Engagement - Are You Building Psychic Income?
I had a wonderful discussion with Derek Irvine of Globoforce today regarding current trends in employee engagement. Derek had some wonderful insights which should be shared:
- There is an increasing recognition that non-cash rewards are becoming more effective than cash. How? Non-cash rewards such as travel, experiences, merchandise, and gift certificates tap into the psychic income needs of a person. We love the psychic income term used by Derek, as it highlights the importance of the satisfaction or enjoyment which an individual experiences through a non-cash reward and creates “buzz” around the experience and the company.
- Engagement starts with a strategically aligned recognition system that is directly tied to the strategy of the overall company. It is no longer enough to have an ad-hoc “thank you drawer”, rather successful programs must be embraced corporate wide and executed strategically.
- Engagement is not something that happens overnight – it is a one-person at a time effort. Once it takes root, you have an epidemic of recognition which directly ties into long-term company success.
- Beyond creating a strategically aligned recognition system success will be determined by the direct Managers' ability to create a culture of appreciation. It starts with helping Managers understand why recognition is important and how they should reward and recognize their staff.
- Beware of traditional employee engagement surveys, rather focus on asking employees how they would feel if the company did “x” or “y”. This will certainly help to build engagement and will prevent your company from being drawn into surveys which increase cynicism and focus on past events or feelings.
We couldn’t agree more with Derek’s insights and want to thank him for sharing them with us today. Let us know your thoughts.
Comments
The reward, whether cash or non-cash, needs to be proportional to the task being rewarded. In my business our management team rewards us, the sales team, $100 if we earn $25,000. In my opinion, there's for too great of an income-reward gap between $100 and the $25,000 to make the reward relevant... Oh, and did I mention the $100 is a TAXABLE BENEFIT!??! There's my rant for the day - thanks for the forum.
Posted by: MD | November 14, 2007 03:06 PM