Motivating Employees in Tough Times

“The payoff for promoting and recognizing employee creativity can be enormous,” claim the authors of the white paper. “In the 2008 Employee Involvement Association Suggestion System Survey, the 33 participating companies reported a total savings of over $564 million, with an average savings of nearly $9,000 per implemented suggestion.”

ACKNOWLEDGING THE RIGHT BEHAVIORS

Wise employers don't encourage short-term business results at the expense of the long-term value of the brand. You need to recognize employees who actively live the company's stated values.

Progressive companies are finding ways to acknowledge how well employees contribute to their vision of corporate social responsibility (CSR). And there's a payoff: many consumers seek to spend their money with companies who exhibit concern for the environment and for causes such as disaster relief or charities.

Encourage employees in their philanthropic efforts to make your company more environmentally friendly and acknowledge and celebrate their efforts throughout the company.

Implement their conservation suggestions, offer to sponsor them in races or walks that benefit charities or offer paid time off to employees who wish to volunteer as mentors in local schools or at organizations such as food banks. You'll be surprised the value these small acknowledgements will have to your company's reputation in your community. And your employees will be proud to work for you.

KEEPING THE BEST PERFORMERS

As a complement to compensation strategies, reward and recognition practices promote the company's culture, drive innovation and foster the behaviors that help a company deliver on its brand promise. At the end of the day, building a culture of recognition is about retaining great employees.

In a national study on the link between recognition and performance, nearly 80 percent of employees stated it was “very or extremely important [for employees] to be recognized by managers when they do good work.” It's good for the corporate bottom line too: A 2005 Gallup survey found that organizations where employees have above average attitudes toward their work had 38 percent higher customer satisfaction scores, 22 percent higher productivity and 27 percent higher profits.

John Stumpf, president and CEO of Wells Fargo, very publicly stated his support for recognition of employees in an ad in the Wall Street Journal. In that ad, Stumpf wrote that the recognition energizes employees. “It inspires them and their team members to want to create an even better experience for our customers … We believe our profits actually increase by rewarding and recognizing our best performers.”

Stumpf recognized that praising, acknowledging and rewarding employees can help sustain his corporate culture and reputation, drive innovation, reinforce the right behaviors and attract and retain good employees.

“Nearly every organization today is re-examining every aspect of its business, debating every cost and looking for even more ways to trim costs while still hoping to find effective ways to exploit competitive advantage,” says Mike Ryan, current president of the PIC. “People are clearly that competitive advantage, the challenge lies in finding cost effective ways to unleash human innovation, promote the right behaviors and keep the right people performing to the optimum level despite the economic chaos.”

(For more information about the white paper “Optimizing Human Capital Assets in Tough Times,” visit http://www.incentivemarketing.org.)