Some Friday fun…

There are so many technologies that HR departments can use to track, measure, monitor, survey, and assist in the employee life cycle.  I read about a new technology that isn’t being targeted at employees but maybe it could be.

Phillips Electronics is making an electronic bracelet called “The Rationalizer“.  It’s a bracelet that supposedly measures the emotions of the person wearing it by analyzing their skin responses (sweat).  The intent is to have people who buy and sell stock online to wear the bracelet and when they become too emotional, it will let them know so that they do not buy or sell when they are too upset.

I wonder how that would work for employees.  Maybe we could hand them out to managers when they were going to have a performance conversation with an employee on their team.  They could be given to a group of executives who are going to a budgeting meeting with the CFO.  The possibilities are endless.

If you had these bracelets, who would you give them to and why? The funnier, the better…..

While I am in Washington, D.C and Chicago this week, Adrian Gostick was kind enough to provide a guest post for us.  Adrian is the co-author of   ‘The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance’.  Thank you to Adrian for stepping up to the plate for me.

Recently a manager folded his arms in front of us and proclaimed, “We tried a recognition program years ago; it died.”

At a loss for a snappy comeback, one of us began packing up his Carrot-colored flight bag, but the other wasn’t intimidated. With a comforting hand on his partner’s shoulder, he politely told the cantankerous manager that there had been one or two advances in recognition medicine in the last few decades that he might want to try.

Now sure, we admit it can happen: A company launches a recognition system in grand style and everyone is excited to begin appreciating each other. The first month is promising, with ecards, awards and presentations bouncing around like beach balls at a Miley Cyrus concert. The second month keeps pace with the first. But after the first quarter, manager excitement begins to wane and some employees wonder how long it will take for recognition to be buried in the program-of-the-month graveyard.

Indeed, it takes continued effort to create a healthy carrot culture. And it all begins with training.

You can’t just roll out a recognition solution and expect everyone to buy in. Simply put: Most managers are too busy to know how important this is; and even if they are believers most don’t know how to do it right. Spend the time in a classroom setting to help managers overcome their objections to recognition and let them know how it can further the core values and goals of the organization. The good news is this: Our research shows training managers on the right way increases recognition usage by more than 30 percent–which will have a direct impact on employee retention and engagement.

Of course, if you are an individual manager reading this, you can’t exactly beam yourself into a Carrots training session (yet). So do your homework at home. Pick up a copy of The Carrot Principle or The Invisible Employee and take a quick refresher course on the proper way to engage through recognition. You might even spend a few minutes on carrots.com/managers_tools which contains tips and suggestions on how to do this stuff.

Second, another vital combatant to apathy is a consistent communications strategy. An automotive group in Michigan recently launched a tiered performance recognition program to great acclaim. However, even with fun awards and an easy-to-use system, leadership began to see a dip in usage and buzz after about a year. That’s when they implemented a communication plan. Within two months they were seeing a third more award nominations, and simple thank-yous delivered by peers to other peers more than tripled.

Their communication strategy included cool email reminders as well as creative posters and cards plastered throughout their facilities. Leadership also bought in, promoting the program in presentations to employee groups and mentioning the stories of recent winners. Now, whether you run an entire recognition program or you worry only about engaging your small team, story-telling is one of the keys to recognition longevity. Employees need to see that the organization intends to make appreciating great work a principle, not a fleeting concept. Recognition stories help build and create culture change by providing lasting legends of what it means to go above and beyond around here.

Recognition communication strategist Erika Crocker of the O.C. Tanner Company has created internal marketing strategies for some of the world’s most successful organizations. She told us, “Sharing a great story is powerful, but linking the story to the value of the organization is the key. A story really communicates what a certain value looks like and how others can adopt that value.”

Her colleague Lisa Elias suggests, “A great way to find powerful stories is by searching through the award nominations in an online program. These stories make wonderful messages that can be put on posters, in company newsletters and posted on the Intranet.”

Measurement is the third key to keeping a Carrot program fresh. Measurement provides the necessary feedback to help show senior leaders how your organization or team is moving the needle with its recognition strategy.

If you’re a manager, you can measure the effectiveness of your efforts by looking at unwanted employee turnover and by asking qualitative questions such as: “Do you feel  recognized for your contributions?” or “Do you have any achievements that I’ve failed to recognize that you feel particularly proud of?”

