Real Recognition

Click on the video below, to meet me, Roy Saunderson, and learn a little bit about Real Recognition along the way.

Performance or People Engagement

Academic and business financed research tends to focus more on performance engagement than on people engagement. What academia and business can forget is it is people which produce results. Perhaps more attention should be paid to “people engagement”.

That’s probably why I liked the recent findings I came across from the Kenexa Research Institute through People Matters. They’ve certainly found that rewards and recognition are important drivers of engagement over the last few years. However, a pattern has emerged which clearly differentiates the impact made between rewards and recognition.

On their survey Rewards are measured by questions like:

* “I am paid fairly for the work I do;”
* “If I left my current job, I would be able to find another job that paid me similarly or better than what I earn now;”
* “Overall I am satisfied with my pay.”

Recognition was addressed by questions such as:

* “I regularly receive the recognition I deserve;”
* “My Manager provides me with regular recognition for my work;”
* “Where I work, employees are recognized for delivering outstanding customer service.”

Note from the following table that since 2008 Rewards no longer appear in the Top 10 Engagement Driver list, whereas Recognition has maintained a strong foothold.

Rewards vs. Recognition

Year	Rewards	Recognition
2007	Top 10 Engagement Driver	Top 10 Engagement Driver
2008	Not on Top 10 List	Top 10 Engagement Driver
2009	Not on Top 10 List	Top 10 Engagement Driver

This could be a result of the economic downturn where rewards were unstable or completely unavailable. I am hopeful this is also a demonstration of the permanency of the power of Recognition even during tough times.

It only reinforces the fact that recognition practices need to be enhanced in the skill sets of our leaders and managers. When recognition programs are utilized they must be designed far more strategically and with a strong Recognition focus versus simply a Reward paradigm.

If you need assistance with a Recognition Discovery and creating a Recognition Roadmap, simply call us at 877-336-9601. We'd love to help you make Recognition a Top 10 Engagement Driver for you.

Defining Moments - Employee Engagement

Melcrum, the communications company for corporate communicators, recently conducted a poll to gauge people’s definition of what employee engagement really is.

They provided 5 definitions of employee engagement to choose from and asked participants which one they most agreed with. They had over 100 people respond and here are the results by highest ranked percentage of responses:

* "Intellectual understanding and emotional commitment" - 34%
* "Getting employees' hearts and minds orientated to the business" - 33%
* "Employees who say, stay and strive" - 13%
* "Employees who think and act as business people" - 9%
* "Employees who create a lasting difference to the customer" - 8%
* “Other” - 3%

This continues to support the Recognition Management Institute’s perspective with employee recognition as well – that recognition is an emotional and feeling experience as well as performance based.

Our definition of Real Recognition is simply, “any thought word or deed towards making someone feel appreciated for who they are and recognized for what they do.”

The variables for giving meaningful, effective, and “real” recognition is both performance focused and feelings driven.

Let’s ensure we get emotional commitment from our people by engaging their hearts and minds and by honoring them with Real Recognition.

Michael Lee Stallard & Connection Cultures

Michael Lee Stallard joined us today on the Real Recognition Radio to share his whole concept of the Connection Culture that came out of his book Fired Up or Burned Out. You can re-listen to the show as soon as it is archived on the site.

We were excited to learn from Michael’s research his identification of 6 universal needs consisting of Meaning, Respect, Recognition, Belonging, Autonomy, and Personal Growth. Naturally, we were pleased to see respect and recognition within this Character - Connection - Thrive model.

Michael stated employee engagement is like having a battery on the back of each employee which they can’t personally charge. Michael said recognition is what is needed to charge those employee batteries and it can only be done by other people.

Michael also discusses the need for organizations to establish “relationship excellence” which I think is foundational for making recognition valued and perceived as being “real”. We need to connect with people on a human level to have recognition act as a powerful tool for elevating performance.

What are you doing to charge the batteries of those you work with?

If you would like Michael's free eBook on Connection Culture he offered it to all of our listeners and subscribers. Just Click Here to link and download.