WEBINAR : Early Adoption: Against HR's Nature?

I'm really pleased to announce that in a few weeks I will be joining the great China Gorman for an upcoming Webinar titled 'Early Adoption: Against HR's Nature?' on Wednesday March 7, 2012 at 1:00PM ET.

.Go ahead, register, it's free!

The Webinar is sponsored by a very cool company called Achievers, (you might still remember them by their former name, I Love Rewards), the leading provider of social recognition solutions in the market today.

What is social recognition?

You know that time your boss stuck his or her head into your office and said, 'Nice job on Project XYZ?', (ok, so if that never happens to you just pretend for a minute), well imagine if that little gesture was posted on a social platform that the rest of your colleagues could see, and perhaps even 'like' or add their own words of thanks and kudos. Then imagine further that you could share this recognition with your friends on Facebook or your professional network on LinkedIn. And one last thing, imagine all these accumulated thanks and kudos would earn some rewards points that you could exchange for some great stuff.

Sounds pretty cool, right?

Achievers provides solutions that let companies do all of that and more, helping to support and build a culture of recognition, openness, and well, I have to say it - achievement.

But in addition to making a great product, the team at Achievers are really active and supportive of the HR community overall, and have sponsored a number of events and webcasts that are designed to share insights, spur conversation, and add to the body of knowledge for the industry. So I am really pleased and honored they asked me to join China in presenting the webinar on March 7.

The central idea behind the topic, 'Early Adoption: Against HR's Nature?', is that while tradtionally HR has been reluctant to be on the leading edge of technology solutions and innovative strategies, that now that time has passed. In the critical areas of employee engagement, the adoption of new technology solutions for talent management gives today’s HR leaders opportunities to recast their function as forward looking rather than history- and compliance-bound. We will also talk about the great results organizations that are on the leading edge are seeing, and how social rewards and social recognition fit in the overall picture.

It should be a really fun webinar, and I hope you will join China and I on March 7th. 

Register, (it's free!), here.

Employee Recognition and Kid's Birthday Party Swag

Ever since the last SHRM Annual Conference in June I seem to have had the good fortune to end up on some kind of Human Resources marketing mailing list, (thanks for sharing SHRM!), and have seen a decided uptick in the old mailbox (the snail mail one), in training course catalogs, vendor pitches, conference supplies, (I can get you a great deal on lanyards, provided you need a few thousand), and so on.I'd rather go with Spongebob

This week an 100-plus page catalog from one of the better known employee recognition purveyors landed in the mailbox. Page after page of products like employee thank-you cards, pins, travel mugs, those cool acrylic or glass statue thingies you see in cubeland from time to time. You know the ones that the project team engraves and hands out after the system goes live or the merger is completed, kind of like miniature versions of the HR Emmys.

No big deal, right? We all know, and have read articles and seen webcasts or conference sessions ad nauseum in the last few years of the importance of employee recognition, and the critical role that it plays in fostering employee engagement, happiness, and even commitment to the organization. These are all necessary and valid concepts, and I am in no way discounting their importance here. In fact, as my friend Paul Hebert will tell you, (well I am not actually sure he'd tell you this exactly, but bear with me), a well planned and executed employee recognition program can help drive increased revenue, productivity, heck, whatever it is you want to drive.

So I was thinking about how powerful and effective the right recognition programs can be when I flipped to pages 26-27 in the above mentioned catalog (pictured above), and landed on the spread of swag from something called the 'Essential Piece' theme.  I get the idea, the company is having some kind of event, or meeting, or recognition ceremony; and they'd pass out assorted mugs, pens, tote bags, keychains, etc. all branded with some form of the message to employees that each one is an 'Essential Piece' on the team.

But in only a second of looking at the swag laid out before me, I immediately thought that these pages could have been torn from your favorite party supplies catalog, you know the section where the kid's themed birthday party stuff is laid out. Where parents that really ought to know better end up selecting cups, plates, streamers, party hats, noisemakers, cake toppers, etc. - all with the same theme. Because we know every kid's party has to have a theme, and heaven help you if you try and pair a Star Wars cup with a Spongebob plate.

Here's the section of the post where I'm supposed to drive to an epic conclusion or call to action. But this time I really don't have one other than to observe that I always felt like a doofus buying the full set of Toy Story or Pirates of the Caribbean party swag for my kid's parties over the years. None of the kids really cared whether the 'theme' was consistent from pinata to cake. But what the kids did care about was whether they had a good time, the games were fun, their friends were there, and the cake and ice cream was on the money. That's what created the memories. 

So buy all the 'recognition' swag you want - no one will remember that either for very long. But the people, the relationships, the work experiences; those things that really matter - well SHRM has not sent me a catalog that stocks those items just yet.

Give Yourself a High Five

Most work and the majority of contributions made by people in the organization are not what anyone would term major breakthoughs or fantastic and profound 'eureka' moments.  Rather they are the 'little things' or more likely a collection of little things, small gestures, and normal getting the job done activities that add up to an effective or winning performance.

These little things tend to go unnoticed, unless of course something is missed or goes wrong, (this is the one employee with an error on his paycheck when the other 3,999 employees were correct syndrome).

