Unfortunately, you’ll always be faced with skeptics who view employee recognition as yet another fluffy HR initiative unless you can clearly demonstrate that its effect is much deeper. All this recognition stuff is admirable but it doesn’t matter one bit if it doesn’t move the needle for your company.

Your employee recognition program becomes a strategic initiative and wins over the C-Suite when it:

1) consistently reinforces the behaviors required to achieve corporate objectives;

2) provides employees with a solid understanding of how company aspirations translate into their daily work;

3) reveals insights into the living forces that bolster your culture, and identifies gaps;

4) promotes innovation, speed, flexibility, spontaneity and cultural vitality;

5) exposes and rewards role models; employees who may not always be the most visible but are often highly engaged;

6) results in increased employee satisfaction, which increases customer satisfaction, retention and revenue.

Can you look your CEO in the eye and tell her your recognition program is a strategic imperative if all you have to show for it are 140-character platitudes like Great job! You rock! Couldn’t have done it without you!? Can you really pretend these are tied to your core values?

Here are additional tips on creating a highly successful and long-lasting employee recognition program.

Why is that? Is day-to-day, informal employee recognition too trivial, too bourgeois for the rarefied air of the C-Suite? Is recognition not worthy of management attention unless it’s attached to a grandiose award?

Did the Executive Team approve the initiative because they actually believe there is a strong correlation between culture, employee recognition and an employee’s emotional and intellectual commitment to the job? Or was it just because they say that “Employees are the Company’s Number 1 Asset” but don’t truly believe it?

The simple truth is that if it doesn’t matter to the boss, it doesn’t matter, and the recognition program will never have the impact on employee motivation that it could and should have. It will not ring true.

Conversely, what is important to the CEO will inevitably become important to the entire management team and the program could well become a movement that really moves the needle for your company. As the old adage says, where the head goes, the body follows.

Today, private social recognition software makes it instantaneous to publicly acknowledge employees who live the corporate values and reinforce what the company stands for day-to-day. If your leadership team doesn’t believe that taking the occasional few minutes out of their week to recognize those who inspire others is time well spent, they are sending a very clear message that employee recognition is just not a priority.

Worse, if Management doesn’t even know who your everyday heroes are, let alone what they do, your recognition program should be the least of your worries.

They approved the initiative and budget. Now the Leadership team needs to put their money where their mouth is. It starts with the CEO’s enthusiasm for recognizing your culture-builders, which will ensure the interest and active involvement of all levels of management.

Only then can you deem your employee recognition program successful.

Do you have any insights into the reasons why executive participation in informal recognition is so often near non-existent? Would love to hear from you.

But lo and behold, just as you’re questioning yourself and whether you should just give up, you’re totally surprised by people you barely paid attention to before who come out of left field to praise your idea. They explain how your innovation or hard work is making life so much better for them and tell you how much they appreciate your dedication and selflessness.

Wow! Not only do you feel appreciated, refreshed and energized, you now feel a responsibility towards your new fans to keep going, work harder and be worthy of their praise. You immediately re-engage, and bask on cloud nine for a while.

This scenario also happens at work where – for whatever reason – an employee may not always get the support that she needs from her manager or teammates. Fortunately for her and for the organization, fans will emerge from other teams or departments with messages of appreciation that raise her spirits and bolster her level of engagement.

That’s the beauty of an employee recognition program that is fully social and open to everyone in the organization. When some people won’t step up, others will step in to save the day.

Sure, everyone is busy these days, I understand.  But, when you have an opportunity to communicate your appreciation for a colleague or employee’s success, is less really more?  Will that deserving individual really feel great about what they’ve accomplished when they read your note featuring 144 characters or less?

Please don’t get me wrong, all forms of recognition are good.  What I’m saying is that employee recognition becomes incredibly valuable when you create meaningful stories.  Stories that let your employees shine.  Stories that truly communicate what it means to be a dedicated, hard-working, goal-achieving member of your team.

The recognition message certainly does not need to resemble an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story; simple additions and a bit of extra thought will do wonders.

The next time you prepare to recognize a member of your team, try this: take an additional 5 minutes to consider how their accomplishment has helped your team and your clients, how they’ve demonstrated your company’s values, and how they have contributed to the company’s ultimate goals.  Think about the steps they’ve taken and the obstacles they’ve overcome to get there.  Sure, it will take a few more minutes, but the outcome will be worth it.

Write a story, share it, and see how great it feels for the recipient, yourself and your entire team.   Be proud of all successes, big or small; they truly are worth celebrating.

An effective program should be used to highlight many business critical functions in an organization, including:

Emphasizing core values: Core values are an essential focus for successful businesses. The companies who emphasize them and consistently recognize their employees who put them into practice, find dramatic cultural shifts taking place. The list is long and impressive, but here are a few that really stand out.  Apple: ‘We don’t settle for anything less than excellence ‘. Zappos: ‘Deliver WOW Through Service’. Virgin: ‘Quality service by empowering our employees‘.  Living these core values has separated these companies from their competitors and these values should be the force behind any well-thought out recognition program.

Creating a positive culture: It’s an undisputed fact that positive reinforcement fosters more positive activity. What you focus on becomes reality! Recognition programs should make it easy for employees to feel connected, involved, recognized and rewarded, all key factors in a healthy organization. There are everyday heroes in your workplace, and highlighting them in an open and transparent forum, not only feels good for the recipient, but is also inspiring to those around.

