You Better Recognize!

“It’s just easy to do something when you’re given a simple, valid tool to use,” says Dee Spalla, director of human resources for Park Nicollet Health Services.

At Cargill, a Minnetonka-based provider of food, agricultural, and risk management products, the company’s bi-annual leadership forum and recognition conference includes an awards banquet highlighting best practices across the global organization. The nomination criteria for the awards is structured to allow employees and teams to bring to light results in a variety of ways.

“We account for results of many kinds that are less quantifiable in a traditional business sense, so it includes all employees,” says Karen Sachs, senior diversity consultant in human resources at Cargill. For instance, the company measures business outcomes against objectives such as innovation, customer focus, or leadership. A team might be recognized for improving customer experience or an innovative approach to a project. “It’s really about making a difference within the scope of your position,” Sachs says.

Don’t Forget the Small Stuff

Human resources experts say that, on average, employees like to be recognized every 7 to 10 days, meaning that just having a yearly formal program isn’t going to cut it. Courtesy, daily acknowledgment, and informal recognition should be the foundation of any organization’s recognition program.

“The day-to-day recognition is the place that most organizations lack the most, but that’s where you get the most bang for your buck,” Maehling says.

In 2005, the technology information group at Wells Fargo introduced the Take Five recognition program, which encourages informal recognition among team members. The company emphasized how little time and effort it takes to genuinely recognize colleagues with poster messages such as: “take five seconds to say thank you,” “take five minutes to send a thank you card or e-note,” and “take five hours a month to devote to diversity events, ideas, and shared values.”

“Having those on-the-spot opportunities to recognize your colleagues allows you see immediately that it is not always about money, it’s about common courtesies,” says Bridget Essma, regional development manager for Great Lakes regional banking at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis.

While a successful recognition program shouldn’t be all about the money and rewards, organizations can use the power of inventive merchandise to their advantage: a thank you note feels good, but maybe an iPod feels even better. At Park Nicollet, each Ovations recipient is entered into a sweepstakes every month for perk points, which can be used to purchase a variety of products.

Wells Fargo employees can also earn merchandise points as they are recognized for positive behaviors by their peers. Team members can redeem points for “customized awards, from key chains to iPods,” says Ryan Maddux, systems consultant at Wells Fargo. “It helps with branding and loyalty. When team members use whatever they earned regularly, it reminds them about the company and that recognition experience.”