CELEBRATING MILESTONES

Celebrate milestones: demonstrate how your people’s great work has contributed to your organizations success.
We believe that from hire to retire, when you celebrate employees through every stage of their careers, you inspire loyalty and remind them they belong to something bigger. Something important. Something that’s making a difference.
Help your people experience a sense of unity and belonging to something bigger. Why is it so important to align your brand with the awards you give? Organization-branded items can greatly enhance the personalization of the award and create additional pride and attachment to your organization. These symbolic award options help create a sense of unity and belonging to something bigger.
A study of 10,333 people (representing a wide range of industries) were surveyed in 13 Countries to determine more about the drivers of engagement and how appreciation affect these drivers. One of the three drivers of engagement is PRIDE.
Pride “I feel a strong sense of pride when I see our organization’s brand / symbol / logo.”

Majority of American Workers Not Engaged in Their Jobs

According to a recent Gallup poll - Seventy-one percent of American workers are "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their work, meaning they are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and are less likely to be productive. That leaves nearly one-third of American workers who are "engaged," or involved in and enthusiastic about their work and contributing to their organizations in a positive manner. This trend remained relatively stable throughout 2011.

These findings are from a special Gallup Daily tracking series conducted on an ongoing basis since the fourth quarter of 2010 to explore American workers' engagement levels. Gallup's employee engagement index is based on worker responses to 12 actionable workplace elements with proven linkages to performance outcomes, including productivity, customer service, quality, retention, safety, and profit. Further research shows significant linkages between engagement at work and health and wellbeing outcomes.
Americans' levels of engagement at work are generally consistent with Gallup's trends on workplace engagement from various studies since 2000. The current percentage of engaged employees is similar to the historical high of 30% in 2001 to 2002 and 2006 to 2007. The percentage who are actively disengaged is near the high of 20% recorded in 2007 and 2008.
Article date October 28, 2011

How does your T-E-A-M rank? Take the test!

Measure Your Team Engagement
In our work with global organizations, we find that teams with the most engaged people have the best results. Here’s a simple test to determine the engagement level of your squad. If your team members answer 'yes' to the following questions, there’s a good chance they are engaged.

•My team consistently puts in extra effort beyond what is expected.
•My team is highly motivated to contribute to the success of the organization.
•My team has a strong sense of personal accomplishment from its work.
•My team understands how its roles help the organization meet its goals.
•My team always has a positive attitude when performing its duties at work.
•My manager does a good job of recognizing employee contributions.
•My team consistently looks for more efficient and effective ways to getting the job done.

How did your team do? What have you done this week to build engagement within your team?

What can YOU do to motivate your team? Funny you should ask! Here are a couple of suggestions:

Give each team member a stack of thank-you cards and ask them to recognize co-workers when they see them furthering your organization's values.

One day a week, let team members work on a self-defined project. The only qualifier is that the project benefits the team!

Take responsibility for your own mistakes; but share the credit for your successes. Fun follow-up: Whenever you make a team-related presentation, make it a point to mention, by name, team members who helped- even if they just cheered you on!

Make a list of what you know about each person on your team. What do they do at work? What do they hang on their office/cubicle walls? Do they have kids/pets? If so, what are their names? Then ask yourself: Which co-worker do I know the LEAST about? Take time today to visit that person in their office and get to know them better!

At the end of each day, take a moment to gather the team and write down three things that went right. Getting in the habit of looking for the positives around you will pay dividends at the office, at home and socially. It also gives you many things to recognize as a team!

Raising Engagement - Cut through the hot air about engagement to find factors that motivate your employees

By Adrienne Fox - HR Magazine

A vast majority of employees say they are disengaged or not engaged, creating an unproductive—or, worse, toxic—work environment.

The August 2009 Gallup Employee Engagement Index reported that only 33 percent of workers are engaged in their jobs, 49 percent are not engaged, and 18 percent are actively disengaged. The Gallup Organization defines the categories as follows:

Engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organization forward.

