Is Recognition More Important as a Driver of Employee Engagement to Gen Y Than to Baby Boomers?

The Melcrum Blog just published the results of a poll over whether “recoginition [is] like heroin, where you need more and more to get the same effect”. Here’s my personal response …

Recognition as a driver of employee engagement

Yes, recognition has been shown to be one of the drivers of employee engagement, so your poll results certainly are interesting. I’m a baby Boomer (upper end) and I have to confess that I do like recognition ONLY IF it is private and personal – please don’t call me out front and make a public fuss!

Recognition is a basic human need, and my observation across 40 years of working life is that there are generational preferences AND individual preferences within generations regarding HOW recognition is received – public or private, verbal or written, email or letter, formal or informal, encouraging words or a gift/monetary token and so on …

Employee recognition must be authentic

One word of caution about giving recognition – it has to be sincere and deserved. Fake praise has been shown to be more damaging to employee engagement than no recognition at all.

If you think of recognition simply as an encouraging expression of appreciation for a job well done, why would you NOT give recognition where it’s due? After all, research shows that GIVING recognition when it is deserved boosts the production of “feel good” chemicals for the GIVER as well as the RECEIVER!

More ways to drive employee engagement

As a representative of the training and professional development industry I have written a connsumer’s guide that demonstrates why increasing employee engagement must be the number one focus of small business owners who want to be maximized managers and accelerate the performance of the people they manage. You can request your complementary copy of “The Consumer’s Guide To Engaging a Training and Professional Development Provider” here.

Is Recognition More Important as a Driver of Employee Engagement to Gen Y Than to Baby Boomers?

Have your say. Post your observations in the comments box below …

How To Maximize Employee Engagement, Employee Commitment and Customer Service Focus With The Three “I”s Of Best Practice Training and Development.

My previous three posts in the Small Business Training and Development series identified The Three Deadly Sins Of Omission in the training and development of the employees in your small business.

I also described the antidote - The Holy Trinity of Employee Contribution to Business Results:

1. Maximize employee engagement
2. Compound employee commitment
3. Cultivate a customer service focus

Now that you know where to focus your small business training and development time, energy and money, you need to know what the three “I”s are and how to use them to turn knowledge into results:

Apply The Three “I”s Of Best Practice Training and Development To Maximize The Impact Of Your Employee Engagement, Employee Commitment and Customer Service Focus

1. “I“ #1:  Identify
2. “I“ #2:  Intensify
3. “I“ #3:  Integrate

Employee Engagement

1. Identify the professional roles in which your employees can perform most
   powerfully with the least effort as indicated by their Talent Code™
2. Intensify the time and energy they spend developing their natural talents into strengths - the path to true employee engagement
3. Integrate their Talent Code™ and unique Motivation Code™ into their daily work practices to access their Peak Performance Zone™

Employee Commitment

1. Identify the unique Motivation Code™ (identify and prioritize the core values) of each employee - their values are what REALLY motivate them
2. Intensify their motivation by aligning their unique Motivation Code™ to your
   company’s Motivation Nexus™ (the meeting point of your values and their values) for sustainable motivation
3. Integrate their Talent Code™ and unique Motivation Code™ into their daily work practices to access their Peak Performance Zone™

Customer Service Focus

1. Identify exactly whom each employee serves - internal or external customers. Establish metrics to gauge their level of success with customers
2. Intensify the application of what they do well in customer service and manage around their weaknesses as identified by their Talent Code™ and Motivation Code™
3. Integrate their Talent Code™ and unique Motivation Code™ into their daily work practices to access their Peak Performance Zone™in all aspects of their work, including customer service

Maximized Manager

If you want to accelerate your business results you must maximize your return on your small business training and development. Your number one goal must be to develop in your people the knowledge, skills, attitudes and systems to accumulate confidence, strengths and skills to manage themselves, their talents, their motivation, and their relationships with your customers and clients for maximum career acceleration for themselves and maximum business results for you.

Small Business Training and Development Deadly Sin of Omission #3 - Failing To Develop A Customer Service Focus

A strange myth about customer service persists in some organisations … that employees who do not directly serve external customers are not in need of customer service training and development.

The fact is that every manager, every employee, every small business owner serves customers – either external customers or internal customers.

And the evidence is clear that of a dozen or so commonly used Quality Management practices, only three have been shown to consistently impact business results:

1. Employee engagement
2. Employee commitment
3. Customer service focus

Customer service focus can be both trained and developed by expanding knowledge, capitalizing on and developing attitudes and values, extending skill sets, and establishing appropriate, context specific systems and practices.

So, you need to seek and find a small business training and development provider who can show you exactly how to connect your business results to your customer service focus by implementing a system like the K.A.S.S.™ system employed exclusively by LeaderCoach clients.

How to overcome the three deadly sins of omission in training and professional development

What you require is a training and development provider who can teach you how to break the cycle of the sins of omission by engaging and applying The Holy Trinity of Employee Contribution to Business Results:

1. Engagement
2. Commitment (which arises from values alignment)
3. Customer Service Focus

Call our office now to schedule your FREE 30 Minute Phone Strategy Session and take your first step to maximizing your professional performance and accelerating the results of the people you manage. Call +61.2.8850.6834.

Small Business Training and Development Deadly Sin of Omission #2 - Not Identifying The REAL Source Of Employee Commitment.

Employee commitment is another buzzword that is tossed around frequently and carelessly in small business training and development and corporate learning and development circles.

Attempts at defining employee commitment have also been made by some training and development providers, often involving very complex explanations. But that the fact is, that like employee engagement, employee commitment is a simple concept.

Check out this short small business training and development video to see for yourself what I mean …

Employee commitment happens when a worker is engaging his core values (his internal motivators) in connection with his key natural talents in the process of his or her work role.

Employee commitment is strengthened further by the individual worker’s Commitment Nexus™, which is the meeting point between the values of the individual worker and values of his employer.

Is you are considering investing in small business training and development for yourself and your employees you want to make sure that you choose a training and development provider who will show you the exact steps you need to take to identify and activate your unique Motivation Code™ and your Commitment Nexus™, to maximize employee engagement for greatest possible impact on your business results.

Look out for my next post and video when I reveal Small Business Training and Development Deadly Sin of Omission #3.

Small Business Training and Development Deadly Sin of Omission #1  - not focusing on increasing employee engagement.

What is employee engagement?

Employee engagement has become a buzzword that is tossed around frequently and carelessly in small business training and development and in corporate learning and development circles.

Attempts at defining employee engagement have been made by some training and development providers, often involving very complex explanations, but the fact is employee engagement it a simple concept.

Employee engagement happens when a worker is engaging his key natural talents in tasks that are appropriately challenging – not too easy and leading to boredom, not too difficult and leading to frustration.

If you are considering small business training and development for yourself and the people you manage, you may be shocked by the statistics that I reveal in this video into taking immediate action.

Employee engagement has a direct impact on customer service and therefore impacts customer satisfaction, customer engagement and customer retention.

Don’t you think it’s time for small business owners to protect their investment with the right employee training and development?

You want to work with a training and development provider who offers a clearly identified process for identifying the key natural talents of individual workers and who adds value to your small business training and development with a plan to help your employees activate their Talent Code™ for the best possible level of engagement for themselves, your customer satisfaction levels and for your business results.

Look out for my next post and video when I reveal Small Business Training and Development Deadly Sin of Omission #2