Earning the Right Recognition

Brochures can help businesses became well-known and showcase themselves effectively.

Keywords:

brochures, printing, services

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Its 11:00 on a Saturday morning, in the frantic world of people trendiness, time is almost running out. With a fistful of dollars in their pocket, they start their search for a new face at a sunglasses rack in a crowded suburban shopping mall. What are they really looking for? What do they want?

With the rapid advancement in fashion, technology and in almost everything around these days, people have become fussier and more careful in what they buy and what they avail of. Even with a few dollars in their pocket they set out to find the best that they can buy with their money. For this reason, competition has become stiff and almost all businessmen do just about anything to get attention and be recognized by many customers. But there are a few business owners who fail to recognize the need to improve their marketing strategy. Some because of a big sale in the past few months feel assured that sales would continue to improve; hence, they assume that there is no need to strengthen their marketing strategy. But this too much confidence often results to a distressing failure.

If you are a business owner ask yourself – who are the biggest name in your line of business? Who are considered as experts with maximum credibility in your line of work? How did you get to know about these other people’s business? Did you read an article about them or learned about them through a brochure you saw on a visit in a hotel in your locality? The point is that these distinguished businesses became well-known because they were able to showcase themselves effectively. And perhaps they were able to do this through their brochures.

If you need to inform or promote new or existing products, you can do this through your brochures. You can have them printed in two colors or four colors depending on your need. You can also choose from a variety of styles, from clean simple classical brochures to the most impressive, detailed and technological full-colored designs. If it is the cost that you are concerned about, there are many print shops today that can do your project at affordable prices. It is good to know that modern technology has enabled printers to do print projects at competitive prices. This can greatly benefit businesses and other individuals who have printing needs.

So show off yourself and your business to attract more and more of these modern day trendy people. But showing off doesn’t have to sound like “Hey, look at me. Aren’t my business great?” It doesn’t even have to look like you are bragging. There are a lot of appropriate ways to let a wider audience know how good your business is without ever saying so. Thus, if you want to spend less effort and money on marketing yourself, start by letting your prospective customers know how good you and your business really is.

Employee Recognition Awards Create Progress

In difficult situations, when companies are in crisis and can only be saved by major effort, group morale often rises to far higher levels than before. Individual objections and objectives are bypassed in the collective drive to do what must be done. This is where recognition awards take its importance. High group morale can enrich individual motivation and performance remarkably!

I. Planned Awards:

1. Recognition Awards

On its basic concept, recognition awards are...

Keywords:

employee recognition program,employee reward and recognition,lapel pin employee recognition,employee recognition idea,employee recognition letter

Article Body:

In difficult situations, when companies are in crisis and can only be saved by major effort, group morale often rises to far higher levels than before. Individual objections and objectives are bypassed in the collective drive to do what must be done. This is where recognition awards take its importance. High group morale can enrich individual motivation and performance remarkably!

I. Planned Awards:

1. Recognition Awards

On its basic concept, recognition awards are effective ways of increasing and boosting a person’s morale. It encourages them to accept of and have a desire for change at all times. The change they will make is not entirely for the advantage of the company but to his or her own personal achievement as well. Basically, the common recognition awards given to an employee are based on the three categories of recognition. These can be planned, immediate, or formal. If a recognition award is set on a formal approach, the award should focus more on the employee’s exceptional contribution to the organization for a given year. Some of the examples of formal recognition awards are:

2. Employee Service Award

This may refer to the remarkable service extended out by an employee. This means that he or she had taken responsibility of not only doing their assigned task but were able to complete other work that made the entire organization benefit from it.

3. Customer Relations Employee Awards

This is to recognize people who constantly make effort in reaching out to the company’s most important asset the customers. And by merely providing them with exceptional customer service is good enough in such a way that the company is too grateful to just take it for granted.

4. Retiree Recognition Award

This goes out to employees who gave almost half of their life serving the company, providing exceptional service, and undivided loyalty throughout the service period. On the other hand, if the recognition award is planned, meaning giving out these kinds of recognition awards are pre-set and the frequency of conducting them is on a routine basis, then it should be focused on simply recognizing an employees simple yet notable achievements or manifests a good area for advancement.

