Importance of Recognition

Today we have a guest Blogger, our President and CEO, Jeff Anderson. He discusses why he attends the ARA trade show each year and the benefits. Enjoy! Here's Jeff:

At the beginning of each year, the Awards and Recognition Association (ARA) holds its trade show in Las Vegas. While the focus of the show is on new products and innovations in the awards industry, I get more out of it than most. Don’t get me wrong, I do want to know what new products are out there, as most of our new awards selection does come from the show. I also use it as an opportunity to select new suppliers. When meeting a new vendor, I like to know their terms of service, order processing times, shipping times, guarantees, and if they offer volume pricing. I typically select 2-3 to test-drive. I feel fortunate if one of these turns out to be a long-term supplier for us.

Jeff with the giant JDS Oscar-replica trophy at the 2013 ARA Trade Show.

The purpose of this post, however, is to dive deeper into what I get out of the show. I feel like there are 4 additional reasons that make this trade show worthwhile, including industry trends, education, giving back, and camaraderie.

Industry Trends

What is happening now that is new? What are the latest and greatest products and tools? What pains suppliers and other retailers? This helps me know what others are doing successfully and what pitfalls to avoid. This affects our business by enabling us to provide leading products and services to our customers. If I didn’t attend (and a lot of people don’t), I would be doing a disservice to my customers by putting my business on cruise control and not trying to improve.

Education

Continuing education is also an important benefit to attending the show. Although I have attended dozens of seminars in the past, I can never get enough. There are always small nuggets of information that I get from each presenter. They also serve as a way to get to know other retailers and see how they approach business. This can be eye opening at times, since there is a wide-range of business people at the education seminars. Nevertheless, there is always something to be learned – either from the seminar or the attendees. This year, I was a panel guest at a seminar, and it was an eye opening experience being the teacher instead of the attendee.

Giving Back

Since the Awards and Recognition Association has provided so much for me in the past, the least I can do is give back. This year, I have been elected to serve on the ARA board and will be guiding the direction of the organization and the industry into the future. It is an honor and a humbling experience to be given this opportunity, and I look forward to giving back even more to an organization that has helped me and my business so much in the past. The ARA has also generously awarded two of my staff college scholarships for their children through the ARIEF Scholarship Program. This organization does a great job of giving back to our community, so I want to do my part to support them. I don’t know everything by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have 20+ of years in the industry. I have a lot of experience when it comes to growing an awards business, issues with employees, customer satisfaction issues, and more. To share some of these experiences with the end result helping someone else is a great honor.

Camaraderie

Fun, Fellowship, Friendship. Being in the company of individuals in the same industry is heart-warming. Whether on the show floor, in a seminar, or (my favorite) after-hours socialization, it is nice to spend a couple of days with people who understand what you do, how you do it, and what you go through.

Whether you are a fellow ARA member or one of our customers, I hope you have enjoyed reading what I get out of attending the ARA trade show.  It's a great organization and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Best,
Jeff

As the holidays approach, life gets hectic, especially for retail industries.  Here are some ideas for planning meaningful recognition for your employees before the season hits.  Many companies host a holiday party for staff, including end-of-year gifts, awards and bonuses.  It’s important to consider who deserves recognition at this event.  Obvious choices include top performers, but also include less obvious choices as well.  Below are the five most important people to include at this celebration.

Recognizing effort is especially important at the end of the year.

 1. The Overachiever

This individual dedicates themselves to the organization.  They complete extra work without being asked and ultimately make your company money, so acknowledge them accordingly.

 2. Perfect Attendance

No one likes employees that abuse their “sick day” privileges, especially when a deadline is looming.  Often another employee has to work double to cover the truant one.  It’s important to let individuals who never miss a day know how much you appreciate their dedication.

 3. Top Producers

Top producers with outstanding sales deserve recognition at your event. The awards you give these individuals should be the most elaborate of the event.  Other staff will hopefully feel motivated to become next year’s recipient.

4. Leaders

Every group has a leader, motivating, inspiring, and teaching other members on the team. Give proper accolades to the leaders in your organization who excel, as they are ultimately the right-hand of your business.

5. Unsung Heroes

Recognize personal assistants, administrative assistants, janitors, and other professionals who make your life easier.  The janitor who changes the trash can and vacuums the office every night, the messenger who delivers express packages in time for a presentation, and the guy or gal who changes the sheets at a hospital or nursing home are the unsung heroes who make the organization run smoothly.  These people are valuable contributors to your organization and deserve to be acknowledged for all the deeds they do!

Be thoughtful and creative with your recognition, as small gestures can bring great results.  Don’t let another year go by without saying thank you to those people who keep the company running smoothly.

Cheers,
Jessica

Are your employees invested in your company’s success? Do they believe that what they do makes a difference?

Are your employees engaged?