Non-engaged employees have essentially “checked out.” They sleepwalk through workdays. They put in time but don’t approach their work with energy or passion.

Actively disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what engaged co-workers accomplish.

Gallup researchers, who base the Employee Engagement Index on a survey of nearly 42,000 randomly selected adults, estimate that disengaged workers cost U.S. businesses as much as $350 billion a year.

While troubling, these figures could also be viewed as an opportunity to re-engage a large percentage of disengaged workers—and reap financial benefits. Other research shows that companies with highly engaged employees perform better: Gallup’s 2009 analysis of 199 surveys found that business units scoring in the top half on employee engagement double their odds of delivering high performance compared to those in the bottom half. Those at the 99th percentile are nearly five times more likely to deliver high performance than those at the 1st percentile.

In a subsequent study in January of this year, Gallup researchers found that companies in the top 10 percent on employee engagement bested their competition by 72 percent in earnings per share during 2007-08. For companies that scored beneath the top quartile, earnings fell 9.4 percent below their competition.

And in a September 2009 study of 50 multinational companies, the London office of Towers Perrin, now Towers Watson, documented the impact of engagement on financial performance. The report found that during a span of 12 months, companies with high levels of engagement outperformed those with less-engaged employees in operating income, net income growth rate and earnings per share growth rate.

“Our research shows that the connection between employee engagement and business performance is [a stronger] indicator than any other measure of employee attitude and business performance,” explains Julie Gebauer, managing director at Towers Watson in New York. It “makes a difference in terms of dollars and cents.”

Reports such as these have piqued the interest of executives seeking to move the needle of engagement in their favor. HR professionals are now bombarded with a multitude of sales pitches for survey tools, models, books and technology—all promising to deliver improved employee engagement.

What is your company doing to improve employee engagement? Are your executives on board? Contact your Baltimore Team for asisstance with all your appreciation needs.
410-661-5668 or email Baltimore@octanner.com.

A review of THE CARROT PRINCIPLE in Financial Executive Magazine

The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent and Accelerate Performance; revised edition. By Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.

In this, their second look at the use of corporate carrots--the first edition was a big 2007 seller--authors Gostick and Elton offer further evidence that praise and recognition belong in every manager's toolkit. In fact, they write, in the long-standing recession, "the Carrot philosophy has never been more relevant."

Indeed, finding ways to recognize people and honor their work doesn't require new resources, just new ways of thinking. Recognition isn't simply the softer side of leadership, they write, but a "secret ingredient that great leaders add to their companies for [a] direct impact on profits."

Organizations that more effectively recognize and reOward excellence, according to a 10-year study of more than 200,000 employees cited in the book, had triple the return on equity as companies that did the worst at recognition. And of employees reporting the highest morale, more than 94 said their managers were good at recognition.

These numbers stand in sharp contrast to others evincing the general sorry state of recognition efforts. Almost two-thirds of North American workers cited in the study said they had no recognition at all in the past year, and 79 percent of top performers who left their companies said "lack of appreciation" was a key reason.

The authors do a superb job of sketching out how and why recognition programs work, citing companies like Quest Diagnostics, KPMG, WaltDisney Co., Avis Budget Group and DHL. As they write, "Smart companies have realized that workers are being asked to do more than ever, and find work less fulfilling. Recognition that builds motivation is essential to keeping them and to getting the most from them."

Engage Employee Heart-Power - Not Just Brain-Power

We've heard that some companies believe there are more important ways to drive engagement than appreciation. Did you know that the number one driver of engagement is "opportunity and well-being"? But how do you add that? The right question might be.. what creates a sense of "opportunity and well-being"? The answer is appreciation..

Here's an interesting article from Harvard Business dated November 11, 2009 that speaks to engaging hearts through leadership.

On any given Sunday in the NFL, the heart power of the players is at least as important as the brain power of the game plan. On any given workday, the same can be said for businesses. But companies lack confidence when it comes to creating heart power in employees. They're not sure how to do it well. So they concentrate brain power on the game plan of translating top-line dollars into bottom-line profit.

