10 Ways to Recognize Your Employees

This Week with Sara Fitts continues ...Here are 10 ways you can recognize your hard-working employees. I strongly recommend employee recognition as a means of saying thank-you, rewarding hard work, and building morale that will last forever. I'd love to add to this list - so please let me know what you do to reward your employees.

1. Lunch or dinner with the boss and management team.
2. Give an afternoon off - or a day or two off.
3. Construct a bulletin board with pictures, notes, letters, etc. celebrating employees.
4. Design a unique trophy and present it formally - monthly or quarterly.
5. Tickets for plays, concerts, shows - and include spouses[or dates] or the whole family.
6. Designate a special parking place.
7. Tickets for a world-class seminar at a resort - all expenses paid.
8. Gift card - or gas card.
9. Cater a company-wide luncheon for every employee.
10. Magazine subscriptions [from a selected list], mp3 players, DVDs or CDs, coupons, books, or gym membership.

The point is to make the effort to have a recognition program in your organization. You can make it unique - or you can change it up to fit the particular occasion. My bet is that it will increase pride and ownership for every employee.

10 Reasons to Recognize Employees

This Week with Sara Fitts suggests 10 reasons to recognize your employees. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, this is always a good time to think about how you thank, reward, and recognize those employees who work so hard for you and your business.

There are many reasons for employee recognition, and these are only 10 of them. Use this as a starting point and add to this list as it applies to your specific business. [Please let me know what you add - I'd love to know!]

Recognize and reward employees who:

1. Learn something new. New skills are always worthy of praise and recognition.
2. Mediate conflicts within their team. Conflict resolution means more time on task and less time away from the project at hand.
3. Mentor new employees - even without being asked. Teamwork is taken to new levels immediately.
4. Seek new solutions to old problems. Focusing on solutions instead of problems creates new energy.
5. Help other employees. Pitching in when it counts helps the entire organization - and makes the point that "all for one and one for all" is still alive and well.
6. Willingly accept change. Sometimes difficult changes need to be made and are not so easily accepted. When someone willingly embraces change, make a point of acknowledging it.
7. Give extra customer service. Especially if extra time and extra effort are involved.
8. Volunteer for work that no one wants to do. Whether it's staying late, covering phones, making a delivery, or cleaning up someone else's mess - the person who volunteers to take this on needs to be recognized.
9. Maintain perfect attendance. This definitely needs to recognized.
10. Go the extra mile - no matter what. When employees go above and beyond the standard and the expected - recognize their efforts.

The benefit of this kind of recognition and reward is two-fold: the recognized employee is acknowledged and the rest of the staff is motivated by the fact that the boss is paying attention and is appreciative of the efforts.

I've always believed that everyone will do more than is expected when management acknowledges and appreciates their efforts and their work. Reward and recognition will raise morale quicker than pay raises.

Powerful Questions that Make a Huge Difference

Other questions that can be catalysts for major growth and change are:

Question to ask customers and clients: What is the value that you are receiving from our work together? [Press them for specifics and real examples.]

Question to ask employees/staff: What is the value that you receive from working here? [Press them for real examples - and not "paycheck".]

Questions to ask yourself: What is the value that I want my employees and staff to receive from working here? What is the value that I want my customers and clients to receive from our work together? What is the real reason I'm doing this? [What is the real reason for this business?]

After asking these powerful questions, listen to all the answers. After listening to the answers, what will you do with the information? The ball is now in your court to move forward toward making significant changes and improvements in your business. This process is extremely helpful. Try it and see what happens.

3 Important Questions for Business Owners & Managers to Answer

This Week with Sara Fitts highlights 3 questions every business owner and manager needs to answer. These 3 questions can lead to significant growth within your organization.

1. Do you have employees whose performance is less than what you want it to be?
2. Do you know specifically why they deliver less than you want?
3. Do you know specifically what to do to change that?

The first step is answering these questions. The second, and most important step, is addressing the issues that the answers to these questions give you. If you do nothing to address the issues or problems, then you will continue to have these issues and problems - regardless of who you hire.

Successful businesses must have structures and systems that are aligned to facilitate growth. If structures and systems are not in place, growth will not occur - and morale will be greatly affected. If the management team implements structures and systems that promote growth for the entire business (employees, staff, customers), then performance and productivity will be aligned for that same success.

There is power in the 3 questions that began this post. Small business owners and managers can change the course of their businesses with the answers. A business coach can help articulate the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

More to come later....