I read in a Gallup Poll (Oct. 2011) that 71% of American workers are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” in their work.  That’s a huge number. These workers are not actively invested in their company’s success.  They’re just putting in the time, punching the clock. Even more surprising is that those most likely to be less engaged are workers with at least some college education or workers who are middle-aged (30-64 years of age.)  These are people who have been educated for a specific career and are most likely in the middle of their working careers.  And they are least engaged.

The term Employee Engagement is getting a lot of play right now. But it’s really not all that new.  If you want to know if your employees are ‘engaged’, ask them if they like what they do.  Ask them what their strengths are and if they feel they are using those strengths.  If they really don’t know or have never given it much thought, help them figure it out. When a person is able to work to their strengths, they will be less stressed and more productive in their job.  Better yet, help them develop new strengths if that is something they’d like to do. This leads to greater employee engagement.   A bigger challenge could be what they need to feel more invested.

Communicate with your employees.  That’s not new, is it?  Open communications is the only way each of you will know what’s going on.  An owner or manager needs to share the company mission and what role employees play in it. They need to give them feedback on their individual and team performance.  Employees need to ask for clarification on their roles, ask for support, communicate what they need to be effective in their job and provide feedback to management.  The employee is the person in the day-to-day operations and knows best how processes are working and which products are selling.  The manager needs to listen to this feedback and use this information to make process and product decisions.  And the company needs to provide an easy way for employees to communicate with each other, sharing the information needed so they can work together toward the company mission.

Once employees have the right job or task or career, and once open communication exists and is used effectively, make sure that correct measurements, or key performance indicators are in place. Accountability is a key factor in motivation for any employee.  It’s very critical that the measurements reflect the employee’s responsibilities and that they are reported accurately.

And if you want even more engagement and investment from your employees, make sure to use that open communication and those measurements in combination to recognize every employee for their contribution. Whether it’s quantifiable, such as a sales quota achievement, or more subjective, like the unsung hero, show employees how they have contributed to the organizations success. Show them in front of others, informally and formally.  The timing is perfect right now to do this.  The end of the year is a perfect time to recognize those employees who have performed well in 2012.  They’ll start 2013 more engaged and ready to go!

Spend some time evaluating if your employees are engaged and involved.  Do they like what they are doing?  Are they using their strengths? Does open communication exist in your organization?  Be real about this.  Ask for honest feedback to see if others feel the same way you do. Are you measuring your employees on key factors that contribute to the success of your company?  Are you rewarding them when they perform well in these measurements? Use the answers to these questions to set a plan in place now.  Employee Engagement - not as hard as you think.

Blessings, Anne

'AWESOME' Ribbons

At Trophies2Go, each and every day we help companies recognize their employees.  We create meaningful awards for top performers, sales stars, employees of the month, retirees, years of service, managers – you name it, we make it.  But what do we do for our own employees?

Our newest informal recognition program - Awesome Ribbons.

This fall, we created a new informal recognition program called “Awesome Ribbons”.  The original goal of the program was to increase internal team-building.   If a person noticed a co-worker doing something they deemed ‘awesome’, they awarded them a ribbon.  These blue ribbons had the word 'AWESOME' on it in rainbow colors.  Each person had 10 ‘Awesome’ ribbons to give away in a month and a half.

Instructions:

DO: Give them to your co-worker when you notice him/her do something exceptional, either for you, another co-worker, a customer, or the overall company.  Write the date, your name, the recipient’s name, and the task that earned the ribbon on the back (stickers were provided to write this info).  Give them out before November 15, 2012.  Display the ribbons you earn at your desk or work space.  Keep the ribbons you earn – you will need them in the future.  Have fun awarding your co-workers & receiving recognition!

DON’T:  Give them away for no reason.  These are for awesome and exceptional things only!  Give them for a petty reason, like looking nice or having a good day.  “Re-gift” a ribbon.  They only get awarded once.  Bribe others to get them.  They must be earned.

Ribbons started circulating throughout the company within the office, at our production facility, and between the two sites.  Ribbons also started showing up at work stations – pinned to bulletin boards, taped to computers, shelves and printers.  It was fun to see everyone getting recognized for going above and beyond for the company, our customers and each other.  After some time, the Nov 15^th deadline arrived and the program was ended.  Now came the important part of any recognition program - evaluating how effective the program was and if the goal of the program was attained.

After surveying our staff about the 'Awesome Ribbons', here’s what we discovered:

When we started the program, we weren’t exactly sure how the Awesome Ribbons would be used.  Overall feedback about the program was positive.  Our staff enjoyed giving and receiving recognition with each other.  However, this seemed most worthwhile if it wasn’t tied to a competition.  There was some confusion about what tasks were worthy of a ribbon.  This wasn’t well defined.  The majority of our staff wanted to continue the program.