If you are in charge of recognition for an organization, a simple measure is the number of nominations and awards being given each month. A more complex assessment may include a baseline survey and then a re-measurement every six months into employee engagement factors, turnover and satisfaction levels.

Overall, you’ll find it’s not rocket science. Recognition is common sense that is, unfortunately, uncommonly practiced. Training, communication and measurement are three simple strategies that can help appreciation become a part of your leadership DNA, helping you to build an engaging, robust Carrot Culture.

For all the talk about where HR is (dead, dying, totally “ok” as is, needs re-branding, transformation, or somewhere in between) the fact is that although many HR pros who use social media are talking about it, the discussion is not reaching the masses yet.

We need a way to begin harnessing this energy.  We need to bring the ideas together in a cohesive way so that each HR pro in the field can have actionable steps to make HR better in their organization.  We need to figure out the “how” of it all.  Thanks to all of the great people who commented on my “Re-branding HR” post, I thought of several action items:

• Get Involved- Create, attend, or participate in encouraging grassroots efforts to help HR evolve.
• Make outreach your mission- Whether it’s to students, university officials, HR organizations, colleagues, or your customers, SPREAD THE WORD.  If you belong to SHRM or other HR professional organizations, reach out to the national or local chapters to bring this topic to the forefront.  China Gorman at SHRM is a great example of someone who is helping HR grow into the type of industry we’re all envisioning.
• Don’t tear down your own field- Don’t be the part of HR that tries to slow or stop the momentum of the people who really are trying to expand the reach and understanding of HR.  The best read on this recently came from Kris Dunn over at Fistful of Talent in his post ‘Hey Employment Law Experts- You’re Killing My Profession’.
• Walk the talk- Live what you’re preaching.  Get involved. Make it happen.  Good things don’t happen overnight, so do your part every day to encourage change.  As I told Andy Spence, some organizations are already getting it right, others need some work, and still others need an overhaul.

Feeling motivated?  Go register for HRevolution and take that first action step!!  Then, share your thoughts in the comments so we can keep the momentum going.

Quick- when you picture a rock star, who comes to mind?  Is it…..

The Wiggles!  No?  Not so much?  Well, each of us has a different image of what a rock star or idol means to us. I started thinking about it when I was organizing some files yesterday and came across this picture of my little girl taken several years ago.

She was about 11 months old in the picture.  For anyone who has turned on the Disney channel in the last several years, you may recognize that she was watching The Wiggles.  They are an Australian children’s singing group.  From the time my twins were able to notice the TV, the Wiggles was their favorite show.  They loved the music, the brightly colored costumes, the many characters, and the silly things the characters did.  For them, the Wiggles were their rock stars. 

Seeing this picture made me think about the people I admire.  Who are MY rock stars from a career perspective and what characteristics do they have? For each of us, the characteristics that we admire may be very different.  I know for me, the people I admire most are:

• Honest with me- They tell me like it is, whether it is easy or not.
• Creative- Not only do they come up with creative ideas, they take it to the next level and implement them.
• Reliable- They follow through on what they say they will do.
• Collaborative- They work together, then share in the credit.

Whether it is a former boss, a colleague, or a fellow blogger, these same attributes are what draw me to them.

Why is this important?  I believe that in order to be truly successful, we need to listen and learn from the people we admire.  It’s so easy to get stuck in our day-to-day routine and not feel motivated.  To not feel like we can do more, create more, BE more.  I think the first step in being sucessful ourselves is to recognize what success looks like to us.  To understand the attributes people we view as “successful” have.

How about you?  What are some of the attributes you admire in your Rock Stars?

What’s the best thing about today?  It’s Carnival of HR time again!  I always look forward to the carnival because I find several new blogs to follow, ideas on human resource practices I may not have thought about, and nice recognition for my HR blogger friends who deserve to have their writing celebrated.

When I saw the picture I’m using in this post, it reminded me of the BEST part of the Carnival of HR, in my opinion: the diversity.  So, take a moment and head over to the HR Maven’s blog where she has brought togehter HR thoughts from a diverse group of professionals. 

Thanks to the HR Maven for hosting and for including me in the mix.  Also to the HR Minion for keeping the carnival on track month after month. 

Happy Wednesday!