March Webinar Update - Improving Staff Engagement: A practical toolkit....

Thank you to all of you who attended our recent webinar on March 18, 2010: Engagement Done Right: What You Can Learn from Leading Healthcare Organizations.

Our next webinar is scheduled for May. Updates and information will be posted on this site as we know more; but feel free to contact our office closer to the time if you have any questions - Baltimore@octanner.com.

If you were unable to attend the March webinar, here is the link for a recording of the session: https://octannerevents.webex.com/octannerevents/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=2107187&rKey=a18eeaf1d61e989f .
Also, as promised to attendees, here is the link to the white paper 'Improving Staff Engagement: A practical toolkit': http://www.octanner.com/public/pdf/whitePapers/OCT-NHS-Engagement-Briefing-11-09.pdf.

This recording and white paper provide an inside look at some of today's most successful appreciation practices.
To find out more on how to engage your staff, and for help with all your recognition needs, please contact your Baltimore 'appreciateology' team. We're happy to help you with all your recognition solutions - Baltimore@octanner.com. Remember to appreciate!

Cutbacks: Don't Neglect the Survivors

How to keep the delicate ties that bind employees to their companies from snapping.
By Bill Conaty – BusinessWeek

Restructurings, consolidation, salary freezes, a shifting health-care cost burden, furloughs, 401(k) match eliminations...this list, as you know, goes on and on. Did your company cancel this year's Christmas party?

These are common responses to our changing corporate landscape. And they can be necessary. Businesses that don't step up and react to reality are unlikely to survive over the long term.
My concern is that, cumulatively, these negative actions are tugging at and fraying the delicate bonds of loyalty that tie employees to their employers. I believe it will be the companies that manage to deftly balance the necessary tough competitive actions with genuine compassion for their employees that will win big in the future.

People have long memories. What they don't have right now are a whole lot of career options. And they will judge their employer by how equitably they feel they were treated during the down market. So how exactly do you steer your company through this in a way that won't drive your people into the arms of the first headhunter who calls? (Trust me, they will start dialing again.) Just as vital: How to take the tough steps while energizing your workforce instead of paralyzing them?

As counter intuitive as it may sound, consider going deeper than you might on staff reductions, rather than nibbling around the edges hoping for a quick market turnaround. Some companies believe in "share the pain" scenarios, where everyone gets to sacrifice equally at the corporate altar. I'm not a fan of such strategies unless they address a short-term crisis in which a company expects to be reducing forces and hiring within the same year. In my view, these practices ensure that 100% of your workforce is demoralized, vs. the 10% to 20% whom you really can't afford in the current climate.

When you're ready to make those cuts, deal compassionately with the casualties, financially and emotionally, to provide them as soft a landing as possible. Career transition centers, training opportunities, and a sincere interest in helping those who are moving on become more marketable will genuinely help.

Many companies don't need to be told that. Instead, managers often spend a disproportionate amount of time managing the layoff process and not enough attention on the surviving talent. Those survivors need to be recognized and rewarded. Yes, they'll pay close attention to how humanely layoffs are carried out, but they're also aware that their own workload and stress level has just been stepped up. You want this group to play offense, not to fret over when the next shoe will drop or feel that they're being overburdened.

With financial rewards temporarily off the screen, an astonishingly powerful form of recognition is a genuine pat on the back, along with words along these lines: "I think you're doing a great job under tough circumstances, and you're an essential part of my team." It doesn't take long to say or cost a penny, but how many of us have ever heard those words?

There's a strong tendency for executives in tight spots to simply clam up, fearing they don't have the answers people want to hear. To avoid appearing inadequate, they'll issue the occasional all-employee e-mail or canned Web cast. But you'll find that you don't need to have all the answers. You'll discover that the rumor mill has painted the most pessimistic picture imaginable, and you will quickly be able to dispel numerous falsehoods and present a clearer and more optimistic view. These times call for a personal touch. Employees who get to see and hear their leaders are far more likely to buy into a future beyond the crisis.

