I announced last week the 52-Week Employee Recognition Plan. This is the 1st week of that plan:
Buy Them An Aeron Chair.
The Aeron chair is a beautiful chair. Beautiful to look at. Beautiful to sit in.
And, for some, the $700 +/- AERON chair is a symbol of a startup's post-IPO indulgence. A startup company receives an infusion of cash. Their first buying decisions are state of the art espresso machines, work from obscure artists, a pool table and...the Aeron chair.
Our story with the Aeron chair is different.
We sat in the same chairs for nearly 6 years. The arms wiggled loose. The back rests did not rest. The seat's metal supports poked us through the thin seat cushions. Wheels regularly rolled... off.
By coincidence...nearly everyone in the company experienced back problems; Shoulder and neck problems, too.
Back, neck, shoulder and head aches can undermine a culture of connection. Who wants to connect with each other or a customer when you desperately want to disconnect from your headache, back ache, shoulder and neck ache?
We knew we needed new chairs. And we knew Aeron's were the best. And our people were the best. So, the best people deserve the best equipment.
The challenges and their solutions were:
B. how to avoid creating any sense of favoritism?
C. how to give ownership to the chair’s user? Worry here may be unwarranted. But we did not want to invest this much in a chair only to have the chair's user see it as some mandated employee engagement thing. We wanted people to own their chair. The chair was to fulfill their needs not a policy mandate.
Affording It.
The chair was $700-ish each. And there were 7 in the company. I did not want to see the impact on the quarterly reports from purchasing all 7 at once. Nor did I want to discover that these chairs were not all that.
- Solution: We’ll buy one per month.
- Solution: Monthly drawing. Each month we'd hold a drawing to determine the owner of the next chair. The criteria for that monthly drawing would be created by the winner from the previous month. They could put names in a hat, choose random numbers, favorite colors, sports teams...whatever. It would be their drawing. They would make the award for the next month’s chair recipient. I, as CEO, organized the drawing for the first chair.
A culture of connection extends to furniture, too. We wanted each employee to own their chair. Aeron chairs can be customized for fit, tilt, lumbar...and even colors and materials.
- Solution: Each person could customize their chairs with any standard options available when they ordered it online.
- Engagement. Another step in building a culture of connection.
- Fun. Excitement. A monthly celebration.
- No bickering. No hard feelings.
- Ownership in the process, the decisions and the outcomes.
- And...a slow erosion of physical ailments that might interfere with happy, engaged, inspired people bringing the same experience to our customers.
ROI?
We found:
- fewer internal complaints and more time to grow the company,
- more smiles and laughter. These were shared with each other and our customers.
- better customer service as reported with more testimonials and referrals,
- more flexibility and receptivity to new ideas
- increased enthusiasm from their needs being recognized
- increased enthusiasm from being able to participate in the process to solve their needs.
All that for only $700 a month.
This is the first week of the 52-Week Employee Recognition Plan.
You can start with any week 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 Employee Recognition Plan.
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.
I love that drawing! It reminds me of that old TV show (might still be going actually..) in North America called The Big Comfy Couch. Definitely need on of those at home!
Posted by: ugg knightsbridge | August 23, 2010 at 07:16 PM
A comfortable working chair for your worker is one of the most important issues when building your company. You can afford you employees complaining about broken backs...
Posted by: commercial insurance quotes | November 17, 2010 at 01:18 PM