Highlight employee strengths and successes: What do your employees stand for? What are some of the strengths that separate them from each other? A good employee recognition program should highlight these strengths from both the perspective of managers and colleagues. Awards, success stories and strengths should be highlighted for all to see and provide a good overall view of who each of your employees are.

Employee Recognition Programs are not just an extra ‘feel-good’ extension of your company, they should be a driving force behind your culture, and identity. Companies that are buying into this philosophy are making waves, and are defining themselves as leaders in every industry. So what’s your opinion, is your company ready to take the next step?

Recognizing is all about the story. It’s defining values and celebrating (ideally, in front of your entire company) individuals or teams that put them into practice. You see, it’s all about context. It’s letting your employees know what you believe in, and sharing the real-life stories of the heroes that have gone beyond the call of duty and lived by those values. When everyone sees that these stories are celebrated, they are more likely to understand and become part of your corporate culture.

On the other hand, receiving a gift, having a pizza party, or getting a plaque are all ways of being rewarded. There is no doubt that people love to be rewarded as well, but the emphasis shouldn’t be on the reward. You don’t want a culture where rewards are what spur your teams on to do more;  you want them to do it because it’s ingrained in your culture. It’s your foundation. Your employees know that it’s what sets you apart from your competition. It’s those values that your business lives by, and that keep your customers coming back.

Are you using recognition to create a culture of value in your organization, or are you just dangling carrots in front of your employees? The difference does matter… a lot!

Harsh? Maybe, but see if you recognize this typical event:

The long-time employees get a nice certificate, a plaque and/or trophy, maybe a nice gift (or points to choose their own), hopefully during a special ceremony in front of their peers.  At least the CEO rehearsed to make sure he gets each name right. Big bucks are spent on the event. Great photo op for the upcoming newsletter. Thanks for staying at this job for so long!

It’s better than a certificate in the mail (!) but it still leaves the celebrated employee feeling a little disappointed – even disillusioned about how much her employer really cares about her hard work during all these years. Did anyone even notice?

Contrast that with a celebration where the CEO, before she hands out the certificate, regales the audience with real stories of some of  the employee’s accomplishments over the years, and talks of the impact she’s made on customers, colleagues and shareholder value.

The good news is that an increasing number of organizations are expanding their recognition programs to include everyday appreciation, which in turn can turbo-charge their Years of Service celebrations. Here’s how:

A well-planned, well-executed recognition program will involve everyone and encourage frequent activity, with employees providing detailed information about the reason for the recognition, hopefully relating back to the company’s core values.  A solid online management system will track and save all of these positive stories and make them easily retrievable at any time.

Now, the smart organization has many, many success stories to draw from when celebrating an employee’s special milestone.

How much more rewarding to the employee and to the organization when the CEO publicly affirms how much the organization has benefited from the employee’s engagement, and how she embodies their core values?

Personal. Meaningful. Inspiring.

Is this how your employees would describe your company’s Milestone celebrations?

Woman’sDay.com recently interviewed executives from a variety of industries and uncovered some unofficial rules that may surprise you. For example:

Toot your own horn.
“Your boss can’t possibly keep tabs on what every employee is doing every day—it’s up to you to let him know! “When you wrap up a project, send a congratulatory email to your team and CC your boss,” suggests Mackler. You might also send him a monthly overview of the projects you’ve completed and other accomplishments, and have these month-to-month emails on hand at your annual performance review.”

We appreciate positive feedback, too.
“If you make your boss look and feel good, you’ll reap the rewards, promises Stefanie Smith, head of executive consulting and coaching firm Stratex. Generally your boss is the one doing the encouraging and nurturing, but you can turn the tables to your advantage. Compliment your boss in front of other people, suggests Smith. Just be sure to keep your kind words sincere—and brief.”

Be a problem solver.
“Most employees bring up problems and expect the boss to solve them,” laments Jennifer Prosek, CEO of consulting firm CJP Communications. “The employees who stand out are a part of the solution.” If you’re struggling with a project or a client and aren’t sure what to do next, present your boss with three possible options. Even if she instructs you to do something entirely different, she’ll appreciate that you’re thinking ahead.”

Read the full article at Woman’sday.com

A successful employee recognition program does exactly that: it helps build a culture of appreciation by consistently focusing on the positives and expressing gratitude to those who help make our toil easier and our results greater.

Thanks to Nate St. Pierre, founder of  ItStartsWith.Us for bringing this wonderful poem to our attention on this Thanksgiving day in the US:

I’m Thankful for You

By Joanna Fuchs

Thanksgiving is the appointed time
for focusing on the good in our lives.
In each of our days,
we can find small blessings,
but too often we overlook them,
choosing instead to spend our time
paying attention to problems.
We give our energy
to those who cause us trouble
instead of those who bring peace.
Starting now,
let’s be on the lookout
for the bits of pleasure in each hour,
and appreciate the people who
bring love and light to everyone
who is blessed to know them.
You are one of those people.
On Thanksgiving,
I’m thankful for you.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Launch an ongoing Thanksgiving program at work.  Get everyone focused on what’s good, what works.  If not daily, at least weekly. Even monthly is better than yearly.

We at Rewards Nation are so blessed: not only are we part of a fantastic team, we get to help wonderful, caring people  at fabulous companies express their appreciation to colleagues every single day.

THANK YOU!