Overcoming the Struggle of Effective Employee Recognition

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In this episode of "Struggles" presented by NCBI, host Chris Inman and guest Heidi Baumgart, Co-Executive Director of the Small Giants Community, delve into the intricacies of employee recognition in the workplace. Chris and Heidi discuss the importance of appreciation, rewards, and recognition as tools for building a strong business culture rooted in community. They explore practical ways business owners can consistently recognize their employees' efforts, emphasizing the significance of individual acknowledgment, core values, and tailored recognition programs. Through their conversation, they provide actionable insights on how to implement effective employee recognition practices that create a more engaged and appreciative work environment.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, business struggles, leadership tips, scaling challenges, financial management

Episode Title: Employee Recognition

Time Stamps:

• Introduction to Employee Recognition [0:00]
• Building Community through Appreciation [1:51]
• Recognizing Employee Efforts Consistently [3:02]
• Understanding Employee Preferences [5:15]
• Core Values and Recognition Programs [7:35]
• Public Recognition: Pros and Cons [9:25]
• First Steps to Implementing Recognition Programs [11:01]

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Chapters

• 0:00 Recognizing contributions in workplace fosters belonging.
• 6:35 Small team culture fostered recognition through core values.
• 8:25 Recognition methods often contrived, not beneficial.
• 11:01 Involve employees in designing recognition programs collaboratively.

