Employee Recognition
That Works!
Successful Motivation
Mary Anne Shew
Business Vitality LLC
RBA HR Exec Forum
4/1/2014

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Happy employees =
productive employees
Your Dream

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Self-motivation versus
external “nagging”
Your Dream

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Creativity unleashed
Your Dream

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Budget pressures
Problem

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Deadline pressures
Problem

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Raises / bonuses /
promotions in short supply
Problem

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Solution: Think Differently

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The Motivation
Match-Up

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Understand Six
Universal Motivators
Organize Rewards to
Support Motivators
Match Rewards with
Employees
The Motivation
Match-Up

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Mary Anne Shew
2nd Career: 1999-today
Web Site Design/Development
3rd Career: 2005-today
Internet Consulting &
Business Coaching
1st Career:
IT (Software)

1. Understand Six Motivators
2. Organize Rewards
3. Match with Employees
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What we’ll cover
Preface: Set Context

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Context is everything…

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Employee turnover costs
(See Employee Turnover Cost Handout)
What could your company do
with an extra $54,000+ every year?
For 75-person company, 10% annual
turnover of $30K-salary employees
costs $54,000 per year, not including
cost of productivity losses.

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Employee turnover costs
Out-of-Pocket “Hidden” / Unmeasured
Lost training that will have to
be repeated
Impact of no one doing that
job for 1+ months: Customer
satisfaction, etc.
Recruiting costs Manager focused on new hire
versus existing staff, projects
Candidate costs: Travel, meals,
hotel
Team has to pick up the slack
until replacement hired
New hire onboarding costs:
Relocation, training
Time it takes for new employee
to fully ramp up
(See Employee Turnover Cost Handout)

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Recognizing and valuing
Recognition Valuing
Acknowledge good work,
appreciate efforts
Appreciate worth of
someone; hold in high esteem
Tied to what we do, not who
we are
Acknowledge not just for tasks
but for intrinsic worth
For successfully completing a
project
Letting someone know you’re
glad they’re on the team, and
it wouldn’t be as good
without them
Event-driven (singular
experience)
Environment-driven
(sustained)
Shows up as driver of
employee engagement 30%
of the time
Shows up as driver of
employee engagement 85%
of the time
It’s a difference in experience

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Recognizing and valuing
“I receive recognition when I do good work.”
• Across industries and countries: Average
score is 55% favorable
• For top 10% of companies: 66%
• But rest of their scores in 80-90% range
• So even they don’t do as well as they
could in recognition
“I feel valued as an employee of this company.”
• When asked, average score is 41%
favorable, 32% unfavorable

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Recognizing and valuing
To recognize employees To make them feel valued
Identify outstanding customer
service
Actively solicit people’s thoughts
Look at team performance Recognize real contributions
Train supervisors for appropriate
day-to-day recognition
Allow open discussion
Encourage initiative, risk-taking Show respect: No bullying, yelling,
trivializing, patronizing, deceiving
Ensure job performance and pay
are linked
Let people have input to the
decisions that affect them
Be transparent and fair Discuss expectations and
responsibility
Build culture of celebration over
competition
Explain why they are important to
success of company

R&R is part of a system
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Engaged
Enabled
Energized
Attachment to the
company and
willingness to give
discretionary effort
A local work
environment that
supports productivity and
performance
Individuals’ physical,
interpersonal, and
emotional well-being at
work
Well-
functioning
equipment
Necessary
supplies
on hand
Effective
work
processes
Clear
direction
from
supervisors
Clear
priorities
Effective
teams
Respectful
colleagues
Expectations
balanced
against
pressures
Attitude
towards
immediate
manager
Senior
leadership
Work/life
balance
Goals and
Objectives
Company
image

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R&R is part of a system
What are you rewarding?
1. If focus is on vital
behaviors that have
intrinsic satisfaction, and
2. Social support is in place
for vital behaviors,
3. THEN external rewards
work well.
Engaged
Enabled
Energized

