members, but our ideas unusually fall on deaf ears. This is always disappointing to us since we know, from industry studies and our own personal experience, that recognition is one of the most powerful human desires.
Recognition is all about appreciation and praise for the work we do and the achievements we have made in our careers and beyond. It’s more important than money to most individuals. It is what we all look for in our jobs and life! In fact, recognition is usually the number one thing mentioned in studies, when employees are asked what is most important to them in their jobs.
If you want to learn from the best with pride, it was just brought to our attention that Disney management places a huge priority on recognition programs. They even have recognition programs for cast members of the Haunted Mansion and for their monorail maintenance team. Each of these events includes recognition for time served, outstanding achievements and new ideas. “Above all”, reports Robert Shrob, President, Information Marketing, Association, “Recognition is the currency that Disney uses to motivate its employees to deliver outstanding experience to their guests”.
Shrob goes on to say, “ When (Disney) employees understand how important this day-today work is, they’ll have a lot more pride in it and will do a better job with it.” Recognition can be in the form of a ribbon, pins, certificates or just a thank you card for a job well done.
It’s not important what you give to your employees, team members or suppliers in a tangible sense, what is important is that you recognize your high achievers for the value you place in them, their work and achievements.
One last thing, too often it is thought that you must give monetary rewards to recognize achievements for them to be meaningful, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. All of the industrial studies we have seen show that it is the intangibles (praise, metals, ribbons, thank you cards, etc.) are what really have an impact on your employee’s performance, since money is quickly forgotten, but a physical object is saved, cherished and remembered forevermore.
Filed Under: Best Practices
