The charismatic and shamelessly self-promoting presentation of Chester Elton’s The Carrot Principle at Training magazine’s conference in February was a lot of fun with some good thoughts about appreciating others to take away and apply. Elton and Adrian Gostick, called the “Apostles of Appreciation” by one reviewer, based the book on a 10-year study which interviewed 200,000 managers and employees on how the best managers use recognition to engage their people, retain talent, and accelerate performance.
How do you use recognition to retain your top talent? Do you at all? While some have the innate gift of encouragement and praise, most do not and need to be purposeful. Of 14,000 employees surveyed, two-thirds are actively seeking employment elsewhere while working for you. Ouch. That’s a lot of lost dollars on disengagement plus more money on training the replacements.
Elton has first-hand experience with working in a “culture of appreciation.” While Elton was on his way back from a business trip, his wife called to tell him about 24 long-stemmed orange roses (you know, carrot-colored) she had received. “I knew they weren’t from me!” he said and said the note with the arrangement said they were “in appreciation for the ‘little things’ you take care of so Chester can do big things for us.” The card was signed by Elton’s boss. Elton then quoted an O.C. Tanner survey from August 2008 that showed when companies reward excellence, their financials are better.
So is the annual company Christmas party enough to recognize your employees’ accomplishments? Elton asked. That mentality is like rolling Valentine’s Day, birthdays, and anniversaries into one party once a year. Probably wouldn’t go over very well. “’I love you’ in your personal life translates to ‘thank you’ at the office,” Elton said. Just something as simple as the manager saying, “Good morning. How are you?” to employees as they came on shift at Hard Rock Café dropped turnover there by 3 percent. “People join organizations. They leave people!” Elton said. Elton did differentiate between praise and reward; praise effort and reward results.
Recognition needs to be: frequent, specific, and timely. Make recognition a daily event.
For new hires, up to 96 percent of whom are still undecided on their first day of work,
- send a small gift to their home
- assign them a mentor
- have their ID ready
- give a small symbolic award.
For others:
- hand-wash their car
- send them a handwritten note
- send a letter of praise to their family
- give them a half-day off to spend with their family.