Now back to the subject of holiday parties: It's a mistake to legislate fun out of the workplace. You need to continue to celebrate, especially in tough times. Employees shouldn't feel that it's wrong to appear to be having fun at the risk of their superiors thinking they're not serious enough. We need to dial down how we celebrate, yes, but it's not natural to have to continuously wear a deadly serious game face. Life's too short to have to feel that way, let alone act that way.
As the clouds blow away, I'll be placing my bets on companies that are the most open, ethically compliant, and compassionate with their people. They'll be the ones that succeed in retaining—and therefore attracting—world-class talent.

Bill Conaty is a former senior vice-president for human resources at General Electric and is co-authoring a book with Ram Charan tentatively titled The Talent Masters.

Contact your Baltimore 'appreciatologists' for assistance with all your recognition needs: baltimore@octanner.com.

And the award goes to....

O.C. Tanner is pleased to congratulate the first ever recipients of the O.C. Tanner Inspiration Award....

Noelle Pikus-Pace who nominated her husband Janson. Nick Baumgartner and his much-loved mother Mary. Curt Tomasevicz and the ENTIRE town of Shelby, NE. (Yes, all 690 of them!) Congratulations to this year's recipients. We appreciate their contributions to their communities, friend and family - they inspire us all.

Thanks to everyone that voted for your favorite inspirational stories from our Olympic athletes.
There were 37 nominations overall and almost 900, 000 votes. To find out more about the winners check out O.C. Tanner's Appreciation Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/octanner.appreciation?v=app_273183691422

To learn more about O.C. Tanner and how Appreciation really does change everything please call your Baltimore Team. We're here to help you with all your recognition needs - 410-661-5668.

In Praise of Praise - How can you build your workplace morale – and inspire the best from your employees?

This is a great article from Susan Adams at Forbes Magazine. Here she focuses the power of employee appreciation and mentions our very own award winning Carrot Culture Gurus, Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick.
For all your employee recognition needs please contact the Baltimore Appreciateologists at baltimore@octanner.com, or call 410-661-5668. We look forward to helping you with your recognition solutions….

Expressing appreciation can be an extremely effective way to motivate employees, yet few bosses do it. The first time a boss thanked me for my work, I felt startled and a little confused. What? Had I heard that right? She's thanking me for doing the job I'm paid to do? Who expresses gratitude in the rude, no-nonsense world of journalism?

I'd spent the first phase of my career reporting to one of the toughest bosses in New York magazines, the brilliant but explosive Steven Brill, who ran The American Lawyer the old fashioned way, with excruciatingly high standards and frequent expletives. Then in the early '90s I found myself working under Robert MacNeil, at PBS' MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. An exceedingly decorous man, MacNeil even thanked the janitors, setting an office tone where managers expressed appreciation at the end of each day. Once I got over my initial surprise, I realized I very much liked it when my senior producer thanked my team and me for giving the program our all.

Although appreciation and praise, especially when expressed specifically, inevitably make employees feel more loyal and more engaged, all too few bosses practice the art of gratitude, says Chester Elton, a motivation consultant. A recent study found that between 75% and 80% of American workers said they got little or no recognition from their managers in the last year. Together with a co-author, Adrian Gostick, Elton has written four books on using recognition and praise to boost results, most recently The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance.

In that book, Elton and Gostick include the results of a survey they commissioned of 200,000 American workers that demonstrates a link between bosses who recognize employees with praise, along with other signs of appreciation like holiday parties and handwritten notes, and a company's financial performance. The survey shows return on equity three times higher for companies that engage in employee appreciation. Their workers are more creative and more dedicated to the business's success, and they have a stronger bond to their company and its goals, according to the research.

For the last decade Elton has been working at Carrot Culture, the leadership and training division of a Salt Lake City company called O.C. Tanner, which started 84 years ago as a maker of employee recognition lapel pins. Now O.C. Tanner produces all sorts of employee recognition products and services for companies, including awards, trophies and gift passes. As a Carrot Culture speaker, Elton charges $20,000 per appearance.

He insists that appreciation works, especially during these recessionary times when companies have cut monetary bonuses and awards. Though it costs a company nothing, verbal praise can be as effective as a cash award, he says. Hard Rock Café, the restaurant chain, did a study on the effect of managers welcoming their shifts, thanking employees for coming in and making a few inquiries about their personal lives and families. Just a minute a day of verbal appreciation reduced employee turnover by 3%, Elton says.

Source, Susan Adams, http://www.forbes.com/