Last month I was in San Diego, California for business and was also able to squeeze in some vacation time too.
While in San Diego, I went to Sea World and I strongly recommend that if you are ever in that part of the world; you HAVE to go to Sea World. Anyone who really knows me, will tell you that I am not an animal lover, but the shows are amazing.
The common practice of the trainers is to reward the sea lions, dolphins, whales etc. when they perform their tricks.
This practise of rewarding really got me thinking.
In the business world how often do we really reward the people around us, when they achieve something? I know many organisations have grievance procedures, poor performance processes, but how many organisations have a ‘well done’ procedure as part of their business culture?
How do you show an employee true appreciation for a job well done? Is this part of your business culture, or just something you choose to do, because of your personality?
What also struck me during the show, was that the animals were rewarded with fish and ice!! Ice…No flavour, inexpensive, yet they still enjoyed it. So we don’t need to spend lots of money to show appreciation…sometimes a simple ‘Well done, great job’ will be music to someone’s ears.
But what if an employee does something and it fails. Should they still be rewarded? I would argue yes…. they can be rewarded for stepping out their comfort zone and trying something new and challenging and with the right coaching you can turn a perceived failure into a great learning experience.
When someone feels truly appreciated and valued, they will start to perform at their maximum potential, which will reap great business results for the department and the organisation, as well as personal development results for the individual.
For example – ‘The Walt Disney World Resort established an employee recognition program that resulted in a 15% increase in staff satisfaction with their day-to-day recognition by their immediate supervisors. These results correlated highly with high guest-satisfaction scores, which showed a strong intent to return, and therefore directly flowed to increased profitability.
Likewise, Sears, Roebuck & Co. found for every 5% increase in employee attitude scores, they saw a 1-3% increase in customer satisfaction and a 0.5% increase in revenue.
On the other hand, the cost of extremely negative or ‘actively disengaged’ workers comprises about 10% of the US Gross Domestic Product annually, including workplace injury, illness, employee turnover, absences and fraud.’
It costs virtually nothing to show appreciation, but the rewards to everyone involved can be HUGE!!!
Georgina Terry
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Fanastic article here! Too few understand the value of endorsing good behaviours and so miss the opportunity to let their staff feel appreciated allowing them to shine.
At the end of the day, the figures are the bottom line and as HR professionals it’s important for us to be able to translate stategies, ideas and suggestions to dollars and cents to get the buy in we need from others around the board table.