Transcript

0:01

I mean, a business culture is a form of community. Business groups are a form of community. Our neighborhoods are a form of community. The relationships we make with people on the Internet who all go to the same page to do whatever or talk about whatever they're going to talk about, that's all a form of community. And so I like using appreciation, rewards, and recognition, which are all different things, to build community and build culture. Welcome to another episode of Struggles presented by NCBI, the podcast where we navigate challenges together. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Struggles presented by NCBI. I'm Chris Simon with idea Cleveland. Hey, I'm Heidi Baumgart. I'm co executive director of the small giants community. Cool. And today we're going to talk about how hard it is for business owners to consistently always recognize they're all stars on their team. And how do you actually set up a process to do that on a consistent basis where people see it as something they want to actually be recognized and all that and everything. So I don't have any employees, but I was once an employee. And I will say that the company I worked for did not have anything like this. And, you know, people like to be recognized for their good work and for their hard work. And it doesn't necessarily have to be, you need to give me a week's vacation, or you have to give me this giant bonus. It could be the stupidest things. Is some goofy trophy that you guys bought at the thrift store, threw a funny hat on it, painted it silver, and you pass it around the office, and everybody wants that goofy award that you've called something. Right? Internally. So how do business owners get started and really tap into creating a culture where they're recognizing people? You know, well, first, having the desire to do it, you know, the struggles I hear from owners, founders, senior leaders, and the struggles that I've had myself is just, like, making the time, not even making the budget, like, because, like, you're saying it doesn't even have to be a purchased something. It could just be a program or just, again, just time. It's just taking the darn time to see people and, like, truly be like, how you doing? Literally, just paying attention is a lovely form of recognition and even reward. And I personally love, if you've ever heard of the five love languages, which is a book by a doctor with a lot of research, they. They came out a few years later, same author, same doctor, with the five languages of appreciation in the workplace. And ultimately, whether it's loving relationships or attention and acknowledgement in a workplace. Like, we all just want to belong to something and be seen and provide value and be seen for that value we provide. Whether or not you're a rockstar, all star close, a big sales contractor could just be like, you're consistent and effective, and that's really appreciated because all, you know, whether you're a pickpack and shipper or you're a product engineer or you schedule the best logistical, transportation program, like, all those people matter, and they have totally different roles and totally different experiences. And ultimately, the desire to just want to appreciate people is the first step to doing that, to, you know, to actually creating a program. The desire for a process, the desire just, like, realizing you need to. You got to wanna, like, say that about anything in leadership. All right, so now that you. You're like, yes, I want to do this. Yes. All right. How do I even know what my employees are going to even care about? Like, what should I do for them? What do they want? Yeah, you know, I think look to them individually, ask for help from them and their direct report or not their direct reports, like, whoever they report to. And if they report to you, then you're responsible. Obviously, if you have an HR team or administrator or something, that's always helpful, especially if you're learning things about folks that ends up being confidential but asking them, hey, do you like, if we announce your birthday? That can be an onboarding thing. And of course, if you have people who've been around a while, then just make it a survey or something like that. Hey, we're gonna announce workiversaries. You know, work anniversaries. I shorten that one. Work. You know, we announce workiversaries, we announce birthdays, we announce major life events. The birthday one makes me remember. Remember an office space. And they would get cake, it seemed like every day because their office was so big. And there's always cake. Yeah. And Milton never got a cake. He always. Yeah, he pass it along. He's like, oh, we're out of cake. Oh, my gosh, I forgot about the cake. Yeah, he never got the cake, but, yeah, well, and some people don't want the cake. They're like, please, please, I don't want to be on the list. You know, I've been in workplaces where there's, like, one of those scrolling tvs that has that month's work anniversaries or that month's birthdays. And some people would be like, please. No, I'm always embarrassed when people sing happy birthday to me. I don't know why I don't like. When people say, I hate it. Yeah, it's cringey. I understand it. And a lot of other people don't want to be acknowledged like that. And if you want to find that out, just ask. Now, with that said, if they don't want their birthday announced or whatever, or they. Or they're just more hesitant, then, you know, you can do it in a way that they're comfortable with. All you have to do is ask them. And it doesn't take much to put out a survey. I had built a recognition program in the past, one great one. Like, other than, like, asking people if they want to be. Be recognized, I've built some recognition programs around the core values of the company. Really helps if you have core values, first of all, right. But I built. Both times I did it, and it was wildly successful, regardless of employee count. One company had nine people. One company had 90 people. It was the same process. It worked the same. And I will say we had more recognition with the nine person company, hilariously. But it was the culture. We built the culture that way. But you take the core values, you put it in a form, and you say, what's your name? Who are you recognizing? Why are you recognizing them? And there's a click button that either you pick one core value, or you can pick multiple core values, whatever you want. And you say, I'm recognizing Heidi for the integrity core value. And then it's like, why? And then you can write one sentence, you could write a book, and then you click submit. And then every week, we would just put them up on the all hands meeting on the screen. You know, Heidi's recognizing Chris for the integrity core value because Chris caught that they overcharged a customer and made sure that we brought it up to the customer and refunded them and apologized. And I just thought that was great. And we built so much rapport with the customer. Great job, Chris. And it can be any kind of thing, but, like, that's a really easy and quick one. Again, you have to have core values in your company. And, by the way, you should anyways, which is a totally different struggle, is real kind of conversation. But, I mean, that's a really easy way to acknowledge your employees based on the culture they emulate, the core values they live, and the culture they bring in general, but not through, oh, my God, don't announce my birthday to the whole company. Yeah. Do you think that some of these recognitions should go public? Like, hey, here's the employee of the month parking spot here. Like, there's the whole joke of the employee of the month picture on the wall, you know, at fast food restaurants and all that. But do you think that that is brings value or do you think that embarrasses people sometimes? You know, I think that some of the reward types are right, but how we get there can be contrived or awkward or like we're recognizing or rewarding people in ways that, like, don't benefit them or the whole company. And what I mean by that is a company is only as good as what they tolerate. And I have seen people, I've seen companies use employee of the month to prop up people who ultimately just are more visible than other employees. Or they did something so obvious and great. But, for instance, great example, someone sold a big contract, but they ultimately took it from somebody else or they, it was their friend. Or like, the big contract, like, really wasn't. Or like they sold a contract that they gave away so much. It wasn't good work for the company. I've seen CEO's do that. Oh, like they just wanted to sell something so bad because they were on a losing streak. They hadn't closed business. That they sell something that's terrible. And now everybody else has to execute on a contract that loses the company money. That's not a right fit client that they didn't want to do, but they sold a big contract. And then that was the indicator that they were employee of the month. That was a really long winded way to say, like, you have, like, make like, reward people for behaviors that are healthy behaviors that benefit the culture and maybe don't benefit the business necessarily. I think that's one thing. Also, I like to use parking spaces for belonging. People naturally park in certain spaces anyways, and I saw a company, I loved this so much. I saw a company. It's a small giants member. I was talking to this company owner at the small giants conference, and he was saying that when you're hired, part of onboarding is they literally assign you a parking spot and your name is on it. And it's not because there's not enough parking or, or anything like that, but it's a sense of belonging. And so we shouldn't use parking spaces to, to reward people. We should use spaces. Parking spaces to include people. So that was an interesting rant I just went on about. That's awesome. All right, let's say somebody enjoyed all this. What should be the first step they do? Thinking about appreciation programs and recognition programs. I mean, like I said, think about what framework already exists that you can build it around. Ask for help and get others involved to build it. Don't just do it in a, in a vacuum. You know, ask managers. Ask employees, start an ERG and employee resource group. But don't just build it and then force it upon people. Ask people how they want it to be built, and when they're involved in it, they'll use said process and program, and then you'll then sit back and let it run and be patient with it and let it run. And you'll find, you know, one of the results I had is a really small company. We just started doing it the first month. We had maybe 20 or 30 points of recognition, and then we started averaging 65 a month. We had 600 call outs, recognition points in the first year. We started doing it for nine employees, an average of nine ftes. So, yeah, ask other people to help you do it and then let it run. That's awesome. Well, thanks for joining me, and thank you for listening in to struggles presented by NCBI. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of struggles presented by NCBI, where we navigate challenges together. Don't forget to subscribe, listen, and share this podcast with with others who might benefit. We'd love to hear about the struggles you're facing or have overcome, and we'd be thrilled to have you as a guest on a future episode. Let's continue this journey together.