|
A Carrot a Day. A Daily Dose of Recognition for Your Employees Authors: Gostick A., Elton Ch. Published year: 2003 Pages: 23-27/371 |
 |
JANUARY 17
Stop! And …
HUDDLE UP!
At one great grocery store chain in the heartland, employees and customers are encouraged to “huddle up” for recognition moments. Everything in the store stops for a few moments to recognize a great associate.
What a great—and almost unheard of—idea. Simply stop. Stop chasing. Stop calling. Stop meeting. Stop worrying. Today, take a moment to stop what you are doing, call your people together, and give someone a much-deserved pat on the back.
It promises to be the start of something good.
JANUARY 18
Some stories just have to be shared.
GET IT IN WRITING
Imagine an issue of your company newsletter featuring an achievement by one of your employees . Now imagine it yellow and worn with age. (We just thought you might want to see how it will look years from now in your employee’s scrapbook.)
Your company newsletter is the ideal place to recognize outstanding employees. Submit employees’ names and photographs to the newsletter with a story about what they have done to live the corporate values. Don’t worry about spelling or punctuation; just tell the story. If they are smart, the editors will take your story and take care of the details.
Your employee will save that article for years. Guaranteed. And each time he sees it, he’ll feel the desire to be in the spotlight again.
JANUARY 19
It’s never too early to start thinking about recognition.
THE MILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION
When you are hiring a new employee, ask the person to share her most memorable recognition moment—when she was honored for above-and-beyond behavior. Ask what she did to earn the reward, what she was given, and how it made her feel.
Not only is this a great way to uncover an applicant ’s strengths, it also can give you an idea of what types of rewards will be valued by this person in the future.
JANUARY 20
“Life isn’t a matter of milestones but of moments.”
— Rose Kennedy, mother of U.S. President John F.Kennedy
MINUTE-BY-MINUTE RECOGNITION
Less than sixty seconds. That’s all it takes to make someone’s day, using on-the-spot recognition. The next time you notice an employee doing something right, immediately follow these four simple steps:
-
Tell them exactly what they did that was right (“Wanda, I noticed that you picked up the phones today, since Bess was sick.”)
-
Tell them what value or goal they met. (“That shows a lot of teamwork.”)
-
Explain how that impacts the company. (“We might have missed that emergency call from our biggest customer without your help.”)
-
Express appreciation . (“Thanks so much.”)
| Note |
In less time than it took you to read this page, you could have recognized someone. Now, how easy is that! |
JANUARY 21
Employees need to know you care about them as individuals.
GET TO KNOW ’EM
When you hire a new employee, ask, “If you had a day off to spend as you wanted, what you would do and where you would go?” You’ll learn a lot about the employee in those few minutes. Maybe the employee likes fishing (half a day off might be a great reward), the arts (tickets to the symphony), sports (tickets to a game) or reading (a new release on a favorite topic).
Make a note of your employee’s interests and then use those interests to determine what day-to-day rewards you can offer. Not only will this give you great ideas for recognition, it will show that you have interest in them as a person.
|
A Carrot a Day. A Daily Dose of Recognition for Your Employees Authors: Gostick A., Elton Ch. Published year: 2003 Pages: 23-27/371 |
|
![The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance [Updated & Revised]](/aimg/4825-1.jpg "The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance [Updated & Revised]")