Creating heart power starts with management's style of running the company — how much of the time executives spend leading and how much time managing. Managing has to do with matters of the brain; leading has to do with matters of the heart.

Leading is about making sure, first of all, that the company is engaged in changing people's lives for the better. When that's the case, employees' awareness that they have a lot to do with the company's work lights their fire from within. That inner flame causes them to bring their imagination and creativity to the enterprise. They feel it's "their" company, and they take ownership of the customers.

Most companies do change people's lives for the better, if only in the sense that they pay a good wage, provide opportunities for creativity and betterment, and help workers save for retirement and put their kids through school — in addition to benefiting the community in myriad ways. Other companies, such as the one I work for, go much further. For example, to provide people with a good education, the founders bought a bankrupt college years ago, got it into shape, and donated it to the state — it's now known as Ball State University. A business that is engaged in improving lives is the kind of company people want to sell for.

Another word about heart and leadership: A lot of big companies tell new employees to bring their brains and their effort to work but leave their emotional baggage at home. In essence, they tell them to cut their hearts out and leave them on the doorstep to be reclaimed when they get home. "We have enough problems of our own; we don't need your personal problems here" is an example of a style where the "managing" function dominates.

Other companies, generally small businesses that excel in the "leading" functions, hire the whole person, heart and soul, mind and brain. When problems occur in the home, a company support group forms to help get the employee through the trauma. That generates dedication and loyalty, which rub off on customers. And because the employee's life is changing for the better, he or she makes sure the company's corporate life changes for the better as well. Companies neglect employee heart power at their peril.

Clif Reichard is a sales consultant for Ball Corporation, which he has served for 36 years in capacities including vice president of sales. He is in his 55th year selling rigid packaging substrates. This post is one in an occasional series.

Employee Engagement Rooted in Managers' Leadership Skills

To drive higher levels of employee engagement, companies should work on improving the leadership skills of frontline managers, says a new report from Aberdeen Group. "Employee engagement is something world-class organizations need to be effective at in today's competitive environment," says Mollie Lombardi, an Analyst at Aberdeen. "Learning programs provide individuals and managers with the skills and tools to align goals and priorities, and give a strong foundation which organizations can build on in order to achieve success."

According to Beyond Satisfaction: Engaging Employees to Retain Customers, more than half of best-in-class organizations provide training and tools to managers to help them better engage employees, and nearly all of the rest (45%) are planning to extend this type of training in the future. The report also found that two programs – onboarding and development plans agreed to by manager and employee – are critical to building high levels of engagement. Onboarding ensures that employees are aligned with the organizational mission and priorities from their earliest days, and development plans ensure that employees and managers remain in alignment when it comes to their role in achieving organizational success.

"This study is important because it highlights the need to develop strong leadership skills at all levels in the organization, not just in the corner office," notes John Ambrose, Senior Vice President of Strategy, Corporate Development and Emerging Business at SkillSoft, which conducted the research along with Aberdeen Group. "The challenge comes in finding ways to deliver leadership training that are cost-effective and scalable."

Companies Plan to Increase Focus on Employee Engagement in Reward Programs

57% of companies plan to increase their focus on employee engagement in measuring their reward programs during the next two to three years, according to a recent study by WorldatWork and the Hay Group. In addition, 64% will also increase their future focus on the motivational value of reward programs.
The "Reward Next Practices Survey" queried approximately 763 organizations in 66 countries from a cross section of industries to determine the reward practices of global organizations during the next two to three years. According to the study, current reward program performance metrics are more heavily weighted toward financial performance than employee engagement, with companies reporting a current focus of 71% on using financial performance measurements and 40% on employee engagement. Other performance standards, such as customer satisfaction, innovation, talent management and employee engagement are all at less than 40% of current focus by organizations. Of all of these metrics, organizations report a more intense future focus (57%) on employee engagement performance.