Page 127 - Retaining Top Employees

McKeown06.qxd 5/16/02 4:10 PM Page 115

Employee Recognition: What Works, What Doesn’t 115

ious locations, be careful not to design your rewards pro-
gram with a “home office” bias.

Communicating Your Recognition Program
The “secretsauce” in an effective recognition program for top
employees is in the communication process. So many good
employee suggestion programs, “employee of the month” pro-
grams, and sales target contests fall into disuse simply because
the programs aren’t communicated well enough. We’ll close this
chapter with some suggestions to help you communicate your
program successfully.

Planning. Use the planning Form a Steering
stage to build expectations Committee
and excitement. Don’t Consider forming a steering commit-
design your recognition pro- tee of top employees to help you
gram behind closed doors, design and implement your recogni-
then unveil it. Take time to tion program.They’ll bring good ideas
and on-the-ground reactions—and
consult and communicate
also build word-of-mouth “buzz”
with your top employees
about the program.
right from the start.
Selection of recognition program elements. Consult fully with
employees about the individual elements in your program. Seek
their advice on whether to include “employee of the month”
awards, “suggestion of the year” awards, safety awards,
sales awards, etc. Again,
their input will be invaluable E-mail Is Great!
in assessing the validity of Use e-mail to send out reg-
ular reminders of how the
the program and they’ll
recognition program works. Don’t be
help build expectations.
afraid to send exactly the same e-mail
Implementation. Most more than once—on launch day,a
organizations communi- month later,three months after that,
and then quarterly thereafter.You
cate only when they
don’t need to come up with some-
launch their recognition
thing new every time; just reiterate
programs. But a single
the basics.