I happily just celebrated my 15th anniversary with Upright Communications (Upright Tire) just this month! And as I celebrated my successes, it prompted me to think about all the ways that we can be celebrating our employees when they reach epic milestones (or even 90-day ones! Celebrating anything is fun!).
As noted by Tire Review, former U.S. Defense Secretary and Ford Motor Co. President Robert McNamara put it simply: “Brains, like hearts, go where they are appreciated.” Who can relate to that? I mean, I certainly can appreciate that sentiment. If you’re not appreciated, chances are you’re not going to put all your heart into your work.
In the day-to-day grind of running a business, we can quickly get caught up in the ‘thanks’ or simple ‘congratulations’ for when employees reach a milestone. However, given the shortage of quality talent and life as it is, can shop owners afford to not implement an employee retention program centered on recognition? Being recognized, both monetarily and morally, can boost morale more than you may realize. (So many valuable words that start with ‘m’ in that sentence!)
A 2013 Harris Interactive online survey, on behalf of Glassdoor, reported that 81% of respondents said they’re motivated to work harder when their superior shows genuine appreciation for their work, and 53% said they’d be more inclined to stay with the company longer if they felt more appreciation from their bosses.
So now that you know all this, what the heck do ya do!? Let’s think!
What to celebrate?!
- Work anniversaries – 90-day, 1-year, and epic milestones like 5, 10, 15, etc. These are really big deals. Think how hard folks work for you and they CHOOSE to remain with your organization. If you appreciate them, let them know!
- Professional certs – I’ve always wanted to shorten the word ‘certifications’!
- Individual or team production efforts
- No work days missed
- Unexpected kindness showed towards customers and co-workers
- Personal successes like volunteering opportunities outside of work for example
As I’m learning through personal growth, the positive behavior you want to be repeated is the one you need to be celebrating! Quality shop owners know that recognition improves engagement, and it’s that personal touch that can make your day-to-day that much better.
Oh and also, when rewarding folks it’s not just about a yearly review, it can be things like giving baseball tickets to an avid baseball fan for when they sold a crap ton of tires. Or maybe you’ve had an employee work really hard for you and you know he/she has been away from their family a lot – consider thinking of them too. Your job accounts for a LARGE portion of your well-being and that includes the impact your job has on your home life.
How to do it!?
I heard of an acronym one time that resonated with me…. It’s RISE. R – Regular. I – Immediate. S – Specific. E – Encouraging.
It basically goes like this… Regularly recognizing your employees at least once a week gets you into that routine of noting people’s successes. The sooner you can recognize that behavior, the more often they’ll repeat it. That’s your ‘immediate.’ Then, you have the specific recognition that you want to focus on! And finally, you continue to encourage and support your employees when they do an outstanding job.
If anything, we need more excuses to celebrate with each other. Tell us how you celebrate your employees!
