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Charlotte Collett once received one of the best compliments of her career when a CEO expressed that he “didn't know what to do with her”. He went on to say that she was the first HR professional he had experienced whose leading value was her strategic business expertise and her HR skillset was an added bonus.

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Growing up in Central Alberta and graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary, the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree in her family. "My dad was a successful small business owner," she shares. " I grew up looking at things through a business mindset." This early business grounding continues to serve Charlotte throughout her HR career.  

"I believe this is critical to how HR practitioners can truly support the business as a strategic partner," she explains. "It's what grants you license, in my view, to be at the table. If you don't understand your client’s core business needs, I'm not sure how you can influence it in the right way from an HR standpoint."

And while Charlotte believes that business acumen is what can help HR leaders sell big ideas internally with more success and credibility, she thinks sometimes it's better to think small.

"As HR practitioners, we sometimes can be quite ambitious in what we want to see for the organization," says Charlotte. "What I have come to value more is experimenting, trying something, and appreciating that although it might not be utopia, some progress is still progress. Often the real gift is in the small incremental wins, especially when it comes to impacting culture. People can downplay the accomplishment because they think progress is not as fast as it should be. When you're dealing with humans (versus numbers, or tools), things are more complex and nuanced."

Let's dive into our interview!

How did you build such a successful career in HR?

I architected my career with a blend of specialized expertise (compensation, talent development) and client facing business partner work. Having experiences both in a generalist and specialist domain has really informed my leadership brand as I easily understand what it's like to practice the profession on both sides.

Beyond that, I always strive for a higher level of performance and lead by example. HR practitioners are role models for the cultural behaviours that you're trying to instil and develop in the organization. We need to “eat our own dog food”, as I like to say. I won't ask someone in the business to do something I wouldn't do.  

I am constantly curious and learning each day about human behaviour and what drives people to operate the way they do. The reality is that in much of what HR does, we aren't always working with people at their best. HR practitioners are often called upon to be the voice of reason in the face of what can be very emotive situations. Be an observer of others and stay open to why people respond the way they do, considering what is driving their perspective. Really trying to stay in that space of curiosity around humans, what they do and why they do it.  

And lastly, mentorship. Mentors, in my view, are an invaluable resource. Having been a receiver of that gift, it's extremely important to me that I pay it forward with the people that are coming up in the profession.
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How do you view workplace culture, and what role does HR play?

Influencing and impacting culture is one of the reasons why I have taken on the mandates that I have. People often think that putting a pool table in the staff room and giving people free pop is setting culture, and I don't necessarily agree. Those things are nice and have their purposes, but they are perks, not culture. ‍

Culture is about aligning people's behaviour to what you want the organization to drive in terms of results and strategy. I believe leaders model the culture you want; that's my passion project – helping leaders be better leaders.
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Tell us about your recent initiative of re-envisioning your organization's values.

I subscribe to the adage that culture is what people do when no one is looking.

Getting aligned about our collective values and communicating those clearly is key to increasing the chance that they do those right things. It was a great process to help align the leadership team around questions like, 'What do we want this organization to be able to do?' and 'How do we want people to behave?'  

The design process began by having the senior team get clear about their top five or six personal values. We wanted to acknowledge that employees and leaders don't come to work and park their personal values at the door. From there, we identified themes and commonalities and began building. For example, a consensus of people in the room identified family as a personal value. We explored how that concept might be applied to the workplace and landed on “We believe in looking out for one another”.

What you hope for in an organization is that the collective personal values of the majority of your employees align with what you aspire to as a culture – and that's called fit.  

And when there is an imbalance in that, or people are navigating the organization and bumping up against a personal value that might be outside the balance of what the company values, conflict can arise.  

What are the critical challenges to HR teams in the near future, and what's keeping you up at night?

We're coming out of a period in our world’s history that has had a material impact on work. It's impacted every demographic, with some older workers choosing to retire early taking valuable knowledge with them, and some early in career who have just spent three years working out of a basement on a Teams call who may now be struggling with how to navigate a return to office.

The nature of work and managing those varied impacts and expectations is going to continue to be a big challenge. I don't think it's going away.

I'm not a fan of working fully remote because I'm in the business of humans. I feel like there is a wonderful thing that happens when humans are sharing the same physical space and having organic impromptu conversations. These are situations you can't replicate through a phone line or a video screen.

Humans are social beings that need connectivity beyond a work-related topic – they need relationships. This is the glue that helps businesses be more efficient and strategic.

But I appreciate that people want balance. Living through the pandemic, we have proven that people can be productive at work and flexibly manage their lives. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.

The issue of mental health in the workplace is connected to that. I appreciate that there is a public conversation happening on this most important topic right now. As humans, most of us at some point or another will have likely struggled with mental health in some way – historically we may have kept it hidden in the shadows.  

While we're seeing progress, managing mental health remains very challenging organizationally, especially for leaders who don't always know how to navigate those waters. That's when they turn to HR professionals for support, and it's not always easy.

What are you most excited about?

HR practitioners continuing to add value as businesspeople. HR practitioners have access to more data and metrics than ever before and understanding what's behind the numbers and contextualizing that is an essential and valuable skill for any organization.  

I appreciate that not every organization can invest in large scale HRIS systems or flashy technology, and that's fair. But exploring creative ways to get to meaningful data will ground you in what's possible and the alternatives that make sense for your organization. Data mining and constructing a practical narrative around data is an important skill for HR practitioners and something I'm excited about.  

Thank you, Charlotte, for sitting down with us and sharing your experience and knowledge!

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Know an amazing HR Leader you think we should feature? Send us a note at marketing@kudos.com

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You can find employee recognition across all industries in many different forms. Most organizations have learned that recognizing employees for their hard work is an essential business practice. Some organizations have implemented employee recognition software, while some are still embracing the old classics like free lunches, birthday cards and company gifts.  

Different industries face different challenges. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach – recognition differs between industries, and it can be challenging to find the perfect solution. What we do know is when recognition is done well, it can have an even greater impact on your business.  

Healthcare Services

In healthcare, employee recognition often centers on patient care and satisfaction. Recognizing employees who go above and beyond in providing compassionate care or who achieve excellent patient outcomes is common.  

Creating an engaging work environment is especially critical in healthcare because that engagement directly affects patients and their experience. Hospitals with a high percentage of engaged nurses pay $1.1 million less in malpractice claims every year than those with less engaged nurses.  

Kudos Case Study:

LMC Healthcare, a Kudos client since 2012, has proved that incorporating employee recognition into healthcare culture leads to better patient care. With the help of Kudos, LMC designed a values-based culture where team members are committed to quality work and to delivering the best patient experience.  

With clinics distributed across Canada, staff and physicians can recognize each other through Kudos desktop and mobile applications – making maintaining a healthy culture easy with recognition.  

“A great culture is the foundation for a successful business. A strong culture encourages staff to be actively engaged, do their best, and come to work every day to support the company’s mission. With a focus on culture, employee performance can then translate into business success – hitting whatever key performance indicators that have been set, including revenue and positive patient outcomes.” Leah Topic Director of Human Resources at LMC Healthcare.

Key Takeaways for Recognition in Healthcare:

• Ensuring recognition is centered around your company values
• Recognition should be easily accessible to all employees
• Recognition is highly patient-experience oriented

Financial Services

A study done by SLD found this industry has the highest amount of employee recognition and reward programs. This study also discovered that employees ranked top-down acknowledgement and social recognition significantly higher than their executives.

In this highly client-focused industry, employee recognition often centers on meeting or exceeding sales targets or providing outstanding client service. Recognizing employees who demonstrate exceptional financial knowledge or who develop innovative financial products is common. Interestingly, keeping customers happy through exceptional customer experience is linked to a critical business challenge – retaining your best talent.  

A great customer experience only comes when employees are engaged. When employees are happy and satisfied with their jobs, they are more capable of ensuring customer satisfaction. Companies providing financial services should consider focusing their efforts on employee engagement through recognition if they want happy customers and loyal employees.  

Kudos Case Study:

In 2020, CAAT Pension Plan discovered their traditional approach to company culture wasn’t working. With significant company expansion planned for the future, CAAT knew they weren’t going to get there if their employees weren’t engaged and committed.  

Since implementing Kudos, CAAT is now an award-winning employer whose employees have redefined their customer experience and led them to tremendous success.  

Key Takeaways for Recognition in Finance:

• Ensuring recognition is centered around your company values
• Unique and personalized employee rewards  
• Recognition is highly service and target-based  

Technology

At the beginning of 2022, the U.S. technology industry reached a market value of $1.6 trillion. The tech industry has had explosive growth, and this means many organizations have had to evolve and keep up with the never-ending demand of better applications, software, services, tools, platforms, etc. Recognizing employees who develop new products, solve complex problems, or seek more efficient solutions is highly common.  

According to the Velocity Global Report, 72% of the tech companies have employees working remotely. Tech companies will need to place emphasis on investing in services that will support their remote workforce, especially in a rapidly growing, and competitive industry.  

The tech industry is also known for periodic layoffs that can leave  remaining employees feeling insecure and burnt out. Recognition can provide certainty and reassurance for employees who are feeling uneasy. This reduction in stress can translate in turn to lowered turnover, less absenteeism and more productivity.

Kudos Case Study:

Telarus is one of the largest privately held technology services distributors and has seen significant ROI since implementing Kudos in 2019. They have also ensured recognition is accessible to all employees whether in the office, working from home, or on the road.

Telarus chose Kudos for its values-aligned peer-to-peer recognition, which has helped support the culture they’ve designed around three pillars: Innovation, Partner Success and Team Success.  

“The Telarus team, at every level, enjoys using the platform. We’ve noticed that in months where our revenue spikes, so does the volume of our awarded recognition in Kudos.” Dawnell Unsworth, Telarus.

Key Takeaways for Recognition in Technology:

• Integrating recognition into the communication systems your company already uses  
• Ensuring recognition is easily accessible to remote employees
• Recognition can provide reassurance in a sometimes-volatile industry

Construction & Manufacturing

Recognition has become increasingly more important in areas like construction and manufacturing due to the direct impact engagement has on health and safety in the workplace. Engaged employees are less likely to be injured or cause an accident on the job than those with low engagement.  