When it was all said and done, here's what we learned from our experience:

When creating a recognition program, things may not always go as planned; what you intend to happen doesn't always occur.  This was the case for our program.   We were glad that people liked giving and receiving recognition, but didn't expect that people wouldn't want to be competitive with their ribbons.

When evaluating a recognition program, it's important to figure out what you did well and where you can improve for the future.  That 's the best way to improve your program and reach your goal.  When evaluating our 'Awesome Ribbons' program, what we did well was communicate the program, have a defined test period, and evaluate our staffs' experiences when it was completed.  What we didn't do well was set criteria for giving a ribbon and set the expectation that this program was a competition.

Our President, Jeff, has decided to keep the program going for now.  The original goal of team building was met, along with more recognition within our company, which is always a good thing!

Our Other Recognition Programs for 2013

1. Years of Service Awards

2. 'Honey Badger of the Quarter' Award

3. President’s Award (Unsung Hero)

For more information about creating a Recognition Program for your organization, please contact us – we’d be happy to help you.

Cheers,

Jessica

Volunteers are people who are willing to work for free, with only the payment of knowing that they’re making a difference in the world.  Whether it’s a school, business, government or another community group, many organizations can’t afford to hire the staff they need to get the job done.  They rely on trained volunteers to fill the gaps in workload.

Volunteers may work for free, but that doesn't mean they don't deserve recognition just like any other employee.

What Motivates Volunteers?

As a former coordinator of over 300 volunteers, and having been a volunteer for various groups for over the past 20 years, I have a lot of experience of what makes volunteers tick.

Volunteers do the work they do because they want to make a difference.  They have a vested interest in the work of the organization in order for it to be worthy of their time and effort.  For example, Anne and I have been volunteering as Girl Scout leaders together for the past 6 years.  We believe what we’re doing is helping grow confident, independent women full of courage and compassion.  Since both of our daughters are in the group, we have a vested interest in the outcome of our work.  In my former life, I coordinated volunteers who lived on lakes and took water quality samples to track lake health over time.  These citizen volunteers had a vested interest in the results of their work as it directly affected their home value, health and quality of life.  I find that most volunteers find value in giving their time and often receive more than they give.  However, that doesn’t mean that they should be ignored and go unrecognized for their time and effort.  Just like any paid employee, volunteers need recognition for a job well done.

How Do You Recognize Volunteers?

Unlike paid employees, volunteers aren't motivated by money.  So what's the best way to acknowledge their efforts?  Below are some ideas of what I’ve done to recognize volunteers and things I’ve received as a volunteer that has been meaningful to me.

Anne volunteering her time as a Girl Scout leader.

Give meaningful gifts.  It doesn’t have to be big or expensive, but volunteers love thoughtful gifts related to the work they do.  For example, I’m a Master Gardener and volunteer my time answering gardening questions.  For recognition, our leader gave each of us a bouquet of dahlias with a small handwritten note; another year she gave us gardening gloves with a seed packet inside.  For girl scouts, one year each leader received an embroidered ‘Girl Scout Leader’ tote bag; another year we received a girl scout mug with themed M&Ms inside.  These small gifts were thoughtful gestures with a personal touch that I loved receiving and made me feel valued by the organization.

Host educational events related to the work they do.  My lake volunteers were often retired and didn’t need more stuff to add to their overflowing homes.  So instead of a gift or award, I offered a yearly recognition event to thank them for their work.  One year I had a local meteorologist  lecture to my volunteers; another year I organized a private tour of the pristine watershed where our drinking water comes from.  Both of these events were related to their volunteer work (water quality) and were well attended by the volunteers.

Feed your volunteers a meal.  Host a luncheon or dinner where you invite all of the volunteers in your organization as a thank you.  Everyone loves a free meal and a chance to visit with others in the organization.

Recognize extraordinary service at a yearly meeting.  If a volunteer has served the organization for a long time, or has gone above or beyond for the group, they deserve special  recognition.  This recognition is most effective in front of a group of peers, either at a special meeting or at a yearly banquet.  An engraved award is an appropriate symbol of this recognition and would be very meaningful.  Just as with any other award presentation, be sure to think about what is said about the volunteer recipient, as this moment can make a big impact.

Recognize volunteers in print.  At my daughter’s elementary school, all volunteers are listed and thanked both in the weekly school bulletin and the monthly PTA newsletter.  Why go to all that effort?  Because volunteers like to be acknowledged for the work they’ve done.  Be sure to include a thank you and list of volunteers in programs, newsletters, web sites, and other publications.

Ask for and value their feedback.  As a volunteer coordinator, each year I would send a survey to my volunteers asking for their feedback of our program.  Volunteers have a lot to give besides just their time.  They feel valued and appreciated when their suggestions are heard.

Even though most volunteers are donating their time as a labor of love, they still need to be recognized for their efforts.  Consider putting some thought into how to appreciate those who give so much without expecting anything in return.

Cheers, Jessica