It’s a well-known cliché in HR circles that employees quit their bosses, not their jobs. However, having run many employee surveys and regularly studying analytics on employee engagement, I’ve found that the root of the problem goes much deeper than…
Employee Recognition
5 HR Tech Firms That Are Tackling the Disengagement Problem
I recently came back from HR Tech Summit in Toronto which was an amazing experience. It was my first time in Toronto and my first true HR tech conference. This year, the technology was focused on employee retention and engagement….
Engagement Will Improve If Your Managers Are Genuinely Human
Employees need genuine connections with coworkers and the organization to be engaged. Study after study will tell you it’s all about treating them like whole people, with all the respect and deference that implies. We all inherently understand what a…
HR Roundtable: Why Recognition Matters
With summer firmly upon us, the June (Cincinnati) HR Roundtable gathered to discuss a topic that often is misunderstood and glossed over with catch phrases and incentive programs – recognition. If you step back and consider this, companies, and especially…
Keep Your Employees Happy and You’ll Keep Your Employees
March 20th was International Day of Happiness. Those celebrating had one united goal in mind: to create more happiness in the world around them. In today’s America — where happiness is dropping — it’s more important than ever to take…
When Money Isn’t Enough: 4 Drivers of Motivation
Most existing recognition and incentive programs have been designed utilizing traditional economic theories which suggest: People tend to act rationally and in their own best interests when making decisions Money is the most effective motivator This conventional approach (that rewarded…
Recognition Can Help Connect People to Your Values and Mission
When it comes to mission and values, there are two ends of the spectrum. On one hand, you might be thinking: “Of course I care about my company’s mission and values!” As an HR professional, this is music to my…
Give ‘Thank You’ and ‘I Know’ a Rest
I did a piece a while back on how “thank you” can wear out its welcome in the workplace, and come off as insincere if overused. The law of diminishing returns says that the longer you rely on something for results, the…
3 Damaging Myths About Top Performers
Those of us in HR and management spend a lot of time discussing employees — particularly those employees who appear to be struggling. We look for ways to support and encourage them, to boost their performance, and to incentivize them…
Employee Recognition Awards Remain Tax Exempt – So Long As You Give ‘Stuff’
2018 will mark a year of tax reform, as the current administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 goes into effect. The question of whether employee awards count toward taxable income have always been a chief concern for the…
Spot Awards Are Good, Until They’re Not
Greater use of spot rewards and similar forms of incidental bonuses is one of the major shifts in the compensation world today. From 2010 to 2016, a growing number of organizations have incorporated spot rewards into their compensation practices. A…
Service Awards May Be Old School, But They Still Help With Retention and Loyalty
Two big myths that still exist around service awards are that people aren’t interested in building a career with one organization, and the days of loyalty between an organization and an employee are long-gone. The reality is quite different. The…
More Real Conversations Please; Not Just Business Talk
With apologies to Elvis, we need a little more conversation. Conversing together, sharing with each other, is a hallmark of what it means to be human. And yet, many of the interactions we have at work are action-oriented, outcome-driven, or…
This Thanksgiving, Say ‘Thank You’ to Others
I’m coming off a whirlwind of events where I had the opportunity to share my passion for creating more human workplaces by helping millions of employees feel noticed, valued, and appreciated for who they are as well as for what…
Service Recognition Still Does Make a Difference
Every few months, chatter in the media – and from some competitors – attempts to make the point that in the millennial-driven gig economy, service award programs must surely be irrelevant to employees and ineffective tools for organizations. I hope…
Don’t Forget to Recognize the Vets In Your Workplace
Of the 4.2 million veterans in America who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces since September 2001, the Bureau of Labor Statistics most recently reported that 120,000 of them are without a job. This group is the youngest…
Be Agile: Free Your People From the Tyranny of Now
Recognize This! – All humans have the capacity to grow, learn and develop but are too often held back by fear of failure. A growth mindset in an agile work environment is key to working more human. I heard a…
4 Ways Leaders Are Creating Success in All the Wrong Ways
In 1997 (just three years after the company’s launch), Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in a letter to shareholders: Our success will be largely affected by our ability to attract and retain a motivated employee base, each of whom must…
We Should All Celebrate a Touchdown
At one time in the NFL, excessive touchdown celebrations on the field were frowned upon by the league and penalized as unsportsmanlike conduct. Nonetheless several players and teams routinely defied this practice, creating their own celebration rituals like the Ickey Shuffle,…
Employee Recognition Can Help You Find New Leaders
Even as “the changing world of work” has become a de facto part of most of our lives, a challenge remains in this seemingly frenetic pace. Rather than becoming more accustomed, a majority of organizations find themselves still struggling to…