As a result, recognition is being included more and more as a key component of an effective health and safety program – some standards like ISO 45001 and ESG reporting require employee engagement metrics. The bottom line is; engaged workers are safe workers.  

Offering ongoing opportunities for learning and development can increase engagement, while also recognizing employees for their accomplishments. Celebrating when an employee reaches a new training milestone will not only encourage participation in professional development but will keep employees productive and efficient.  

Kudos Case Study:  

Russell, a Kudos client since 2019, has seen a tremendous impact on their culture by focusing on individual development.  

Their people-development strategy has four key pillars: Coaching, 360° Feedback, Core Competency Focus, and Career Development. Kudos allows employees to recognize the strides being made by their peers and encourages others to continue to learn and grow.  

Russell has been recognized for their safety practices, including by the Association of General Contractors of America, National Contractor’s Insurance, Ltd., and by the National Safety Council. In 2020, Russell achieved, for the second time, one million hours with zero lost-time incidents.

“In the construction industry, our people are our product. Our value proposition in the market is our people; without great people, we can’t build buildings and satisfy our clients. Like most industries, the competition for talent is fierce; it’s imperative that we attract and retain team members whose skills we develop in order to meet our company goals.” Melissa Pepper, Chief Strategy Officer of Russell.

Key Takeaways for Recognition in Construction & Manufacturing:

• Recognize employees for completing training milestones
• Build a habit of recognition so employees stay engaged, productive, and safe!

Retail

Retail is a customer-oriented industry, which means employee recognition often focuses on providing excellent customer service. Employees are more motivated to produce better quality work when they feel appreciated. For customer-facing employees, that means providing an experience that clients appreciate and remember.

Studies show that companies with at least 50% employee engagement retain more than 80% of their customers. According to PwC’s Future of Customer Experience Survey, 73% of customers agree that customer experience is central to their purchasing decisions. Among U.S. customers, 65% find a positive customer experience more influential than great advertising.

Retail employees, especially front-line staff, who work for an organization that has a program for recognizing milestones (Birthdays, work anniversaries, promotions, etc.) are twice as likely to thrive at work. Thriving employees are more likely to stay longer at an organization, and in an industry where the turnover is quite high, retaining employees for a better customer experience is critical.  

Key Takeaways for Recognition in Retail:  

• Celebrating employee milestones so team members feel appreciated
• Recognize top performers with nomination programs

The sky's the limit when it comes to industries. Consider customer-focused sectors like higher education and hospitality, for example, where employee recognition often focuses on providing excellent customer service. Employees are more motivated to produce better quality work when they feel appreciated. For customer-facing employees, that means providing an experience that clients appreciate and remember.  

Even though these industries are facing different hurdles, all of them have demonstrated that employee recognition leads to business success. Whatever approach your business takes on employee recognition – ensuring it’s unique, customized and empowering for your employees is when you will see the greatest impact on your organization.  

HR leaders are busier than ever. Between a competitive job market, layoffs, discussions around remote vs. hybrid vs. return-to-office, recognition & rewards and more, they need all the help they can get. Recently there’s been quite a bit of discussion around AI’s potential in supporting HR professionals, and much of the focus has been on ChatGPT

ChatGPT is the latest iteration of the original generative pretrained transformer (GPT) by OpenAI.  

In simple terms, Forbes describes ChatGPT as a tool that “enables users to ask questions or tell a story, and the bot will respond with relevant, natural-sounding answers and topics. The interface is designed to simulate a human conversation, creating natural engagement with the bot.”

How to use ChatGPT in HR, according to ChatGPT

Is there a better source to determine ChatGPT’s capabilities in HR than ChatGPT?  

If you ask ChatGPT how it can be used in HR, the model generates a response like the following:  
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• Recruiting: ChatGPT can be used to create personalized messages to candidates, answer frequently asked questions, and assist in scheduling interviews.
• Employee Onboarding: ChatGPT can be used to provide new employees with information about the company, its culture, and their role, as well as answer any questions they may have.
• Employee Assistance: ChatGPT can be used to provide employees with information about benefits, policies, and procedures, as well as assist with tasks such as booking time off or submitting expenses.
• Performance Reviews: ChatGPT can assist in the creation of performance review templates and tracking employee progress.

• Employee Engagement: ChatGPT can be used to create personalized messages to employees, send out surveys, and track employee engagement.

Of course, you can ask ChatGPT more creative questions like: what should I, an HR professional, ask you? Here's the response we got:

As an HR professional, you may have several questions related to recruitment, employee relations, compensation and benefits, and more. Some questions you could ask me include:

1. What are the latest trends in HR and recruitment?

2. How can I improve the employee onboarding process?

3. What are some effective employee retention strategies?

4. How do I handle difficult employee situations such as conflict resolution or performance management?

5. What are the best practices for compensating employees fairly and equitably?

6. How can I stay compliant with labor laws and regulations?

7. What are some innovative benefits and perks that companies are offering their employees?

8. How can I measure the success of my HR initiatives?

ChatGPT produces accurate, precise, and well-written feedback for any of your industry questions, yet many industry leaders don’t feel threatened.  

In an article for SHRM, Tim Sackett wrote “here's the differentiation between ChatGPT and HR professionals: While you will no longer be needed as the creator of a work product, HR professionals will still be needed to narrate to ChatGPT what they want to create.”

Talking to employees worried about ChatGPT

A recent research article explains some of the shortcomings of earlier GPT models, some of which may help assuage concerned HR team members. [Note that OpenAI intends to troubleshoot with each new version]:  

The shortcut of ‘self-attention’

All communicative AI is reliant on the ‘human labor of understanding.’ In other words, tools like ChatGPT may create the illusion of agency, but each response is just an extraction of something we, the people, have already said.  

In this way, ChatGPT understands and responds to prompts by pulling from the database–human conversations–it’s made up of.  

This is important for HR professionals to flag as concerns about AI take-over rise. Yes, ChatGPT is a powerful tool we can use to save time and act on strategy, but it will never be able to replace the source of its own “intelligence.” Functions like HR will always be uniquely human at its core.  

“Human sense-making is constantly required to keep up the appearances of autonomous or semi-autonomous machine behaviour” - Artificial intelligence and the affective labour of understanding: The intimate moderation of a language model

Allocational and representational harms

When an automated system gives credit unfairly, for example, this is considered allocational harm. On the other hand, representational harm occurs when systems misrepresent or fail to acknowledge groups. For example, InstructGPT and ChatGPT offer vastly different histories about Christopher Columbus.  

If you ask ChatGPT how it can assist HR leaders, it may respond with an answer like this: ChatGPT can offer advice on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Relying on a system with entrenched biases to develop DEIB initiatives is counterintuitive enough, these initiatives need to be taken on thoughtfully and with empathy.

Monitoring your DEIB initiatives, on the other hand, shows a dedication to the process.  

Small and large worlds

‘The communicative performance of an AI system in a small world is often misconstrued as indicative of its potential performance in a large one’ - Artificial intelligence and the affective labour of understanding: The intimate moderation of a language model  

According to the article, small worlds represent subsets of large worlds. To make a (hopefully) helpful comparison, if a small world is an eBay print of the Mona Lisa, then a large world is the Mona Lisa itself.  

So, even though ChatGPT may perform incredibly well in isolated decision-making situations, that doesn’t guarantee general success.  

Here at Kudos, we’re keeping an eye on all things ChatGPT and how it can further support HR Leaders in building culture and engagement. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest HR news and insight direct to your inbox.  

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Employee Appreciation Day is a special occasion to recognize and celebrate the hard work and dedication of your employees. Of course, employees should be recognized for their contributions all year long, but Employee Appreciation Day is an opportunity for employers to demonstrate extra appreciation.  

When is Employee Appreciation Day?

Employee Appreciation Day is observed on the first Friday of March every year. This year, Employee Appreciation Day is Friday, March 3, 2023.  

What is the history of Employee Appreciation Day?

The concept of Employee Appreciation Day was first introduced in the United States in 1995 by Dr. Bob Nelson who has helped many organizations build a culture of recognition across the globe. This day is now observed in several countries worldwide and serves as a reminder  of the importance of appreciating employees, and the impact recognition has on an organization.  

Why is employee recognition important?

Employee recognition directly impacts engagement in an organization. Employee engagement is a big focus for HR leaders in 2023, especially after the changes we faced in the last three years that brought the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, layoffs, the list goes on. Disengagement affects culture and it’s expensive. Gallup reports that employees who are actively disengaged costs the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity.  

But here’s the good news: organizations that are including recognition in their strategies are experiencing better business outcomes such as profitability, retention, productivity, and employee satisfaction.  

CASE STUDY:  

Prominence Health Plan, a Kudos client since 2021, conducted an internal culture assessment and identified a critical gap in their employee experience. The feedback they received was a lack of employee appreciation that was quickly becoming a problem in their company culture.  

“There’s never been a time when investing in employee engagement has been more important,” says Kamal Jemmoua, CEO at Prominence Health.  

Kudos values-based recognition platform was the clear choice to support Prominence Health’s strategic approach to enhancing their company culture. Prominence Health is now an award-winning employer and has achieved impressive growth and performance.  

“At the end of the day, employees are your most important asset, and you need to figure out how to appreciate them.” - Kamal Jemmoua, CEO at Prominence Health  

Download the full case study Prominence Health Prioritizes Culture to Drive Performance with Kudos.  

Ideas for Employee Appreciation Day (and the entire month!)

Recognizing your employees and showing gratitude for their work creates a positive work culture that fosters a sense of belonging and loyalty. Celebrating Employee Appreciation Day is a great start to building a culture of recognition - take the next step and recognize throughout the entire month! We’ve made it easy for you with this free calendar of recognition prompts to inspire you to show appreciation all month.

Here are some ideas for Employee Appreciation Day:

1. Personalized appreciation messages: take the time to write personalized messages to employees, recognizing their specific contributions and achievements.

2. Host a social event: plan a social event for employees to connect and celebrate together. This could be a lunch, happy hour, or a night out.

