I announced in May, 2010, the 52 - Week Employee Recognition Plan. This is the 43rd week. The step this week is:
- Know the answer to this question: What Changes If They Leave?
What would change?
What would change about your/their company and its relationships with all the key stakeholders?
What different results would you see?
The answer to these questions is the first step towards recognizing your employees, what they bring, what they contribute, what your/their company is with them and their contribution.
The next step is to recognize them in a way that’s meaningful to them. Personally, personalized, with purpose.
But don’t skip that first step, don’t go immediately to Go. You won’t pick up 200% of their discretionary effort (love that term...sorta), intellectually and emotionally. In fact, you’ll lose some.
Why?
Your recognition is meaningless. It’s empty, a platitude at best, a patronizing attitude at worst. As consumers we can sniff out fake brand messages in a nano-second. We do that with strangers whose message arrives unrequested in our mail, our websites, our phones. Imagine how much faster a fake note of recognition can be sniffed out by those with whom we spend the majority of our waking hours.
Back to the point. What would change? How would your company, their company, change in their absence. Know that. Then recognize them for that.
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You can start with any week of the 52 - Week Employee Recognition Plan and make that your first week.
You can take one of those weeks and turn it into a month or commit to an accelerated pace and complete 6 of the weeks in one month.
You can create your own week of employee recognition. Share that journey here. Share it in your blog or Twitter or Facebook.
But, do something to recognize your employees! They set your brand apart as your ultimate competitive edge.
And the more you recognize their achievements, the more achievements you'll see and they'll enjoy, along with your customers and and shareholders, partners and vendors.
* istock photo: gmnicholas
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