5. Employee of the Month

This is given to employees who where noted to have done outstanding performance in a given month. This type of recognition award usually boosts the person’s morale in terms of emotional satisfaction and personal fulfilment. This, in turn, encourages and motivates them that if their colleague was able to achieve it, so can they.

6. Best in Attendance

In order to motivate people to come to work on time and avoid habitual absences, this type of recognition award should be given. This, in turn, reflects the company’s value for the employee’s presence, that a day or even a fraction of missed work is detrimental to the entire organization’s development.

7. Best in Customer Service

This type of recognition award is given to those who have exceptionally rendered customer service to their clients, thereby, motivating more people to opt for their services because of the kind of satisfaction they will get from the organization’s staff. In many cases, it is usually the customer service that keeps people from coming back to the company. And so, if carried out well by an employee, it is just right to acknowledge it. And last, if the recognition is based on immediate recognition, the recognition awards should reflect the urgent need to take note of a person’s commendable completion of a given task, in which, when done by anyone else may not have resulted as well.

II. Unplanned Awards:

1. Teamwork Effort

This type of recognition award is given to a group whose outstanding performance had contributed to the company’s growth.

2. A special project award

This refers to the immediate completion of a special project which reaped good results. This recognition award is effective in motivating people that the earlier they complete their work at the same time maintain the quality of output, they will be rewarded.

3. A simple employee appreciation

This type of recognition award is a simple way of uplifting the confidence and drive of the employee to continue and keep up the good work. The bottom line is that, if a company knows how to take car of its people by giving recognition award, the employees will take good care of the company in return.

Formal Recognition Ceremony Has Its Place

Louise Erdmann felt like Gwyneth Paltrow at the Oscar ceremony. She had only been with her current company for a few months but here she stood, at the Christmas Party, receiving a reward for being the "Best Newcomer of the Year" and fighting back the tears. The awards were partly serious and mostly light-hearted but, for some reason, it meant a lot more than getting a 2+ in your appraisal.

Research has uncovered the fascinating fact that recognition is the number one motiv...

Keywords:

employee, recognition, employee recognition, motivation, employee motivation, rewards, staff rewards

Article Body:

Louise Erdmann felt like Gwyneth Paltrow at the Oscar ceremony. She had only been with her current company for a few months but here she stood, at the Christmas Party, receiving a reward for being the "Best Newcomer of the Year" and fighting back the tears. The awards were partly serious and mostly light-hearted but, for some reason, it meant a lot more than getting a 2+ in your appraisal.

Research has uncovered the fascinating fact that recognition is the number one motivator. More than money and extra overtime, it produces effects in your workforce well beyond the cost of your actions. However recognition is not always as simple as saying "Good job!"

The phrase "Different strokes for different folks" was never more accurate. The world is made up of so many complex personalities that one piece of recognition cannot possibly fit all circumstances. Fortunately, those who know their co-workers well will instinctively understand what gives them that extra rush of blood to the head.

Individual performance

By far the biggest motivation any individual can get is to see their name in lights. People are very attached to their names; just try spelling anyone's name wrong and you'll understand. Now attach their name to a piece of work they have done with some sort of understanding of the skill required to produce it and you have just about cracked formal recognition.

In the UK, the Queen recognizes talented people twice every year. She has a New Year's Honours List and a Birthday Honours List which are published in almost every newspaper. The list takes up four or five pages of the newspaper in very small print but you can be sure that every single person who is mentioned will be able to point out their name to their friends and colleagues.

The fact that it is the Queen (and the Prime Minister) who selects the names to be honored attaches great kudos to this type of recognition. The same principle applies inside your organization. Recognition gets better if it comes from someone with status in the company.

The Queen's recognition system does not stop at printing out a list of names. She invites each person to a ceremony held in lavish surroundings, pins a medal on their chest and makes it a day out for the family to get dressed up and to enjoy.

You don't have to live in Buckingham Palace and you don't have to hand out medals to do something similar. If you think people have helped your company to be successful, they probably deserve more than a pay rise.

Louise Erdmann felt she had landed on her feet. Not only had she joined a company where she felt her talents were appreciated even at an early stage, she now felt that the whole company knew who she was. She was also acutely aware that she was paying very close attention to the other award-winners. They were obviously role-models in the company to watch and learn from.

