Articles
What Makes Employees Mad - Part II | What Makes Employees Mad - Part III
Workplace Wrath: Using Anger to Build | All Praise to the Supervisor | Listen First
Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions | The Emperor’s New Clothes - Providing Negative Feedback
Practicing Safe Stress | The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part V – Recognition
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part V – Opportunity to Do My Best
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part IV – Employer Expectation
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Employee Opinions
The Pied Piper of Employee Retention Part II – Tools and Equipment
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Caring Supervisor

The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention
Part V – Recognition

How does a company keep employees satisfied and turnover low? “Companies with the strongest human capital deliver superior returns for shareholders” 22 Keys to Creating a Meaningful Workplace. Businesses are now beginning to realize the direct relationship between employee retention and business goals. How does a business keep the Pied Piper from playing the “Em-ployee Shuffle” on his flute and enticing valuable employees to “greener pastures”?
In the book entitled First Break All the Rules, the authors, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, write about a survey conducted by the Gallup Poll using the responses of over 100,000 employees. Marcus and Buckingham found that organizations, where employees have above average satisfaction rate, companies have: 38% higher customer satisfaction scores, 22% higher productivity, and 27% higher profits!

With the expertise of this world-famous polling organization they were able to establish a list of questions which are directly related to employee retention. The focus of this article is on one of the questions concerning recognition: "In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?"

There is a simple truth stated in this book which is worth exploring, “employees do not quit companies, they quit supervisors”. You ask, “Wait a minute, doesn’t pay matter? What about good benefits, wouldn’t that keep employees here?” Money and benefits are necessary - however; many studies have proven money is a satisfier, not a motivator.

When employees receive adequate compensation, increased pay won't buy increased production and the lack of more money won't make them quit. Sure, people work for a pay and benefits plan but they won’t provide their best effort unless something else is present. In many exit interviews employees cite money as their excuse but often it a deeper reason. Think about a labor union strike. Can you picture a union employee walking the picket line with a sign that reads “Management does value my work!”? No, even if the employee is frustrated with the lack of recognition what do they argue over? Money and benefits, for those are “safe” areas to fight over.

Consider a reporter who was writing an article for his weekly column concerning the local school system. In his research one school stood out for academic excellence, teacher satisfaction, and student achievement. When this reporter was taken on a tour of this school by the principal they came upon the custodian mopping the hallway. The principal stopped and introduced the janitor to the writer. “This is Mr. Johnson, our school custodian. He sets an excellent atmosphere for learning.” How do you think that custodian felt? Do you think he had an extra bounce in his step that day, maybe even “joy of job?”

How to provide recognition to employees? You could do like one organization who’s executives decided to award the Employee of the Month by having another employee dress up as a pink bunny and in front of their coworkers deliver presents of flowers, candy and gift certificates. Fortunately this idea failed for lack of a volunteer to be the bunny. As ludicrous as this sound, it would work at Southwest Airlines. Here their corporate culture is regular employee validation and having fun at work. At Southwest their employees are involved in ways of celebrating each other and it is not a trickle down ploy decided upon high by a group of isolated and unaware corporate managers.

Well then how about Performance Appraisals? Isn’t that the place for recognition? I know of only one manager who ever successfully used performance appraisals to motivate employees. That manager is Malcolm Brignac with BRDC in Baton Rouge. Once a year, Malcolm would spend six to eight hours with each employee. These were not butt-chewing sessions but strategy sessions. The basic tenet was to allow the employee to decide what they would like to accomplish during the next year, how they could help the company. The key type of questions Malcolm asked in those sessions were, “How can I help you achieve your goals? How have I interfered with you last year and what do you need me to do better this year? In short he puts the focus himself, creating a level planning field for meaningful dialogue. Did he hold his employees accountable; sure, but the regular updates concerned how the employee’s game plan was progressing and how management can help. In this example the employees received and were provided regular feedback on how the plan was progressing, validation for what was accomplished and assistance on correcting any deviation. The important thing to recognize, it was the employee’s plan, not management’s heavy dictatorial hand!

The idea in a successful review is not to build a case to force the employee to improve or to build a case so they can legally be fired. Instead focus on having the employee understand how they fit in the overall business and how their efforts contribute to the team. Successful reviews should be used as a way to keep good employees and not weed out bad ones. Focus on strengths and provide the employee with the necessary resources to change weaknesses.

Regular once a month, if not weekly meetings with employees is an excellent way to receive feedback, address problems before they become unmanageable, and discovering what obstacles may be in their way (remember the obstacle may be you, Mr. Employer – and you need to hear about it!). Most employees want input; especially from their boss. And what does it hurt for the manager every once in while, turn to the employee, recognize her and just say, “thank you”?

One of the really great things that will develop from this atmosphere of open dialogue is a magic word called “trust”. A work environment where the employer recognizes the employee’s work and the employees trust the supervisor enough to provide vital and timely feedback. For when trust is not in the work environment the Pied Piper tunes can be heard loud and clear as your employees leave your company “for more money”.