Build It

9Recognition

Chapter Objectives

In this chapter, we will:

• Outline the problems with employee recognition as it's currently being done.
• Focus on how to improve the value you're getting from your existing recognition spend.
• Look at how to design recognition programs that truly make a difference.

Key Points

• Of the money spent on employee recognition, 87% is spent on tenure recognition—all of it wasted.
• Most companies cripple their programs with complex structures, workflows and approval processes that restrict people's abilities to just say thank you.
• To be effective, recognition has to be continuous, timely, fair, relevant and personal.
• It's the thought that counts every time; money and prizes are secondary.
• Managers and employees need training and coaching to be able to say “thank you” frequently and without fear.

Introduction

My first experience of recognition was in the early 1990s. I  was 21 and in a graduate job at BT, the UK's phone company. I'd been surprised by how much of the engineering team's time was spent writing plans and reports, so I spent my evenings and weekends writing an automated documentation system to make it easier. It took four months to write, and within weeks, 45 people were using it. A month in, my boss's boss, rarely seen, told me he had nominated me for an innovation award. I was flattered—after all, I was just doing what I loved, and didn't even know there was an innovation award. But I remember feeling really great that he had noticed ...