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R&R is part of a system
Vital behavior is the key concept
• A high-leverage behavior that
makes the difference
• What does a person do that
gets the desired outcome?
• Reward a vital behavior, and
the outcome will take care of
itself

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Examples of Vital Behavior
Weight loss: Lost 30 lbs and kept it off
for 6+ years
• Exercised on home equipment
• Ate breakfast
• Weighed themselves daily

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Examples of Vital Behavior
Epidemic: Eliminated infectious worm
spread through drinking water
• Strained all drinking water
• Kept infected people away from
water source
• Entire village took responsibility for
compliance

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Who’s On Your Front Lines?
Supervisors
and
Managers

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What are their vital behaviors?
The Diminisher
• Somewhat irresponsible, not trusted
• Uses blame instead of accountability
The Neutralizer
• Gets work done at level specified
• Frequently invokes authority (no personal power)
The Enhancer
• Self-confident, respected, accountable, trusted
• Brings more to the organization than is paid for
(See Handout Pages 2-3)

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Leadership
Management
Supervision
Emotional IQ
Communication
Goal Setting
Time
Management
Conflict
Management
Research
Manufacturing
Engineering
Production
Product/Service
Marketing
Sales
Finance
Accounting
IT
How prepared are they for their jobs?
Job:Managing
people
Promoted
time
They started
career here
Job: Doing the work
Now need to
do these

Build it starting from the top down
If senior management doesn’t
exhibit R&R vital behavior
themselves, first-line managers
won’t believe it’s an important
part of their own job either
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Culture of recognition

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• Individuals—regardless of rank, title,
expertise, or tenure—freely and
readily recognize one another’s
contributions
• Thoughtful, timely, personal
• Keep it fresh and meaningful
• Avoid “rote recognition” that has no
real purpose or thought behind it
Culture of recognition

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(See Handout Page 5)
Culture of recognition
TRUST is a key foundation for
effective rewards and
recognition
• Four components of trust: Sincerity,
Reliability, Competence, Caring
• If Caring (a.k.a. “valuing”) is missing, R&R
efforts will likely not pay off as you hope,
even if other 3 components are in place

Part 1
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Understand Six
Universal Motivators

An internal process that makes a
person move toward a goal
• Can’t be directly observed
• Can only infer from behavior
• Internal: Survival, pleasure,
achievement
• External: Money, award, connection
to others
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Part 1
What is motivation?

Three internally-focused
• Material possessions
• Self-improvement
• Sense of mission
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Part 1
Six Universal Motivators
(See Handout Page 4)

Three externally-focused
• Personal relationships
• Sense of belonging
• Status and recognition
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Part 1
Six Universal Motivators
(See Handout Page 4)

Everyone is motivated to some level by all six
motivators, some more strongly than others.
Placing too much importance on any one
motivator will cause that person to over-
focus on that motivation.
These motivators can be measured by an
assessment.
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Part 1
Six Universal Motivators

People with a more balanced motivation
mix tend to have more motivators to which
they are drawn.
These people respond to a wider rage of
rewards.
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Part 1
Six Universal Motivators

People with a more focused motivation mix
tend to have fewer motivating forces.
This means they often respond more
intensely to them.
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Part 1
Six Universal Motivators

How to know what works?
Get to know your people
• Ask them what they like and want
• Surveys, 1-1 or group discussions,
assessments
• Experiment
• No single way to reach everyone
The Generations: See Handout p. 6
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Part 1
Six Universal Motivators
(See Handout Page 5)

Part 2
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Organize Rewards to
Support Motivators

Principles of reward
• You get what you reward
• Must be in response to
something significant
• Timely, specific, meaningful
• Immediate manager has huge
impact
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Part 2
Organize Rewards

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R&R is an ongoing investment
• Mostly of time and thought
• Do free things first
• Invest in teaching “valuing” behavior
Evaluate what you already have
in place for impact
• Get anonymous employee feedback
through survey
Part 2
Organize Rewards

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Consider having an employee
group organize R&R awards and
events.
• Teach them to incorporate the six
types of motivation and match
generational appeal
• Give them copies of 1501
Part 2
Organize Rewards

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Why go through all
this?