3. Provide meaningful gifts: consider providing employees with meaningful gifts that are unique to them.  

4. Top up their points: if you’re using a recognition platform like Kudos, distribute extra points to everyone so they can redeem rewards of their choice.  

5. Offer time off: provide employees with an extra day off or an early release day.  

6. Organize a company-wide retreat: give your team a change in scenery with a mini getaway.  

7. Enjoy the outdoors: plan an outdoor activity like a hike, a nature walk or a game in the park.  

8. Go to the movies: take the afternoon off and see a box office top hit with your team.

9. Set up a game day: dedicate an afternoon where employees can play games with each other either virtually or in person.  

10. Let them decide: offer your employees a variety of options so they can select something that will truly make them feel appreciated.  

Send Recognition All Year

While Employee Appreciation Day is important, recognizing your employees all year will have the most impact on your organization. Kudos makes sending meaningful recognition easy and accessible to everyone – with employee milestones, nomination programs and personalized rewards, no achievement goes unnoticed.

Our free 2023 Celebrations Calendar includes all the important dates throughout the year so you never miss an opportunity to recognize and celebrate your employees!  

There’s no need to wait until Employee Appreciation Day to make recognition part of your culture – we can help you right now!  

You may have heard about The 5 Languages of Love® – a framework created by Gary Chapman for how people prefer to give and receive love. Using this same framework, Gary Chapman teamed up with Dr. Paul White, to discuss how to apply this to appreciation in the workplace.  

The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace says, “when authentic appreciation is communicated, all stakeholders win—the employee, the supervisor, the organization, customers and clients, as well as the family and friends of the employee who get to enjoy a more positive, encouraged individual.”  

In this article, we explore the 5 languages of appreciation, how they connect to employee recognition, and what this might look like in the workplace.  

1. Words of Affirmation

Words of affirmation are when you communicate your appreciation to someone through words. In the workplace, this could be something as simple as a “great job!” or “I really appreciated your help on that project.” Ensuring recognition is timely, personal, and meaningful is what will have the most impact on your employees.  

Kudos makes sending meaningful recognition to your employees easy and simple. Recognition sent in Kudos creates deeper connections, where your employees can share experiences and celebrate each other’s achievements, all in one place.  

Our free culture guide, Recognition Your Team Will Love, explains how to write meaningful recognition, with 20 examples for your team.  

2. Quality Time

Quality time means giving someone your complete and undivided attention. Making space for quality time in the workplace could look like; checking in with your employees often, scheduling one-on-one time, and listening to your employees.  

Quality time doesn’t always need to be work related – having small conversations about weekend plans, or favorite tv shows is important to build connections with your team. Younger generations especially want positive team dynamics, with leaders who care about their work and personal lives.  ‍

3. Acts of Service

This one is about those small acts of kindness that can go a long way. Something as simple as taking meeting minutes for someone, stocking the paper tray in the printer, or taking on a task from someone if their plate is too full. These small, but significant moments demonstrate appreciation for someone by showing them you recognize how valuable their time is.  

Thanking and recognizing individuals for their acts of service can be done through sending recognition messages in Kudos, and can also be celebrated through a nominations program. You can create an award in Kudos for which your employees can nominate each other. Nomination programs can spotlight impactful moments happening in your organization every day that your broader team might not see. ‍

4. Giving Tangible Gifts

While giving recognition should always be top of mind, some employees may feel even more appreciated with a gift. Employee rewards are an important aspect of workplace culture as they help to motivate, engage and retain employees. The days of free company swag, coffee mugs and notepads are over though. Demonstrating appreciation through gift giving should be unique and personalized.  

Rewards that cater to individual employees can demonstrate your company's commitment to their personal and professional growth. Kudos offers access to a world-class suite of rewards - merchandise, events, travel, charities, gift cards and even custom rewards can be redeemed through Kudos. Adding points and rewards to your recognition experience is a fantastic way to support engagement and augment total compensation.  

5. Human Connection

For remote employees, offering a place where everyone can gather in person, like a hybrid office or a company event is a great way for employees to express appreciation in person.

Some people may love hugs, and others may prefer a handshake – physical touch in the workplace should be limited to brief and professional forms of touch between close colleagues.  It is important to be aware of and respect the personal boundaries of your colleagues.  

It All Relates to Recognition

Employees need to know their contributions to your organization are valued. Without this recognition, we begin to feel our hard work has no purpose. And without purpose, we feel unappreciated, undervalued, and unmotivated.  

Just like the 5 Languages of Love®, your team members will prefer different methods of appreciation. Some people may need to be checked-in with often, and some may be fine with a one-on-one occasionally, and that’s perfectly okay. Using a tool like Kudos, where all the ways of appreciation can be expressed through recognition, will help your employees feel valued, be engaged and more motivated to do their best work.  

People People is a series covering the best and brightest HR leaders of today and tomorrow.
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When it comes to business, Kudos' Rebecca Lee is most passionate about how it gets done. Hint: It’s the people!

Choosing a career in HR

While Rebecca didn't always know she wanted to work in HR, it wasn't long after starting postsecondary education and internships that she realized it was a perfect fit. While studying Business at Concordia University of Edmonton, Rebecca was drawn to her management and leadership development courses.

"It's not just about being a people person," she (somewhat reluctantly) states. "To me, that’s only one part of the equation, which is probably the worst thing you can say as an HR leader. But for me, it's also about helping the business. I'm interested in solving business problems, and my worldview is that in order to solve them, you need to lean into the people side of things, because ultimately, business is done by people."

And that's just one way Rebecca breaks the mold of what you might imagine as an HR leader, or as she prefers, people leader.

HR is your friend. Most of the time.

When it comes to the stereotype of HR being the fun police, Rebecca believes that things have gotten better in the field. But there's still a long way to go.

She explains that in many ways, it's easier to be a neutral third party all the time and, yes, sometimes being the fun police.  

But she chooses the more complex path of adapting to each situation with authenticity.  

That means being approachable, always professional, and willing to hold space for whatever conversation needs to be had. "Sometimes they're easy, sometimes they're really hard," she explains, "but if there's a need to discuss it, I'm happy to go there. And so that's why for me, it's more about the consistency in being genuine versus holding a hard line." For example, suppose someone asks for advice. In that case, she'll be open and honest and work from her personal playbook, but if the conversation relates to an internal policy or labour law, she'll put on her people leader hat and approach it meticulously and objectively.

But the reality of working with people stays the same.

People are complex, the real world can be messy, and HR leaders are here to work alongside the business & people to solve problems.

Who’s in charge of culture here?

Another hot take from Rebecca? Culture doesn’t live in the people function. “Obviously, people teams play a big role in shaping and supporting culture,” she clarifies, but to her, everyone plays a role in bringing it to life through their behaviours, interactions, and relationships.

"It's how we talk to each other, or, how we come together to do the work. Culture comes to life in interactions, whether that's at the 1-1 level or in a big group; it's actually quite decentralized."

If Rebecca had to pinpoint who she thinks are the primary stewards of culture, she thinks it’s managers and leaders.  

"They need to drive it," she explains. "They need to be vigilant about being aware of where the needle is when it comes to culture. And I think that they need to get ahead of it because it's such a powerful tool that can make or break your success in achieving business objectives."

However, people teams are the voice of culture when it comes to programs.

"Programming is where the rubber meets the road," Rebecca explains. "It doesn't matter how great your strategy is, if you can't translate that into action, it actually means nothing." Mic drop.

And to Rebecca, it's the people team’s role to call out cultural implications when rolling out new initiatives. Questions like, is this consistent with our culture? Are we pivoting our culture by doing this? People teams need to push leaders to answer those questions as new ideas are designed and developed, and guide them through programs that support the company's people.

What does the future of HR look like?

In the coming years, HR departments will be pushed to prove they are executing on promises related to DEIB, work-life balance, flexible work environments, and more. It’s also the right thing to do. "The new generation of workers will hold organizations accountable to their promises. They want to know what programs you have in place to execute the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and ESG initiatives you have built strategies around and identified as organizational priorities."

For Rebecca, this is now non-negotiable, and many organizations need to catch up in this respect. It's time to walk the talk.

The other big thing on Rebecca's radar? People analytics.

This is an arena where many people teams are playing catch up compared to other departments like sales, marketing, and operations. For example, one historically popular metric in the people space is time to fill open roles. "Shouldn't we be more concerned about the stay rate and quality of some of those hires?" Rebecca challenges. "We need to get more creative in terms of the outcomes we're trying to measure, and reverse engineer from there to figure out what data points we need."

Demonstrating the ROI of people programs will be critical to bringing and keeping these leaders at the executive table. "There's a story to be told here, and we have the data to tell it."

Final thoughts and advice for HR leaders

The people function will see some big changes over the next few years. People pros are levelling up, skilling up, and realizing that they need focus on integration, whether it be around tools & technology available to support the people space or tucking into enabling efficient/effective business operations".

Rebecca's hope? HR leaders call out the cracks they see, and are courageous enough to lean in and create some change.

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Know an amazing People or HR Leader you think we should feature? Send us a note at marketing@kudos.com

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“On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company as a workplace?”

This one simple question offers huge insights into your organization. Your Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) calculates employee loyalty, and can also be a key indicator for measuring your employee experience. HR leaders are using eNPS as a starting point to improve their company culture – let's take a deeper look at what this number means.  

What is an Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)?

An Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a scoring system designed to help employers measure employee satisfaction and loyalty within their organization. It comes from the Net Promoter Score (NPS)^®, published by Fred Reichheld, which measures product and brand loyalty with customers. If NPS^® is a successful way to measure customer loyalty, then why not use the same method to measure employee loyalty?

eNPS is determined by how your employees answer a variation of the question, “how likely are you to recommend working at [your organization] to a friend,” with answers based on a number scale from 1-10.  

Employees who answer in the 0-6 range are considered Detractors, 7-8 are Neutrals, and 9-10 are Promoters.  

It’s well known that employee engagement contributes to performance – organizations with a highly engaged workforce are 23% more profitable. Measuring your employee engagement through eNPS is a great start, and your results will help you design initiatives to turn your Neutrals and Detractors into Promoters.  

Why is eNPS important?

An eNPS score reflects an organization’s employee experience and engagement levels. Engaged employees are highly motivated and move an organization forward because their needs are being met, they have a sense of belonging, and they know their wellbeing matters.  