Build Bridges Not Walls - Employee Recognition

Regular, one-on-one assessments with your staff provide an efficient two-way forum with which to set and review realistic achievement targets, provide feedback on performance, and listen to and consider any problems employees may have. For example, a sales executive may feel that he or she is under performing, when in fact sales targets have been set too high. During the appraisal, these targets could be reviewed and set at more realistic levels. And after the goals have been...

Keywords:

employee recognition program,employee reward and recognition,lapel pin employee recognition,employee recognition idea,employee recognition letter

Article Body:

Regular, one-on-one assessments with your staff provide an efficient two-way forum with which to set and review realistic achievement targets, provide feedback on performance, and listen to and consider any problems employees may have. For example, a sales executive may feel that he or she is under performing, when in fact sales targets have been set too high. During the appraisal, these targets could be reviewed and set at more realistic levels. And after the goals have been met and the targets achieved, it is just but fair to recognize your employees effort in doing their best.

1. Why Employee Recognition?

This is where employee recognition takes center stage. Through employee recognition, you give your staff the reason to go on, push a little harder, and achieve their dreams as well. You can do this by giving them better opportunities to prove themselves worthy of the job you gave them. Giving people new or better jobs shows that you recognize their achievements and encourages them to achieve further success. Rewarding exceptional performance also inspires colleagues to improve their contribution in the workplace. All of these boil down to the point that employee recognition is, indeed, a vital element in the company’s success.

2. Planned Employee Recognition

As its name implies, planned recognition is more of a pre-coordinated plan. Because of its frequency, the event may not necessarily be formal. Under this category, the most common employee recognition awards are customer service, attendance, outstanding achievements, employee of the month, productivity, and safety.

3. Immediate Employee Recognition

This method of employee recognition renders acknowledgement at any point in time for exhibition of the principles and ideals being upheld by the company and their role in achieving the targets and goals of the establishment. The company or management may award an employee recognition particularly upon a commendable effort, solidarity, accomplishment of an exclusive project, acquisition of a new company procedure, or simply expressing indebtedness to the employee for making such effort.

4. Formal Employee Recognition

This type of employee recognition is done annually. Because of its formality, the event showcases a very glamorous and prestigious ceremony. This type of employee recognition renders acknowledgement on the total and outstanding performance of an employee. The award itself is so special that every employee aims to achieve it. These are sometimes known as presidents awards, the top 10 percent club, etc. In this type of employee recognition, the most common awards are centered on the employee or the department’s outstanding and remarkable performance. This refers to an exceptional work that an employee was able to accomplish in spite of its level of difficulty. The company should, however, bear in mind that employee recognition does not simply mean that it is the right thing to do since your employee has done such merit.

5. The Reasoning

The main purpose of employee recognition is to build bridges among people, to establish communication, and to acknowledge the value of each employee in establishing the success of the whole organization. Moreover, employee recognition is utmost appreciated if the event is timely and is done at a more public gathering. In this way, the impression is more intense. Consequently, the employee recognition should delve more on the effort of the employee to accomplish tasks and not on the result itself. Research has shown that by giving equal weight to the employee’s intellectual, emotional, and psychological needs through employee recognition, the commitment of the staff is increased and therefore productivity increased.

Employees must also remember that

- Employee recognition should not be expected
- It does not translate to an instant promotion
- It may not result in any additional monetary compensation
- Is best percieved as a gift
- The main purpose of employee recognition is to positively motivate the group

Coaching; The Language Of Recognition

As she rushed through the office, Kacy Dillon, the divisional Director stopped briefly by Ian Brechin's desk, gave him the "thumbs-up" sign and said "Great job, Brechin, you did well!" She then sped off in the direction of her next meeting leaving Ian a little bemused. He was struggling with this new computer system and had just crashed it for the third time this morning. Was she being sarcastic or was she referring to the major deal he had just closed with what was to be the...

Keywords:

employee, recognition, employee recognition, motivation, employee motivation, rewards, staff rewards

Article Body:

As she rushed through the office, Kacy Dillon, the divisional Director stopped briefly by Ian Brechin's desk, gave him the "thumbs-up" sign and said "Great job, Brechin, you did well!" She then sped off in the direction of her next meeting leaving Ian a little bemused. He was struggling with this new computer system and had just crashed it for the third time this morning. Was she being sarcastic or was she referring to the major deal he had just closed with what was to be the company's largest client. Hopefully the latter!