Outperform Competitors
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“Companies that
manage people
right will outperform
companies that
don’t by 30-40%.”
--Jeffrey Pfeffer,
Stanford Business
School Professor
2012 Industry
Profit Margins 2.9%
Food & Staples
Retailing
19.5%
Pharma, BioTech,
Life Sciences
8.4%
Capital Goods
20.2%
Software&
Services
Impact on
your
company?

Retain Top Talent
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Cost to replace
employee with
salary up to $75K:
20% of salary
--2012 Study by
Center for
American Progress

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Inspire Engagement
“Effectively recognizing
performance can increase
employee engagement by
almost 60%.”
--Towers Watson Report:
http://bit.ly/1bQv499
Engaged
Enabled
Energized

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Values Visible in Behavior
“Companies with
values-based
strategic
recognition, 91%
of employees feel
they have strong
grasp on goals
and objectives.”
--Globoforce.com
Respect
Account-
ability
Integrity

We’re in the home stretch…
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Part 3
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Match Rewards with
Employees

The best recognition is FREE
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Part 3
Match Rewards to Employees
To recognize employees To make them feel valued
Identify outstanding customer
service
Actively solicit people’s thoughts
Look at team performance Recognize real contributions
Train supervisors for appropriate
day-to-day recognition
Allow open expression
Encourage initiative, risk taking Show respect: No bullying, yelling,
trivializing, patronizing, deceiving
Ensure job performance and pay
are linked
Let people input to the decisions
that affect them
Be transparent and fair Discuss expectations and
responsibility
Build culture of celebration over
competition
Explain why they are important to
success of company

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Part 3
Match Rewards to Employees
1501 is a comprehensive, well-written, easy-
to-read handbook for all aspects of reward
and recognition
• The ideas listed were implemented at
hundreds of companies across many
industries
1501 Ways to Reward
Employees

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Part 3
Match Rewards to Employees
Use the 1501 book to
• Select ideas that fit your culture,
budget, and employees’
interests
• Organize the ideas to match
the motivators

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Part 3
Match Rewards to Employees
Then
• Let employees choose a reward
from what you’ve chosen
(when appropriate), or take a
guess yourself
• Use humor and fun too

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Part 3
Match Rewards to Employees
Page Idea From Book 1501 Ways to Reward
Employees
Matching
Motivator
443 Reward employees $10 for every customer compliment
they get and deduct $10 for every complaint.
Material
Possessions
58 Offer employees access to wellness information and
workshops.
Self-
Improvement
63 Have an employee-run environmental issues committee
to educate and try ideas both for employees’ personal
lives as well as the working environment.
Sense of
Mission
49 Pal of the Week: Everyone in the department asked to
do or say something nice to the person in the course of a
week.
Personal
Relationships
263 Reward when someone they refer (usually a friend) is
hired. Another one when new hire stays 6 months.
Sense of
Belonging
262 Invite employees to your home for a special celebration,
and recognize them in front of spouses and colleagues.
Status &
Recognition

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Summary: The Motivation
Match-Up
Engaged
Enabled
Energized
Reward and recognition
is part of a system
• Valuing employees sets the
stage
• How well it works depends
on the other parts

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Understand Six
Universal Motivators
Organize Rewards to
Support Motivators
Match Rewards with
Employees
Summary: The Motivation
Match-Up

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Successful Motivation
Resources
Influencer: The Power to
Change Anything
1501 Ways to
Reward Employees
The Thin Book of Trust: An Essential
Primer of Building Trust at Work

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Mary Anne Shew
www.BizVitality.com | 585-746-9140
mashew@BizVitality.com
Wishing You
Motivation Success!