Solving the Pain

I had a headache yesterday.

It didn’t help that I had a client with a problem too. My Rideau colleague, Gord Green, asked if we were addressing their “pain”.

I knew what mine was. What was theirs?

Recognition has to be strategically aligned with key business objectives to work. Goals can be financial, performance or people related actions that are a pain right now. Some metric isn’t being met.

Meanwhile I took a couple of Advil®. But how does Advil® work?

It seems the active ingredient, ibuprofin, is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug which reduces inflammation and relieves pain. It is best taken with milk or food to prevent an upset stomach. Amazing! This nifty little pain reliever has been around since the 1960s.

Finding out the business pain can be a harder task. Business leaders must stop denying there is a pain problem until it’s too late and amputation is required! Diagnosing the problem assists with knowing what recognition pill to take and then zero in and relieves the pain.

So, where does it hurt? = Determine the pain problem. Define the actions and behaviors which could solve the business problem for you. If innovative problem solving would help get your lead product out the door quicker, then reward people who produce successful solutions and guarantee measureable results.

How much does it hurt? = Measure the frequency, occurrence, and quality of target behaviors. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being low and 10 being high, how painful is this problem? Once you know the behaviors and actions required for solving a problem determine the best way to measure them. Don’t use a yardstick when you need a thermometer.

Take two Advil on a full stomach = Determine the right rewards and/or recognition. Put strategic, tactical recognition actions in place that best fits reinforcing and recognizing target behaviors. A points-based incentive program could reward incremental behaviors towards a major business goal; a nominated awards program could help improve living of corporate values; or simply managers having more one-on-one positive feedback opportunities to improve engagement levels.

By the end of the afternoon my headache was gone. The Advil® had worked. My pain was gone.

The client? Well they’re not sure where it hurts. They just know they have a pain in their business. So I am not sure whether to prescribe Advil®, Tylenol®... or a shotgun!

Monkey See, Monkey Do

How do we get managers and employees to be exemplary recognition giving people?

Let’s examine some research carried out on how to instil ethical behaviours in a corporation, which are obviously way harder than trying to practice recognition giving behaviours, and see what we can learn.

According to Drs. Avshalom M. Adam and Dalia Rachman-Moore in the 2004 Journal of Business Ethics their study concluded the example managers set has the greatest influence on employees’ behavior, even more so than what managers say and what is written in the company code of ethics. Hence my play on the title with “monkey see, monkey do”.

In trying to implement an ethical code of conduct many business utilize formal methods such as training, courses, and various rules and procedures that provide enforcement through self-regulation. The formal stuff.

The authors measured the perceived effectiveness of the process deemed most influential by analyzing impact on employee attitudes (namely, personal ethical commitment and employees'' commitment to organizational values ). Their results indicated informal methods such as manager sets an example or social norms of the organization , are likely to yield greater commitment with respect to both employee attitudes than the formal methods of training and courses on the subject of ethics .

From the learning field, it is also management involvement before going to training programs that has the greatest impact on transfer of learning back to the workplace

So from this research one can imply that senior leader example could impact middle managers and middle managers could influence employees. Imagine the difference this could make on employee recognition practices and programs.

Turning Soft Stuff into Hard Results

Employee recognition is often called “soft stuff”. Recognition rarely stacks up against the more financial performance metrics regularly at the forefront of business meetings.

What can we do to give employee recognition the justice it deserves?

Make the “Soft Stuff” much more tangible
The first key in making recognition have more tangible value is to determine the organizational impact recognition has. Do employees feel more connected and thus become more engaged? Are certain performance outcomes driven higher by an effective incentive program? Has one department or business division exceeded target results and attributed it to a recognition program they have established?

Whatever it is you find that you know has recognition as a strong contributing tool then you must highlight the level of importance of recognition to leaders. They must learn the strategic importance and driver of performance that recognition can play.

You also have to determine how trackable the criteria are so you can create solid metrics that correlate the value of recognition in producing results.