And I think as an employee it can get frustrating if you feel that all the good, yet small contributions you make continue to go unrecognized and only the errors or exceptions get noticed.

Little things, like making a free throw mid-way through a basketball game, go a long way to overall team and organizational success. So perhaps the next time you feel like your solid, important but not spectacular contributions get overlooked, instead of whining or bemoaning your lack of recognition,  take a page from Andrew Bogut of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks and give yourself a pat on the back, or in his case - a high five.

Pretty cool.

Anyone know the emoticon for a high five?

For Labor Day - An Employee Success Story

Note : - On the cusp of Labor Day weekend, and with news of yet another increase in the US unemployment rate, this story of success, both for the employee and the organization I thought would be a rereshing change from the depressing employment news.

This past Saturday night I attended the Rochester Redwings (AAA Baseball) game.  It was as always a fantastic night, Redwings baseball is great family entertainment, and the organization really knows how to put customers first.

During and after the game the Redwings took time to recognize the service and achievements of their General Manager, Dan Mason, who was celebrating his 20-year anniversary of employment with the club. The image on the right is a commemorative poster that was handed out to fans entering the game. Certainly a wonderful accomplishment and it is apparent  the continued success of the club has much to do with his leadership.

What I found interesting in the brief remarks Mr. Mason made during the on-field ceremony was the appreciation and respect with which he spoke of the team's President (his boss) and many of the former employees and managers of the team he had worked with in the last 20 years.

Mr. Mason made a specific point to mention not just how well he had personally been treated during his time with the team, but also how well the organization had treated his entire family. A stong impression was that the team had really embraced the Mr. Mason and his family and that a deep mutual appreciation and respect had developed.

In minor-league sports, there is a strong undercurrent for players, managers, and executives of a 'move up or move out' mentality. Players are putting in their time, honing their skills to try and reach the major leagues, the ultimate goal for all of them. Front-office staff and management as well are frequently just biding their time in long hour, low pay positions, getting important experience in the sports business that they hope to leverage later in their careers.

A successful executive like Mr. Mason surely must have had many opportunities to move on, perhaps to a larger market, possibly to a major league team.  The fact that he has stayed with the Redwings to me is a testament to the ability of an organization, even a small one with limited resources, can engage and attract talented employees. How do the Redwings do this? Through a combination of genuine care for the well-being of the staff and their families, a clear focus on the organization's mission and goals, and a culture that emphasizes fun, experimentation, and excitement. Perhaps Mr. Mason could have left years ago, but for various reasons he has not, and a minor-league franchise like the Redwings has been able to retain major league talent.

What are some other ways that you have seen successful small organizations find, attract, and retain 'big-time' talent?

The HR Blog Exchange - Guest Post from Lyn Hoyt

NOTE: This Guest Post authored by Lyn Hoyt is part of the HR Blog Exchange, a fun project that was cooked up a couple of weeks ago, details on the project are here.

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Like so many businesses today, my business continues to evolve its strategy to include technology in all aspects of business function. Not only has it played a role in marketing our framed recognition products on the web, but also in streamlining warehouse functions, customer service and of course HR. Some of these small business functions Steve has written about here. Steve’s recent interview with Beth Carvin  also does a great job talking about the benefits of “social networking” as a component of technology within business environments. We are all continuing to understand the power of technology to connect people through communication significantly impacting HR today. It is a very exciting time to be working in HR.

Does technology in HR offer the ultimate platform to fundamentally transform how we treat each other as employees and colleagues through transparent feedback of work performance? While some of this feedback opportunity already exists, are we maximizing the transparency or does it just exist in a document in a performance review file? DeliverMagazine.com terms “the 4 C’s” of connectivity, communications, creativity and collaboration. To humanize these 4 C’s by bringing real opportunity for employee content, commentary, recognition and collaboration to HR could create a real peer-to-peer platform for authentic work performance feedback and recognition. And it can bring better access to management.

There is a methodology emerging with Facebook and Twitter that cannot be ignored. Can employees build appropriate content for online communities in the workplace? Can they be trusted? While there is much to resolve with security, privacy, rules and moderation in a business environment, with the right spirit, I feel knowledge sharing and community building through HR technology can grow authentic corporate cultures that can ultimately transform the way employees perceive their own value.

Social Networking in the workplace is already moving even beyond blogs in some corporations, becoming mini news feeds, tagging search, and video uploads. Employees move from desktop to phone, posting texts, photos and video in real time that for Gen X and Gen Y is part of the energy of teamwork that enhances work performance and collaboration. Key to fostering the use of this social networking platform is recognizing and valuing there will always be content creators and content spectators, yet both are participating. One of my personal favorites that illustrates this workplace trend are Zappo’s Blogs http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/inside-zappos.

Recognition is reinforcing the power of the positive. As a discipline HR must harness technology beyond data crunching. Real people are associated with that data. Forming recognition communities through technology can ultimately strengthen teamwork and job performance that, by nature, is the purpose of recognition.

Lyn Franklin Hoyt is co-owner, designer & marketing director for Berkeley Tandem, Inc. a small manufacturer of framed recognition products located in Nashville, TN. You can see her company’s products on the web at http://www.awardcertificateframes.com and http://www.fusionframes.com . You can also follow her on twitter at designtwit and awardframes.