Rebecca Lee, Director of People at Kudos talks about the importance of eNPS, especially when focusing on culture, as it gives a view into your employee experience.  

“It’s an important metric that not only gives us some feedback on how team members are feeling but encourages us to shift our mindset to approach team members as clients – particularly as we plan for programs and tactics that will have a positive impact on engagement, retention and overall satisfaction.” - Rebecca Lee, Director of People at Kudos

Calculating your eNPS is a great way to collect anonymous employee feedback. Employees who are satisfied and feel optimistic about their work and the organization they work for, will be more productive and innovative, and will most likely be Promoters in your eNPS. Through Kudos Pulse Surveys, conducting an eNPS survey is simple and effective and a great way to gain a complete picture of your organizational health.

How to calculate your eNPS

Calculating your eNPS is very simple – eNPS is the percentage of Promoters minus the percentage of Detractors (Neutrals are not included in the calculation).  

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Here is an example:  

Your organization has 100 employees, and you ask them to rank how likely they would be to recommend working at your organization from a scale of 0-10:  

30 people answered with a number from 0-6 (Detractors), 20 people answered with either 7 or 8 (Neutrals), and 50 people answered with either 9 or 10 (Promoters). Neutrals are excluded from the calculation:

eNPS = 50% (Promoters) - 30% (Detractors)  

eNPS = 20% (or +20 on the ENPS scale)  

It’s important to note the score is not out of 100, it’s a scale that ranges between –100 to +100.

What is considered a good eNPS?

Having a positive eNPS means you have more Promoters than Detractors which is always the goal. It’s difficult to narrow down what is considered a great eNPS score, because they differ between industries, but usually +20 would be considered good, and anything above +50 is considered exceptional.  

Exploring the benchmarks in your industry is a good starting point when analyzing your score, as well as researching companies that are known for having a great eNPS score.  

Hubspot, at one point, reported an eNPS score of +91! Hubspot continually raises the bar for employee experience – in 2022 they were named a Best Workplace for Millennials by Fortune.  

Looking into the practices that organizations with high eNPS are taking is a great way to strategize how you can improve your employee experience.  

CAAT Pension Plan, a Kudos client since 2020, has made huge strides with keeping their employees engaged and has led them to become an award-winning organization. Read more about CAAT Pension Plan’s approach to recognition culture in our free case study; CAAT Sees Improved Employee Engagement by Putting Values First.

How to improve your eNPS score

Your eNPS can be a valuable metric, however it doesn’t give insights as to why your employees responded the way they did. Taking the steps to gather valuable feedback from your employees is crucial when wanting to improve your employee experience.  

Use pulse surveys to collect feedback

For HR leaders, it’s critical to understand your culture’s performance. The key to improving your overall employee experience in your workplace is being aware of it, and making actionable changes before it’s too late.

Designed to be quick and simple, Kudos Pulse Surveys enable employees to give feedback effortlessly. This powerful data provides a better understanding into your company culture initiatives, converting survey data into meaningful insights.

Utilizing these insights enables organizations to boost employee engagement, cultivate a better workplace environment, and push towards more positive transformation.

Share the results and commit to the changes

Collecting feedback is a great start, but it's critical to share the results with your employees along with what actions and initiatives will be taken to make improvements.

Look for common threads to identify potential issues and use those insights to move forward with a strategic plan to enhance your employee experience. How your organization changes to improve your overall employee experience is the path that will positively impact your people, and your business.

Invest in employee recognition

Happy employees equal productive employees. Employee recognition is not only good for a company’s morale, but it's also good for business growth. Studies from Gallup have shown that happy and engaged employees lead to increased productivity and profitability. Kudos streamlines recognition and helps create an environment where employees feel appreciated through regular and meaningful recognition, which can directly impact your eNPS.  

You can download our free guide, Making the Case for Employee Recognition, which will walk you through the steps to get approval of your employee engagement strategy.

Final note

Try not to be alarmed if your organization has more Detractors and Neutrals than Promoters – instead, take it as a crucial opportunity to pause on your organization's current practices, and analyze what needs to change. Listen to your employees, advocate for them, and determine your plan to turn Detractors and Neutrals into Promoters.  

Launching the right initiatives will help you emerge as a leader in company culture, but investing in the right tools, like Kudos, to make it happen is key.  

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Originally published February 2023. Last updated January 2024.

Attracting and retaining talent is more crucial than it’s ever been. Compensation and benefits might seem like the most important tools in the war for talent – but they’ll only serve to get people in the door.  

“We think that if we treat our team members well and empower them to make a meaningful impact, that’s what will help our company’s performance. In fact, that’s what we’ve seen.” Sierra Berg from Pillar Properties, a Kudos client since 2013.  

The culture you create directly impacts every part of your employee experience and determines your ability to attract, engage, and retain top talent. Our eBook, Culture as a Talent Strategy, provides actionable insights on how to create the kind of culture that fosters exceptional performance and retains your best people. Let’s take a look at what you’ll find inside.  

Fighting Historic Labour Shortages

In 2021 we were challenged with The Great Resignation, where 2.9% of the U.S. workforce voluntarily left their jobs and 48% of American workers were actively searching for new jobs in that same year.

For HR leaders, attracting and retaining talent through these shifts in our workforce is incredibly challenging. If our current demographic trends continue, this problem will only get worse. When organizations are perpetually understaffed, growth and innovation don’t happen.  

Talent is a strategic priority for your organization and will become THE strategic priority and your greatest source of competitive advantage. How can you take your talent strategy to the next level?

Your Culture is the Answer

Organizations that plan to seriously address long-term labor shortages are investing in creating authentic cultures that drive engagement and performance.  

Your people want to feel respected, valued, and aligned with the direction of your company. Creating an attractive, healthy culture is an investment in the long-term viability of your organization. Working on your culture today will help you make enormous strides, especially with younger generations, who care more about their employers’ values.  

Pillar Properties’ culture-first approach directly impacts their customers and their business performance. Pillar was recognized as a Culture Leader in the Best Culture Awards, due to their investment and commitment to building a strong workplace culture by becoming a people-focused and culture-first organization.  

Download the full case study, The Key to Pillar Properties’ Success is Remarkable Culture, to learn more about how they turned their challenges into opportunities and are now an award-winning company – all due to their culture.  

How to Build an Irresistible Culture

To build a healthy, high-performance culture, take a realistic look at your culture today and evaluate what is working and what is not working. Here are the important questions to help guide you:

1. Do your current values align with your vision for the future? Work with leaders at all levels to define the values and supporting behaviors that align with your business strategy.  

2. Which cultural values, qualities, and behaviors will create the conditions for engagement and excellence in your organization? Once you’ve identified your cultural values, you can use them as a lens to evaluate existing processes, technologies, and policies.  

3. Have you created an environment where your people become culture champions? Employees who are culture champions are the ones who can’t wait to tell their friends and family about how great it is to work at your organization.  

Great culture happens when values, behaviors, talent, and strategy come together. More answers to these questions are all in our free eBook.  

Bonus! Employer Branding 101

Employer branding is how organizations manage how potential candidates perceive them as employers. Your goal for employer branding is to convince desirable candidates (i.e., candidates with the right skills, aligned values, etc.) to apply for jobs with your organization.

Your employer branding strategy should showcase your culture in an authentic way, not because it will attract candidates, but because it will attract the RIGHT candidates. Infuse the hiring process with your culture – a top-notch culture is the best way to recruit top-notch talent.

Culture is the only thing your competitors cannot replicate, and that’s why it’s the only sustainable competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. Build a winning talent strategy today by downloading our free eBook, Culture as a Talent Strategy, and start taking actionable steps towards a culture that fosters exceptional performance and retains your best people.

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Your employees are the backbone of your company and your most valuable asset. They are the ones who carry out the day-to-day tasks that keep things running smoothly. The evidence is clear – studies from leading analytics and advisory group Gallup have shown that happy and engaged employees lead to increased productivity and profitability. In other words, a happy employee equals a productive employee so, it truly is in everyone’s best interest to create an environment where employees feel appreciated. One way to do this is through regular, meaningful recognition.  

Employee recognition is not only good for a company’s morale, but it's also good for business growth. Unfortunately, when it comes to growing a successful business, employee recognition is often overlooked as a critical contributing factor.

Still not convinced? Here are five more reasons why recognition can help you see business success and growth beyond what you ever imagined possible:

1. Employee recognition boosts morale and makes employees more productive

One surefire way to make your employees happy is by recognizing their accomplishments. Something as simple as a handwritten thank you note can boost morale and make your team more productive. When you take the time to recognize your peers, they feel valued and appreciated. And when they feel valued and appreciated, they know their contributions matter, and they’re more likely to be engaged in their work and invested in the company’s success. Hint: don’t just recognize the big accomplishments, but also the everyday efforts that keep your operation running smoothly! ‍

2. Employee recognition increases drive and motivation

A positive working environment where employees feel appreciated is a key success factor for any enterprise. You can help create a more positive working environment by acknowledging your employees’ efforts and accomplishments.  

Recognizing employees for their hard work can help create a more positive work environment that feels more fair and fulfilling.  To do so, recognition must be personalized and meaningful. A good rule of thumb is to be specific, be transparent, and recognize the effort, not the outcome.  

3. Employee recognition helps attract and retain top talent

By recognizing employees for their good work, you not only show that you value their contributions, but also demonstrate to other potential recruits that your company is a great place to work. Having a culture employees are openly proud of is critical to building a strong employer brand. Additionally, happy employees tend to be more loyal to their employer, which can reduce turnover rates. Outside employers can easily match salaries, but the culture is different to replicate.

4. Employee recognition leads to better customer service and satisfaction

When it comes to employee recognition, employers often only consider raises or bonuses. However, these financial rewards are not always the most meaningful way to show appreciation. Instead, employers should focus on making employee recognition more personal. This can be done by simply taking the time to notice when someone goes above and beyond or by providing specific feedback on a job well done. By recognizing the behaviors you want to see, employees know what’s expected of them and that their hard work is truly appreciated, something especially important for customer-facing employees. The right recognition can lead to employees providing an experience that clients appreciate and remember, and happy clients = better bottom line.  