Monetize what is easy to put a dollar sign to
Determine what the critical elements are that need to be measured – is it turnover rates; productivity levels; quality control percentages; safety levels, etc. Some of these numbers are far easier to turn into corollary currency figures.

Be aware of objectives continually on the radar screen from your senior executives. When bottom-line figures are the issue how can you make recognition an ally in the cause. If retention is a problem, how can recognition assist HR in helping managers better retain the real assets – our employees. These numbers need to be simply turned into dollar signs so conditions without recognition and those with can be compared and shown to make a difference.

We all have to become better business analysts. Ask questions of those who do perform business analysis to understand the financial implications of measures that impact business strategy. Find out how the objectives with more people strategy initiatives are being achieved and how they are viewed from a financial return perspective.

Allow some non-monetary elements to stay that way
I have gained a great deal from Jack Philips from the ROI Institute on how to turn intangibles into tangible measures. In his book Show Me the Money, I learned it is important to question the best use of our financial and human resources and ease of conversion, as to whether it is worth turning certain soft numbers into dollar signs.

Some numbers speak volumes just as they are. One organization had such low recognition scores on their employee engagement surveys that senior management automatically requested reports on how to address the issue. No dollar signs were needed there.

One also has to be careful not to squeeze the wrong numbers. Tangible rewards and bonuses do not necessarily equate with feeling recognized. Most financial rewards are really only compensation and transactional in nature. Intangible and more personal recognition is not only transforming it actually transcends a pure monetary viewpoint of work.

We need to work hard to turn soft stuff into hard results but it’s worth it.

Please share what you are doing to monetize or give stronger hard result focus to employee recognition initiatives you are carrying out.

Employee Recognition: Getting from Expense to Investment

It’s amazing when asking participants in a training session how many organizations continue to view employee recognition initiatives as an expense versus an investment. Let me give you 6 quick points moving recognition directly onto the investment column.

1. Align Employee Recognition with the Corporate Strategy
In interviewing a manager from one corporation today, it was easy to see that they are the ones left in charge of recognition and to make it “work”. The power of an effective recognition strategy is when it helps leaders and managers in achieving the business objectives and help reinforce the culture and values of an organization.

2. Determine existing measurable indicators
Whether it was Peter Drucker or W. Edwards Deming they are often attributed in having said “if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it.” Find out any all numbers available – number of programs running and what type; number of nominations, points or card recipients; how effective are the programs in employees’ eyes, etc. Capture quantitative as well as qualitative data.

3. Establish clear quantifiable business objectives
Reward and recognition programs often get dumped upon for being “soft” stuff. But when you use recognition for acknowledging people for reaching incremental targets, demonstrating great customer service attributes, and then rewarding people when targets were reached, then recognition and rewards can be a powerful player in the performance arena.

4. Apply recognition processes to improve performance and behaviors
So when you know the goals you’re shooting for you need to spell out exactly what behaviours you want to recognize or reward. For example, in one situation a company was rewarding business division managers with gift cards for completed and good safety reports. When asked if employees were being recognized for demonstrating safe workplace practices there was no affirmative answer. Always make sure you recognize the right behaviours – report writing or safe actions.

5. Measure performance and behavioral outcomes of business objectives
This goes back to the last point. Once you know what you really want to have happen – safe carrying and emptying of environmental waste into appropriate storage container, you can then define what looks like and create appropriate observable measures to validate it. Some things can be weighed objectively and others subjectively. Determined the yardstick you will use ahead of time. If you measure up then recognition or rewards are due.

6. Calculate the rate of return for your recognition processes
You simply have to calculate the net benefits from a project and divide that amount by the program costs to generate a Benefits/Cost Ratio. If it equals “1” then Benefits = Costs. If the number came out as “2” for example, it would be written as a ratio as 2:1, and means for every $1 dollar you spent on the recognition program you had a return on investment, or benefit, of $2.
To actually come up with the ROI percentage, simply subtract “1” from the Benefit/Cost Ratio and multiply by a hundred and you have your Return on Investment.

Hope this helps begin a greater focus on making your recognition programs and practices a more meaningful and valuable business tool.