From time to time you can see examples where managers act as spectators. Their behavior; the words they use and their body language would not be out of place at a soccer or baseball match. They would be sitting in the stands chewing on a hot dog, swigging a beer and shouting criticism at the players (their staff) on the field. There is very little connection between the manager and the staff other than they happen to be sitting in the same building.

This image is used to highlight the profound difference between the 'manager as coach' and the 'manager as spectator'. A coach works individually with each of the players, helping them to overcome setbacks and obstacles to progress. They understand how their players respond to different types of motivation and how their family life and health affect their performance.

Most of all coaching is carried out on a very frequent basis. You don't wait for the big match to give your advice to the team in the way that the 'manager as spectator' does. You work really closely with everyone in the team to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your defense and your strikers before they have to be tested under pressure.

The Language of Coaching

Spectator language is full of demands; "Do this, do that, do the next thing." There is no time or space for discussion, experimentation and, god forbid, failure. Spectator managers need results and they need them now.

The language of a coach is significantly different. First of all the coach is an integral part of the team; more often found on the field than in their fur-lined office. Team language tends to contain the word "We" and you will hear a softer tone to the questions "How can we improve this? How can we make that happen faster, more accurately or more consistently?" It is a relationship of trust between two adults rather than a critical parent talking down to a child.

Ian Brechin's co-worker, Joanna Collins came to his assistance with the new computer system. "I've found some work-arounds that avoid crashing the system, let me show you." Then, almost as an afterthought she added "I hope you realize how proud we all are that you closed the Grossman deal, you'll need to share some of your trade secrets with the rest of us." Ian smiled, wondering why Joanna's piece of recognition seemed more valuable than Kacy Dillon's.

Does Recognition Get You In A State?

Like most managers, Brian Reynolds believed that his team had its strengths and its weaknesses. When asked in an employee satisfaction survey "Do you recognize good performance in your team?" he answered with a resounding "Of course I do!" However the following question stumped him. "How frequently do you make a point of recognizing good performance face-to-face?" His answer had to be "Never". "Surely they already know they are performing well? What would be the point of me a...

Keywords:

employee, recognition, employee recognition, motivation, employee motivation, rewards, staff rewards

Article Body:

Like most managers, Brian Reynolds believed that his team had its strengths and its weaknesses. When asked in an employee satisfaction survey "Do you recognize good performance in your team?" he answered with a resounding "Of course I do!" However the following question stumped him. "How frequently do you make a point of recognizing good performance face-to-face?" His answer had to be "Never". "Surely they already know they are performing well? What would be the point of me adding my comments?"

Recognition and reward for role-model performance and behavior is, perhaps, one of the most motivational acts that anyone can do for another human being and it is worth spending a little time to analyze the mechanism that converts recognition into the self esteem, high morale and motivation that results.

In everyday life we describe people who are fretting or upset as being in a "state". Although, in psychological terms, this is a very true statement, being emotionally troubled is only one of a vast array of "states" that we transition through as we live our lives. The "state" of motivation is the condition that all employers want their people to be in all day long. In this "state" they will be hard working, productive, efficient and will display only appropriate behaviors to those around them.

In reality people are only human; they have a limited amount of stamina, patience, capability and competence. They may only be capable of a limited daily amount of excellent performance.

To guarantee that someone will adopt the correct "state", it is a simple matter of attaching or "anchoring" that state to a good feeling. Somewhere deep in the psyche there is a storage vessel that holds the memory of all of these "states" and their associated feelings. When a set of circumstances come together in our lives we step into what we feel is an appropriate "state" and that brings feelings that have been filed away with it. This explains why some people "see red" when they are confronted by disagreement. This "state" is their only response to differences of opinion.

Compare the person who "sees red" with a skilled negotiator. The negotiator has spent a great deal of time training herself to be able to access a complete encyclopedia of "states" to deal with different situations. She may have to be calm, enthusiastic, skeptical, humorous, poker-faced or downright angry at the push of a button.

The principle of using recognition as an anchor for appropriate behavior works in the same way. A good example is the "Employee of the week" board in fast food restaurants. It may seem trite to the rest of the world but for those guys, having your picture up there in a frame provides reinforcement that the way they worked was good and they will be encouraged to repeat that set of behaviors because they have been publicly recognized.

Brian Reynolds has not yet discovered the importance of his role in life as an anchor to motivate his team.