5. A formal employee recognition program makes it easy

A formal employee recognition program makes reaping the benefits above possible – and easy! While ad-hoc recognition holds value, an effective employee recognition program can help your company achieve its culture and engagement goals much faster and at scale. By showing employees that their efforts are appreciated, they are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in their work. This can lead to increased productivity and improved morale throughout the company.

Conclusion

Showing your employees that you value their hard work is essential to keeping them motivated and invested in your company's success. Employee recognition doesn’t have to be costly or time-consuming – even a simple “thank you” can go a long way toward making someone feel valued.

If you'd like to learn how to choose the right employee recognition solution for your company’s culture, goals, and budget, feel free to book a 1:1 consultation call with one of our employee engagement strategists.  

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Currently, half of today's employees and managers are burned out at work, according to Microsoft's 2022 Work Trend Index. Between the ongoing pandemic, looming recession, and the usual stress this time of year brings, chances are your team is exhausted, overwhelmed, and in dire need of some downtime. Why is it, then, that along with weekends and weeknights full of holiday parties, shopping, and travelling, life at work feels busier and more demanding than it has all year?  

As HR teams, social committees, and culture clubs congregate to make some last-minute holiday plans, why not try something new this year? Rather than sticking to the old approach, here's an inside look at what your team really wants, and how to make it happen:

1) Instead of a virtual happy hour, offer time to disconnect

The urge to organize a virtual happy hour may be strong, and for some people, they are still a holiday dream come true! But with 80% of U.S. remote workers reporting some level of 'Zoom fatigue,' chances are, zooming in to party might bring out a few inner Grinches. Instead, give your team a clear choice by including one simple (compound) word: non-mandatory. Make it clear that your team can choose to attend or take the time to log off and recharge.

2) Swap out company swag for flexible gift cards

Sure, everyone loves a free t-shirt/hoodie/coffee mug, but is that really the best you can do? Between inflation and layoffs in the news, people are worried about personal finances – S&P Global reports that consumer holiday spending is expected to pull back compared to last season, for example. With that in mind, rather than delighting your team with (non-re-giftable) company swag, why not give them the gift of choice with a flexible gift card? Relieving the burden of holiday spending is a great way to show your team you have their back.

3) Ask yourself – can this wait until 2023?

Sometimes, what you don't give has the most impact. While the idea of starting 2023 off ready to go, with planning, budgeting, and reports complete, consider if it's worth your team's sanity and peace of mind. On top of that, with stress at an all-time high this time of year, the quality of the work will undoubtedly suffer. Pushing some deadlines to a week into January and giving your team a chance to breathe this December will put a smile on your team's face that a holiday ham could simply never.  

4) Pair your performance reviews with much-needed recognition

"I love performance review season," said no one ever. For some people, performance reviews bring anxiety, insecurity and significant discomfort. Unfortunately, this year risks being even more stressful, with many organizations freezing salaries and stalling promotions. Ensuring your team knows their work is appreciated is more critical now than ever. Announcing a 2023 implementation of a recognition platform, like Kudos, is a relatively inexpensive way of showing your team that you value their contributions. The bonus – a recognition platform is the gift that keeps on giving since your employees will continue to receive meaningful recognition all year and, if you choose to use points, a catalog of world-class rewards.

5) Give your team the right to disconnect

Finally, all this talk and effort leading up to the holidays is pointless if there is no actual time to celebrate and recharge. Time off can mean something different to everyone, including your managers. Some expect their teams to be accessible despite being "off." Have your leaders sign off on a "right to disconnect over the holidays" policy with guidelines on what is expected in terms of checking in with work and contingency plans. This will give your team the freedom to delete their work tech apps off their phones (no offence, Slack & Teams) and eliminate the need to check their email obsessively. Add some fun by suggesting some of these funny out of office messages. Your team will be delighted and will come back refreshed and ready to tackle 2023's challenges.

Changing how you've always celebrated the holidays can feel risky or uncomfortable, but the payoff is significant. When you see the joy in your team's eyes from getting what they really want, your own heart might just grow three sizes!

"And what happened, then? Well, in Whoville they say – that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches, plus two!" –Dr. Seuss

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The working world is continuing to change – for businesses, for leaders, but especially for employees. Employees are facing critical questions in terms of job security, where they work and their long-term career aspirations. Despite recent reports of layoffs and quiet quitting, the effects of the great resignation are still very much alive, with some are choosing to leave their jobs, or pursue new careers, and this means the competition to attract and retain talent is still very much top of mind for HR leaders.  

An organization is only as good as its people. Organizations that want to stand out in 2023 will need to look beyond their traditional goals and start embracing trends, like building a culture of recognition, in order to thrive among the competition. Let’s take a look at our top 10 articles from 2022 that will help you take your culture to the next level in 2023.  

1. Lead With Your Core Values

What are your company’s core values? What seems like a straightforward question often ends with an incomplete answer.  

Tom Short, CCO of Kudos, explains in, Lead With Your Core Values, how to transform your company’s core values to be purposeful and deliberate. Tom discusses the necessary principles when building core values so your company can have a culture by design rather than a culture by default:

• Why Core Values Matter  
• Discovering and Developing your Core Values  
• How to Become a Core Value Driven Organization

2. The Science Behind Employee Recognition

As human beings, we have the need to accomplish things, and in turn, have those accomplishments appreciated and recognized. Without this recognition, we begin to feel our actions or hard work have no purpose, and this leads us to feel unappreciated, undervalued, and unmotivated.

The Science Behind Employee Recognition, discusses how human beings are wired to feel connection, belonging and acceptance. Feeling and expressing gratitude releases dopamine and serotonin – these crucial neurotransmitters are responsible for making us feel ‘good’ and helping us regulate our emotions and immediate stress response. Gratitude acts as a catalyst for these neurotransmitters, and actively experiencing gratitude, and appreciation allows us to manage our stress levels better.  

3. 20 Employee Recognition Examples your Team Will Love

‍You should never hesitate to send recognition, but when your message is meaningful, it has the most impact.  

Employees at companies with an effective recognition solution are five times as likely to be connected to company culture and four times as likely to be engaged. Implementing an easy-to-use recognition program for your employees is key to making recognition the foundation of your company culture.  

20 Employee Recognition Examples your Team Will Love discusses the types of employee recognition, how to write meaningful recognition and perfect examples to help you start.  

4. Recognition Platforms: Banks of Positive Reinforcement

‍When you’re recognized for accomplishing something great, where does that feeling go after the moment has passed?

Recognition Platforms: Banks of Positive Reinforcement dives deep into human memory, how we store recognition, and how an effective employee recognition program can nurture the experience of positive recognition.  

Platforms like Kudos keep each moment of social recognition in one place. Instead of waiting on directive memories to trigger motivation, you can access a bank of positive inspiration, any time.

5. How to Build a Culture of Recognition

‍When it comes to workplace benefits, today's employees expect the most common “perks” as the bare minimum  Offering free snacks and staff parties are no longer a competitive driver to making your organization a great workplace. Companies that are ahead of the curve know to look for deeper, more sustainable solutions.

How to Build a Culture of Recognition discusses the impact recognition has on your culture and employee experience, and how to make recognition an extension of your company’s core values and talent strategy by making it a regular habit within your organization.  

6. Why Strong Workplace Culture is Critical in Uncertain Times

‍Employees have been through a lot, and it’s critical to manage their emotional wellbeing. For many, today’s uncertain times are contributing to increasing levels of stress – which can have far reaching implications for your company. The good news is that by following some key guidelines you can help your organization successfully navigate this unpredictable era. Here’s what you’ll find in Why Strong Workplace Culture is Critical in Uncertain Times:

• How recognition counteracts stress  
• How to manage the wellbeing of your employees
• Measuring the wellbeing of your culture  

7. The Key to A Winning Employee Recognition Strategy

‍Employee recognition has been around for a long time – dating back to the Industrial Revolution, when employers sought ways to make employees more efficient and productive

A key contributor to building an engaged workforce and great culture is continuing to adapt to your employee expectations. While the need for recognition has not gone away, employees today expect it more regularly and personalized to their contribution and impact. When did you last check in on your current employee recognition practices? What steps are you taking to modernize your employee recognition in 2023?

Read all about The Secret to a Winning Employee Recognition Strategy and the 6 key things to consider when building a culture of recognition in your organization.

8. Employer Branding: Everything you need to know

‍A strong employer brand will set your organization apart in today's ever-changing job market. Your employer brand will help you compete for talent with companies that offer similar roles and benefits compensation.  

In times when people can choose to work at any company, anywhere in the world, your organization's employer brand will help you stand out.

In Employer Branding: Everything you need to know will help you learn:

• Employer branding 101
• The benefits of building a strong employer brand
• Who should oversee employer branding in your organization
• How to build a great employer brand

Building an employer brand is a long-term culture strategy that will bring your core values to life and pay big dividends for your organization.  

9. Why People Leave Their Jobs

‍Feeling genuinely connected in any environment requires dedication, thoughtfulness, and compassion.  

Many people are looking for new jobs because they don’t feel connected to their current ones. Employees feel disconnected from their organizations for many different, but equally important reasons:  

• Lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies  
• Low job satisfaction, and pessimistic outlook  
• Salary matters, but it’s not all that matters  
• Their mental health is suffering  
• People want a work style to match their lifestyle  

Thoughtful employee recognition strategies can address these nuances, remind people of their unique worth, and support their individuality.  

Read our article, Why People Leave Their Jobs, to learn what you can do to keep your team engaged and onboard.

10. The Future of Work Hinges on Employee Recognition

‍If you find yourself bearing the brunt of the Great Resignation you might be using outdated solutions to modern problems.

Today’s employees are seeking a strong company culture that recognizes their contributions. They want more than just compensation and time off – their must-haves for a thriving work culture include a recognition-first approach and a company that is taking massive steps towards employee engagement.  

Kudos’ President and CEO Muni Boga’s article, The Future of Work Hinges on Employee Recognition, sheds light on the crucial lessons we’ve learned from the pandemic and offers a path to success for companies who are ready to invest in a recognition-centric culture, rather than hoping for a return to our old ways.  

