Increase Retention with a Recognition Reboot
By Sam Jenniges, M.S.
There are few things as powerful as the simple act of letting someone know their work made a difference. In partnering with clients across multiple industries, I found how rarely that simple yet powerful act is actually occurring.
One healthcare executive echoed this sentiment and summed up the state of employee recognition this way:
“We do a lot with employee recognition, but like a lot of companies, it isn’t always seen that way by employees.”
This speaks to a major disconnect happening between organizations with good intentions and employees feeling recognized.
Good Intentions
Only 14% of companies provide the necessary training for recognition delivery.1 Those directing the work of others have been poorly served in the area of employee recognition. No wonder it’s not occurring.
Whether it ranges from the elaborate to a simple, or no-budget approach, most practices do what others are doing when it comes to employee recognition. Besides a few creative nuances, we look to each other to common methods. That can be a really good thing. But what if those common approaches are getting it wrong?
What if it’s not the gift card, anniversary award, the mug, the public recognition that is making the difference? What if all that money, energy, and effort is wasted? According to Forbes, it largely is.
Employee recognition is estimated to be a $46 billion dollar market with 87% spent on tenure awards, though such rewards have little impact on an organization’s performance.2
Why Effective Recognition Matters!
Why do we need to get employee recognition right, where employees actually feel personally recognized? Isn’t just doing something good enough? Take a look at the research:
Prevent regrettable turnover. Employees who feel their work is unrecognized are twice as likely to quit in the next year.3 Those who do feel their work is valued, are more engaged. Engaged employees are more likely to stay and refer others to your practice.
Improve Quality. Two-thirds of workers on effectively praised teams strongly agree that “quality is always a top priority” in their organization.4
Increase Productivity. Teams who received effective praise increased their productivity by 31%.5
It’s the right thing to do.6
Why Are We Missing the Mark?
Somewhere along the way, we’ve have gotten off track in four areas of employee recognition:
- We don’t keep the goal of employee recognition in our sights which is: To inspire individual employees to give their full effort, love working with you, and stay with you. Most of us are going for a “feel good” moment, which is important, but it’s not enough to retain your people.
- We treat rewards the same as recognition. For many of us, when it comes to recognizing someone, one of our first thoughts tends to be about the reward. People love rewards. That’s true, but too often the rewards become the recognition, and the recognition moment ends up with a short shelf life, largely missing the goal.
- The extrovert bias. Many people think recognizing a person must be done in front of other people. This can be the wrong approach. Roughly half the population is introverted and prefer not to be called out in front of others. How are you going to inspire people’s full effort, help them love working with you, and stay with you if you are doing things they don’t like? Yet, others may quite enjoy public recognition. You could go wrong with public recognition, but you can’t go wrong if you start with private—even the extroverts will love that.
- Peer recognition is a nice idea, and committees are formed to build this in place. But it typically people get missed, and it exposes the manager because employees eventually think “Why doesn’t my manager talk to me like this?”
Manager Influence/Employee Preference
According to Gallup, 70% of a team’s engagement depends upon the effectiveness of their manager7 — not the CEO, not HR, not a peer, not the company culture. The Manager (often the doctor). That’s good news for managers because employees want to be recognized by them above all. In fact, employees report that the most meaningful recognition, in order, comes from:
- Their Manager
- A leader or CEO, then
- Their manager’s manager, then
- Customers, then finally
- Peers (rated last!)
With all this manager influence and preference, it’s clear that managers need to get good at delivering recognition.
When I provide training for leaders in recognition, I know that in order to routinely and effectively recognize team members, these two things need to occur:
- It needs to feel easy.
- It can’t feel like another “to-do” in already busy schedules.
To do this, I designed the TIPSS tool, and it transformed their approach immediately. Try it out below.
Retain Your Team with a Recognition Reboot
Let’s start with the criteria for recognition. One of your employees’ work has made a valuable impact in some way. Big or small. It could be putting a patient at ease, or mentoring a new dental assistant. Using the TIPSS tool below will enable to effectively recognize the employee.
TIPSS
- Truthful, Timely — Did the work make a valuable difference? Be Truthful. If not, recognition is watered down. Being Timely matters, yet it’s never too late.
- Impact of the work — What Impact did it have to you, someone else, or the pratice?
- Personal — Don’t lump others in with the recognition. Stay Personal.
- Sincere — If you follow the other TIP[S]S it will be Sincere.
- Specific — Be as Specific as you can so the employee knows you mean it.
How to Deliver Recognition Using TIPSS (Any Order)
Example Scenario:
Sofia took the lead in helping train the scheduling manager on the new software.
Example Language:
“Sofia, I want to thank you for training Ajay on the new software Monday and Tuesday. I know how busy you are, and Ajay told me how helpful you were. Thank you!” (T_PSS)
Now, add Impact:
“Sofia, I want to thank you for training Ajay on the new software Monday and Tuesday. I know how busy you are, and Ajay told me how helpful you were. Because of your training, Ajay can easily access the system, and there are fewer scheduling errors this month. Thank you so much!” (TIPSS)
Impact is the secret sauce that inspires. Telling someone the impact they had, helps others love working with you. Impact is the color that pops. Impact is the one that is most likely to retain your people. Impact allows you to reinforce what’s important in your practice.
Unfortunately, Impact is usually missing during recognition.
Many of us are good at feel good moments and building camaraderie, joy, and can even improve productivity. But call it what it is: Team Building. Otherwise, it mistakenly replaces recognition. Building a desired culture is helpful and necessary and a piece of the puzzle.
Every HR professional I have spoken with in the past two years is looking for more. The time has come to get better at employee recognition and lose the outdated approaches that can actually be demotivating. Take two minutes to use the TIPSS tool today.
Relying on an elaborate party, rewards, shout outs, peer recognition, or even getting the CEO to participate, is no match for a manager who gets good at the TIPSS. Telling an employee their work is valuable, and the impact it has will lead to teams who give their full effort, love working with you, and stay with you.
Sam Jenniges is the author of Recognition Rebooted, A Smarter Approach to Employee Recognition, and provides training to organizations in Employee Recognition.
Notes
[1] http://go.globoforce.com/rs/globoforce/images/AberdeenReportNovember2013.pdf
[3] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236441/employee-recognition-low-cost-high-impact.aspx
[4] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/329351/add-team-praise-employee-recognition-toolkit.aspx
[5] Achor, Shawn. The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles That Fuel Success and Performance at Work. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2010
[6] Most everyone, everywhere.
[7] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/245786/gallup-reports-share-leaders-2019.aspx
[8] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236441/employee-recognition-low-cost-high-impact.aspx
Sam Jenniges, M.S., is an organizational development specialist, and author of Recognition Rebooted, A Smarter Approach to Employee Recognition.