Kudos is ready to help you build a culture of recognition. Let us know how we can help you succeed.

Trust is built upon a foundation of transparency; employees, clients and partners trust an organization that is open, honest, and clear.

For employees, transparency means having enhanced visibility into processes, decisions, and strategy that goes beyond the superficial or the “need-to-know". Access to pertinent information helps people make more effective decisions, especially in the workplace. According to Glassdoor, “when an organization is more transparent with their employees, they tend to be more successful in several areas: they have increased employee engagement, stronger company culture and [transparency] fosters a type of comfort that allows employees to freely communicate.”  

What is business transparency?

Here’s a (fictional) short story about a person named Leslie. Leslie had worked in technology for quite a while when she felt it was the right time to change careers. To learn as much as possible about prospective opportunities, Leslie tried to learn as much as she could about a company, she thought she might want to work for; the problem was that there wasn’t much available on their website beyond templated copy and marketing speak that gave her no insight into what the company was really like. Leslie decided to take matters into her own hands by using other digital resources available to her, like search engines, social media, and career review websites. In the end, Leslie was able to learn enough about the company to pursue it as an opportunity. Through her search, she started to understand the culture, the objectives, and the philosophy of the company.

There are two important takeaways from this story:

1. This could easily be the real story of anyone seeking new opportunities and having to go deep to find necessary information. In Leslie’s case, she was highly motivated and did the extra work to dig up information, but not everyone – client or potential employee, has the same dedication.

2. The need for prospective employees, clients, and partners to do a deep dive to learn about your business can be avoided by being more transparent on your own website.

This doesn’t mean you have to expose every aspect of your business to the public and potentially make your organization vulnerable to competition. What it does mean is that you have an opportunity to tell your brand’s unique story in an open and authentic way, which will help you grow your business, reach the right clientele, and attract employees who are a great culture fit.  

While the example above is of a prospective employee, the impact on prospective and existing customers is also significant. Forbes states that honesty and transparency can help a business see growth in its customer base. In fact, a study found that 94% of consumers questioned would remain loyal to a transparent brand.

What are the benefits for my organization?

First and foremost, you will stand out as a business that is open, honest, and authentic. When an organization is viewed this way, people have more faith in working for them (as an employee) and with them (as a partner or client).  

MyHRToolKit outlined some specific benefits of business transparency which focus on relationship building with employees and improving overall workplace culture. Healthy relationships start with trust, and when your business is transparent, it “helps employees feel like they are part of something bigger. It invites them to really be a part of your business and its vision. It gives them ownership over their role, provides them with confidence in your leadership, and often means they will remain loyal to your company for longer.”  

When it comes to how this can impact your workplace culture it all boils down to the environment you want to foster; a transparent culture “strengthens relationships between employees and their employers and helps nurture an environment of collaboration. Rather than fighting for a position at the top and pulling down others along the way, employees will be more likely to support their colleagues and stay motivated even when the going gets tough.”

How can I overcome potential challenges?

Being transparent isn’t without its own set of challenges. When you decide to be more open about your business, that vulnerability may instill fear and skepticism – ‘have we shared too much?’ ‘Are we giving our competitors an edge?’ While these are normal concerns, a more important question to ask of your business is ‘can our brand grow and thrive without being more transparent?’  

What’s important to remember is that the type and amount of transparency your business fosters are completely within your control. According to Harvard Business Review, there are very real challenges in being too transparent, but finding the right balance for your organization can ensure you’re setting the right tone and facilitating an optimal experience for everyone. They outline four categories of transparency in business:

• Boundaries around teams - Members of a team are more likely to embrace transparency if they know there are set boundaries in place that limit information from becoming too far reaching. (e.g., the R&D team may want boundaries to protect items still in the development process)
• Boundaries between feedback and evaluation - Giving employees permission to learn and grow from their day-to-day actions without their mistakes being exposed and over scrutinized.  
• Boundaries between decision rights and improvement rights - Drawing a line between an organization’s innovators and decision makers as they need differing levels of transparency. Holders of decision rights benefit from a transparent environment while that kind of visibility gets in the way of employees’ striving to make improvements. (e.g., executive team members require transparency to make the best possible decision, while team members who are innovating require a less transparent environment so they can create more freely).
• Boundaries around time - Transparency granted for a specified period of time, allowing employees to prepare for —and make the most of—their window of privacy. This type of boundary complements the other three.

What’s the next step?

The benefits of becoming a more transparent business vastly outweigh any potential challenges, as long as you’re mindful of what you’re being transparent about and are doing it in the interest of your team, partners and clients. The following are three ways you can encourage your company to become more transparent today:

• Facilitate a safe space – when people know that the environment they are working in is safe, they become more willing to collaborate, challenge one another and ask for help.
• Keep your team informed – transparency starts from the top down; when a business leader is open about the values, direction, and growth plans of the company, the team will feel more confident in the organization.
• Employee recognition – Public employee appreciation helps your team feel appreciated for their efforts, shows them how valued they are within the organization and helps them stay better engaged while at work.

You’ve worked hard to create an organization that offers a unique solution to a problem – make sure you’re open enough to let people fully appreciate your greatness and help make you even better.  

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For managers, career planning can be one of the most challenging things to do well. Often, employees will look to their managers for guidance on how to learn and grow in their career – and in a world where it can feel impossible to find the time to stop and find the time to think about what’s next for someone else, it can be easy to let career planning slide... until it’s too late.

Prior to the pandemic, according to Indeed.com, three of the top six reasons that people left their jobs were related to career progression:

• Needing more of a challenge (#1)
• Looking for a higher salary (#2)
• Searching for job growth or career advancement (#6)

While the pandemic has resulted in a tectonic shift that has brought workplace culture, recognition, and other factors to the forefront, it has not changed the fact that employees wanting (1) to be challenged, (2) higher pay, and (3) career progression remain a deficiency in many organizations.

Career planning can be looked at as an advanced method of employee recognition. It requires understanding, along with strong and open communication and trust.  

Of course, if your organization suffers from workplace culture issues, or lack of basic employee recognition, those issues should be addressed first and foremost. Creating an environment where employees feel safe and seen is a critical first step to helping them envision their longer-term future with your company. Once you’ve nailed down the basics, if you want to engage your employees, it’s important to think about how your managers are running career planning sessions.

Author of Radical Candor, Kim Scott and her Candor Inc. Co-Founder Jason Rosoff provide an excellent foundation for career planning which follows this approach:

• Employee history – spend some time getting to know how each employee has arrived at this point in their career.  
• Employee ambition – get to know your employee’s ambitions (both personal and professional)
• Action plan – Develop a career action plan; Who does what and when?

Every step in this process is vital, but the most challenging part is the second step. It’s easy to ask an employee what they want to achieve in their career – they probably answered that question during their job interview. The thing is, ambitions change, and often there are deeper goals and objectives that your team members might be holding back.

To help you perform a discovery meeting with your team members, we’ve put together a simple list of questions that you can use to discover what your team’s ambitions are, what excites them and what scares them. Get your copy of the worksheet below.

[Download Your Free Worksheet]

Once you’ve fleshed out a clear understanding of each team member’s goals and ambitions, it becomes 1000x easier to come up with a career action plan that aligns with their goals. Does your team member want to become an executive one day? Maybe give them more opportunities to speak in front of audiences and to present department results. Do they want to start their own consulting business? Try encouraging them to study and take the certifications that they’ll need to someday go out on their own.

There’s no need to sugarcoat it. One day your team members will probably move on from your organization in search of new challenges and new adventures. Your job is to ensure that when they leave, they feel like they have had the greatest career growth while working with you. They might even decide to come back to your company in the future! Career planning is as much a necessary factor in employee engagement, as it is for your employer brand.  

Ultimately, by doing the work, discovering what your people aspire to, and accelerating them towards those goals, you’ll increase the value that they deliver while they work at your company, and they’ll be an advocate for you and your business well after they move on to the next step in their career journey.

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As a manager, you have the opportunity and responsibility to help people thrive and contribute to your organization’s goals in a meaningful way.  

A great manager fosters relationships to build trust with their team. Marcus Buckingham, author of two of the best-selling business books of all time, explains that truly getting to know your team can make a world of difference.

“Learn what motivates them, and their unique styles of learning, be it by watching, doing or analyzing.” –Marcus Buckingham

How To be a Great Manager

Gallup reports that only 10% of people are born with the right skills to be a great manager. But here’s the good news: anyone with the right mindset who follows these tips, can become a great manager.

1. Hire intentionally

Hiring is where great management begins. You can provide potential hires with a clear picture of what it will be like to work at your organization. In addition, a great manager will focus on hiring employees that can balance their current team – hiring for cultural-add vs cultural fit. As Marcus Buckingham said, knowing your employees’ strengths and weaknesses can make a world of difference. As a manager, you can maximize the hiring opportunity and bring someone on with complementary skills to build a well-rounded team.

2. Onboard well

Great onboarding is so important – first impressions matter! While the interview process might be the first point of contact, onboarding is where employees really take in your culture and approach. As a manager, ensuring your employees are set up for success with everything they need, from equipment to resources, goes a long way. Intentionally scheduling time for casual conversation also helps with relationship-building and making your new hires feel welcome. Recognizing onboarding milestones can also help build motivation and engagement fast.

3. Know your employees

This isn't something that can happen right away; it takes time to know a person well. It takes showing genuine interest in their life, their routine, and even their struggles. Marcus Buckingham explains that managers can only succeed when they learn to communicate and work with each of their employees as individuals. . This allows you to use their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses to accomplish organizational goals.  In order to facilitate this familiarity, managers need to be approachable first. According to Gallup, 54% of employees who feel their manager is approachable are also engaged at work.    

4. Set clear expectations

Great managers take time to get to know their team, but delivering great work matters too. Setting weekly 1-1 meetings with your employees will help foster a stronger relationship and clear any doubts or roadblocks.

Weekly check-ins that are collaborative and growth-focused will increase top talent retention. These check-ins build trust and can increase the employee's sense of belonging, which is another  significant factor that differentiates the average manager from the great one. One important tip is to be consistent - try your best to keep this meeting and show up on time. It can sometimes feel easy to cancel or postpone, but remember that someone on your team might be waiting for that time to ask an important question or share concerns.

5. Be transparent and collaborative in setting goals

‍A great manager understands that each employee has their own personal career goals. Here is the problem, 63% of employees left their job in 2021 due to a lack of opportunities for advancement. Engagement and productivity can be affected if employees don’t see a future at your organization. Once employees share with you where they see themselves in the future, support them by providing opportunities to gain the experience needed to achieve their goals. Have these career conversations early and often.

6. Praise and recognize often

Studies have found that recognition reinforces a team’s sense of meaning and purpose, among many other benefits. According to Gallup, 74% of employees that receive praise at work report feeling that what they do is valuable and useful. A recognition platform like Kudos can help you here. The platform allows managers to recognize their team publicly while reinforcing the company’s values and vision. Simply put - recognition matters!  

7. Celebrate milestones

Celebrating your employees boosts morale by helping employees feel seen and recognized. A work anniversary, birthday, and other meaningful events in employee’s lives are opportunities for managers to celebrate achievements and growth. Automated platforms make it simple to stay on top of important dates so no one ever gets missed.

8. Lead by example

Plain and simple - great managers practice what they preach. Think back to your interview, did you emphasize work-life balance and no work on evenings and weekends? If so, don’t contact your team outside of working hours. Also, don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and help when your team needs it. Be open to the fact that you might not always have the answer to every problem. Sometimes knowing where to point your team for the right support - rather than trying to solve everything yourself - can stop you from becoming a bottleneck.

9. Consider the principles of servant leadership

Becoming a great manager requires a great deal of trust from your employees. But for trust to mean anything, it needs to be reciprocated. Servant leadership encourages leaders to put the well-being of their employees first, and showing employees that you trust them to do their job effectively is key to fostering that well-being. Servant leadership also encourages employee success by providing a positive environment where employees can feel supported.  

10. Use data to guide you

Great managers don't focus on fixing employees' weaknesses but rather leveraging and fostering their strengths. Today managers can also use data to better understand employees' behaviours and relationships. Whether it's people analytics collected from your recognition platform, engagement surveys or business results, pay attention to trends and changes to flag engagement and performance challenges before it's too late.

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Great managers build healthy relationships with their teams by understanding how unique each employee is. They listen to what their team needs and provide tailored solutions, so the employee feels supported and happy at your organization.  

Great managers don’t focus on the past or any weaknesses, they care about the future and strengths of their people.  

Employees are often more loyal to their company if they know their work is valued and appreciated. However, it’s not uncommon for employees to be caught up in their workday and forget to thank their peers for their hard work. While a simple “thank you” is certainly always worthwhile, a formal employee recognition program is a great way for everyone to celebrate wins big and small.

Download our free eBook, Recognition Done Right, for more information on how to drive success through the power of recognition.

Employee Recognition Matters

According to Gallup,  40% of employees report receiving recognition just a few times a year or less. Implementing an effective employee recognition solution can have a massive impact on your organization. Organizations with formal recognition programs have 31% less voluntary turnover than organizations without one.

Employees at companies that have an effective recognition solution are five times as likely to be connected to company culture and four times as likely to be engaged. Implementing an easy-to-use recognition program for your employees is key to making recognition the foundation of your company culture.  

Types of Employee Recognition

Recognition should not be limited by who can send it –everyone in your organization should have a channel to give recognition. Here are the types of employee recognition:  ‍

Peer-to-peer recognition

‍Peer-to-peer recognition is when any employee can give praise to each other. Peer-to-peer recognition helps employees establish and maintain good relationships with their coworkers.

Leader-to-peer recognition

‍This is when a leader or someone at a manager or supervisory level gives recognition to someone  on their team. Leaders who provide recognition establish a positive environment and relationship within their team. Leading by example will also encourage your team members to send more recognition messages to their coworkers.  

Day-to-day recognition

‍Simple messages expressing gratitude keep employees constantly assured and motivated. This is when that simple “thank you” to someone on your team can go a long way.  

Milestones & Special Achievements

‍Birthday's, years of service, promotions, onboarding progress and learning and development achievements. Ensuring all of these important moments are recognized is a central part of building a culture and habit of recognition.

Awards & Nominations

‍Awards and Nominations allow a leader or peers to identify someone who meets specific criteria for an award or nomination. Nomination programs can highlight the skills that drive your organization to success and can help strengthen your overall recognition strategy.  

To learn more about nomination programs, you can read How to Get Nominations Right in 2022.

Being able to recognize your team in a variety of ways is what will take your employee experience and culture to the next level.    

Levels of Recognition in Kudos

The Kudos platform offers all types of recognition – gratitude, performance recognition, communicating good news, and celebrating achievements so you can build stronger connections with your team. When sending a message of recognition, users can select one of four distinct levels:

Thank You

This is an everyday appreciation moment. A simple act of appreciation at work where the behavior stood out or made your day.  

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Good Job

A “good job” is used for recognizing someone who has performed better than average or expected, or for acknowledging the completion of a milestone in a larger initiative.  

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Impressive

An “impressive” is for someone who made a noticeable difference or impact and raised the standard of delivery expectations. This can also celebrate the end of a large initiative that took significant time and effort.

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Exceptional

An “exceptional” is when someone has exceeded delivery, job responsibility and expectations. This could be used for someone going above and beyond, exceeding a goal or KPI or any other outstanding achievement.

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How to Write a Meaningful Recognition Message

“Recognition is a reward in itself. Any form of appreciation, even a small word, is important.” - Vikrant Massey

No matter how simple the message, you should never hesitate to recognize a colleague, but when your message is meaningful, it has the most impact.  

• Personalize it: make the message unique to them and tell them why you’re expressing your appreciation.  

• Acknowledge the impact: let them know how their hard work has contributed to the success. Mention how their work is valued.  
• Be positive: the tone of the message should be uplifting. Be mindful of the words you use and ensure your message is positive.  

Sending recognition doesn’t need to be time consuming. Crafting a meaningful message that really demonstrates your appreciation can be easy when you keep these tips in mind.  

Examples of Employee Recognition Messages

Sending recognition to your peers can have a big impact – even a simple thank you can go a long way. If you need help crafting the perfect recognition message, we’ve given 20 examples of recognition messages your employees will love:  

Performance Recognition:

1. Thank you for taking the time to add an agenda for our meeting today. Having a clear outline gave a much better understanding for everyone!

2. Fantastic job presenting in today’s meeting!  

3. I was very impressed with your review today, your attention to detail is much appreciated!  

4. Your dedication to this project truly made it a success. Well done!

5. You really went the extra mile on the finishing touches with our report today. Thanks again and great work!

6. Exceptional work on our monthly report today. Keep up the great work!

7. Your ability to put so much time and effort into even just the small things is what truly makes our success!

Personal Recognition:

8. I am so grateful for how much you have contributed lately; your hard work is admirable.  

9. Your diligence and commitment always amaze me! Working with you has been such a pleasure.  

10. Your positive and uplifting attitude is always refreshing in our meetings!  

11. You always meet expectations and deadlines, and I am always amazed by your work! Keep it up!  

12. I want you to know your work is always appreciated!

13. You are my inspiration every day!

14. Congratulations on hitting another milestone on this project! Your hard work is what will get us over the finish line!

15. It’s been such a pleasure working with you – I wish you all success in your next endeavors!

16. I am so lucky I get to work with someone like you every day!

Gratitude:

17. Thank you for taking the time to have a coffee with me today! I loved getting to know you better, and I look forward to our collaboration in the future.  

18. Thank you for helping me out today. You are always a team player, and I am grateful for your support!  

19. Thank you for your support today. Your kind words always put a smile on my face.  

20. Thank you for being my out-of-office contact and handling my emails with great communication while I was away!  

Employee recognition should be a vital part of your business. However, narrowing down the right recognition solution for your company can be challenging. We’ve made it easy for you in our free Employee Recognition Buyer’s Guide to help you find the perfect partner.

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The month of October can make us feel uneasy for a variety of reasons; Halloween candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner being one.  

But just as the seasons are changing, so is the world of HR; and what’s more frightening than the unknown?

Here are some of today’s HR leaders’ biggest fears, and some solutions to ease them. For the full effect, please read this article by candlelight, or while holding a flashlight under your chin.  

Finding and Keeping Talent

According to the 2022 Identity of HR Survey by HR Drive, HR leaders say there are three main barriers to recruitment and retention:  

• 72% said they don’t receive enough well-qualified candidates.
• 31% said their company has limited work flexibility (hours, location).  
• 41% said their company doesn’t offer competitive compensation.

The survey found that small, tight-knit organizations are faring better than large ones in terms of climbing resignation rates: 53% of large organizations reported climbing rates, while only 26% of small organizations did.  

Keep in mind, the size of an organization does not necessarily make or break its chances at better employee retention. Small organizations can more easily create the sense of community and belonging that job-seekers crave, but even large, remote organizations can seamlessly integrate positive culture with the right tools.  

Solutions

• Consider implementing a remote, hybrid, or flexible working model. Not only will you have access to a wider talent pool, but you also open doors to prospective employees in the process — proving that your company is adaptable and future-focused.  
• Build a more comprehensive DE&I initiative. “Organizations with ineffective DE&I initiatives were 32% more likely to have climbing recent resignation rates than organizations with highly effective DE&I.”
• Research salary ranges in your area to stay competitive, or provide other incentives, like employee development and training. Find ways to turn those just hired, into long-term hires.  

Feeling Stretched Too Thin

HR’s role has morphed drastically in the past two years to that of a strategic business partner. Rightfully so, HR is getting more recognition, but they’re not yet receiving the resources to match.  

• 83% of HR respondents agreed they were “relied upon by senior leaders to help navigate new situations or practices.”
• 73% agreed that their HR department was “recognized by senior leaders as crucial to the business function.”
• 72% of HR professionals indicated that their HR department was working beyond capacity and stretched too thin.  
• 58% said they felt highly valued, 34% felt somewhat valued, and 8% said they were not at all valued.

While HR professionals are “the people that help people”, many of us get into the habit of venting to HR without following through with formal complaints. Being an emotional sounding board in any setting would get exhausting; HR professionals somehow need to conjure the emotional energy to support entire organizations from 9 to 5.  

Solutions

• HR leaders need leadership buy-in to build their culture strategies, and act on them. From getting approval for the necessary budget and staffing to making time for culture activities in their schedules – this groups participation is crucial.    

• HR leaders can’t build an effective strategy if they have no time. Create a clearer definition for the role of your HR team, and if necessary, expand your team or outsource.
• Every member of an organization is responsible for its culture. Try implementing regular recognition and team building, so everyone has a chance to make a positive difference. If people have less to vent about, HR can build resiliency in other areas — beyond emotional support.  

Resistance to Change

Large organizations need more organization. That said, the survey found that rigid systems can reinforce the same toxic cultural norms HR is working to dismantle.  

Naturally, employees at all levels in an organization are guilty of resisting change. It’s easy to justify tradition when you’re immersed in all its (fleeting) benefits; but today’s talent is looking for more than a paycheck.  

In HR, resisting change is like hanging your feet over the edge of the bed, taunting whatever sinister being that lies underneath to pull you by the ankles.  

Solutions

• Accepting that there is no static, be-all end-all solution opens the door to a more transparent, synergistic culture.  
• Give employees frequent opportunities to showcase their own ideas or suggestions for cultural initiatives – you may find that opening up the floor to employees can help to drive important change
• Your organization’s culture is what you make it. Investing in an employee engagement program like Kudos will take some of the heavy lifting off your HR teams’ shoulders, and demonstrate the value of their role to the rest of your organization through public, peer-to-peer recognition messages.  

Remote Work vs. In-Office

HR Reporter also revealed workers’ ideas about change. Many people are hoping for large pay bumps if forced to return to the office full-time. In Canada, for example, 80% of remote workers might just look for a new job if asked to return full-time to the office.  

Even with an excess of other responsibilities, many HR leaders are left with the task of encouraging people to return to the office. Nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news, especially when it could lead to losing employees they care about.  

Solutions

• Thoughtfully consider your organization’s reasons for bringing employees back to the office full-time. Many workers have acclimated to their remote, flexible, and hybrid roles, so a full return may feel jarring.  
• Create a plan that eases employees back into the office. Smooth-out the blunt edges of your plan, so that HR can introduce it to employees with less confrontation.  

Maintaining Morale and Engagement

80% of organizations rank maintaining morale and engagement as their top priority for 2022. So, what’s the best way to go about it?  

Maintaining morale and engagement is a unique challenge because each employee gains motivation from different things. HR professionals need a solution that harmonizes life and work, so that each employee feels welcomed and accepted for their authentic selves.  

Each organization has a unique viewpoint, identity, and mission, with workplace culture at the center. Tackling culture doesn't have to be scary! With the right tools and approach, you can design an irresistible culture that fuels healthy morale.

People are happier at work when they feel welcome, and among friends. With recognition platforms like Kudos, which open the doors for peer-to-peer social recognition, your company culture will give employees a sense of community.  

Storing Recognition: The Nature of Memory

When you’re recognized for  accomplishing something great, where does that feeling go after the moment has passed?

According to a study on autobiographical memories (moments that make up your life story) each of our memories serves different functions. Here are three important things to know about the nature of memory:  

Directive Memories

The first, and most evolutionary function of our memory is directive. This function helps us problem solve, plan, feel inspired, and get motivated. This function zeroes-in on the central conflict of a memory, so we can find a clear solution.

“Negative events would cause the individual to focus on and encode the aspects of the events that are necessary in order to solve the problem and prevent future mistakes.”  

The study finds that our brains take longer to recall directive memories, and in many cases, they need to be triggered.

When you make a mistake at work, for example, forgetting to include an attachment to an email, you’re probably less likely to make that mistake again in the near future.

Self Memories

This function gives our life-events context, meaning, and purpose. Self-memories are the most central to our identity.  

We use these memories to gain a better, more cohesive understanding of our identity over time. They act as reference points throughout our lives to judge where we’ve been, where we are, and where to go from there.  

Self memories include things like how far you’ve come in your career, goals you’ve achieved and milestones you’ve accomplished.

Social Memories

Possibly the most self-explanatory of the three, the social memory function helps us connect with others. In fact, social memories can only be created by connecting with others — through conversation or otherwise.  

The last time you told someone a story about your life, chances are you wanted to find common ground — shared interests. You were sharing memories for the purpose of creating new ones. Telling your story to persuade, provide comfort, bond, or draw out empathy is part of the social memory function.  

Social memories can include times you’ve bonded with friends and family or when you first felt accepted by coworkers, for example.  

The study’s participants’ most negative memories had more directive function, while their most positive memories had more self and social functions.

It’s easy to dwell on our weaknesses when they could make or break our chances of employment. This may ring even truer for today’s young workers (millennials and gen z), who often feel the need to “make it,” or prove their worth among more established coworkers.

Although it’s in our nature to take direct, clear lessons from negative memories, we should be more proactive about learning from positive ones.  

Rather than making comparisons — either to competition or to our past selves — to feel motivated, we need positive social recognition. And we need to make it a habit.  

‍Recognition Platforms: Banks of Positive Reinforcement

Recognition should always be accessible. Platforms like Kudos keep each moment of social recognition in one place. Instead of waiting on directive memories to trigger motivation, you can access a bank of positive inspiration.  

“If you think about recognizing someone in person, giving them a pat on the back, they disappear into the ether after the moment’s passed.” says Muni Boga, President and CEO of Kudos. “When you’re working with a recognition platform, you’re creating a record of it happening. That record belongs to the person receiving the recognition, the person giving it, it’s something really special that people have.”

Dedicated recognition platforms provide built-in opportunities to create and document positive directive, self, and social memories.  

Each recognition message is a great source of joy and reflection on your work. The right employee recognition platform is an archive of empowerment for every team member involved, and it can be added to every day — for every contribution.  

Beyond pick-me-ups, recognition messages can be used to reinforce your value to an organization. In your next performance review, for example:  

• A “Thank You!” can be used to demonstrate how well you work in a team.  

• A “Good Job!”, “Impressive!”, or “Exceptional!” can be used to show your skills, attention to detail, and professionalism.  

A lack of recognition in any work environment creates siloes, or isolated groups. In a culture where recognition is few and far between, people revert to gaining motivation or lessons from negative memories. And without positive social recognition, people use their self-memories to judge if they’re in the right place to achieve their goals.  

The Empowering Properties of Recognition

“Employers have flagged the fact that their people aren’t feeling recognized.” – Muni Boga, CEO of Kudos

In a culture of recognition, not only are people more aware of acts of kindness, but they’re more aware of their coworkers’ strengths. When each member of an organization supports the others for what they bring to the table, the result is dynamic, adaptable, and resilient.

Before the shift to remote and hybrid working environments, employees weren’t feeling recognized, and the same problem exists through the screen. It’s just as, if not more important for a company’s culture to translate in virtual spaces.  

An employee recognition platform that can be accessed from any device, anywhere, and at any time is an invaluable asset for teams who can’t be in the same room. Kudos is an innovative, and intuitive social tool to bond your teams and create memories.  

With built-in analytics, leaders can see the evolution of their teams’ skills, and uncover strengths that would otherwise go unnoticed. Kudos’ built-in dashboards give deep insights into the dynamics of your teams, without human oversight. What sets Kudos apart is a care for both individuality and community.  

Recognition is many things; a statement, a feeling, and something we all deserve. A thoughtfully designed program nurtures the experience of recognition, so you can truly be part of something worth remembering.  

Should you be worried about quiet quitting?

Quiet quitting represents a significant shift in today’s workforce. More than ever, today’s employees are seeking happiness at work and better work-life balance. More and more employees are rejecting the “hustle culture” mentality.

We dove into the history of quiet quitting to provide some advice on what to do next if you’re feeling confused about this trending topic.

What is quiet quitting?

Many definitions of quiet quitting have surfaced.  

Gartner defines it as “a term that describes employees who are not motivated to put their all into work. They’re not actually quitting, but they have mentally checked out.” Forbes calls it “greater emotional separation or new boundaries between work and life.”

Essentially, it is a rebellion against the “hustle culture” mentality many grew up observing.

In the viral TikTok video, Zaid Khan defines the term as “not outright quitting your job, but quitting the idea of going above and beyond.”  

While the TikTok video is from 2022, the concept of ‘quiet quitting’ has existed for decades.

Perhaps the most popular example of quiet quitting is the 1999 film Office Space. In this corporate satire, fictional character Peter Gibbons refuses to work overtime, wants to have a good time and charms two consultants into putting him on the management fast-track.

From a long commute to a boss who is constantly asking him to work weekends, Peter Gibbons stops going the extra mile and encourages others to do the same – rejecting hustle culture.

Hustle Culture

So, what is hustle culture anyway? The concept is simple – hustle culture means letting work be the driving force in your life, to the detriment of all else. Other people stuck in hustle culture might feel like they must work (long hours) to fulfill their professional goals, and there’s simply no other way.  

But, why?  

Historically in the US, people who earned the highest salary would work less than the people who earned the least. It makes sense – if you’re making a lot of money, then you can afford to work less.  

But something changed in the late 80s; people making the highest salary started to work the longest shifts. The reason? Employees paid by the hour (typically blue-collar workers) were now protected by the Fair Labour Standards Act. From then on, hourly employees were required to be paid overtime.

At the same time, employers hiring salaried workers, typically in white-collar professions, began to glamorize the idea of workaholism. These workers would work unpaid extra hours to achieve their targets and professional goals.

Hustle culture promotes “always staying on,” and that mentality can lead to burnout.  

Today, according to Deloitte, almost 80% of people have experienced burnout at work.  

With the impact of globalization and automation, a wave of mergers and acquisitions started to happen. Afraid of getting laid off, people were bound to work harder to demonstrate their role was indispensable. This fed hustle culture, and subsequently, burnout culture.  

What changed?

When Millennials entered the workforce, they started to advocate for better work-life balance and a focus on wellness. Tired of seeing their parents working at companies with poor cultures, this generation fought for the flexibility and benefits we see in today’s job market.

A study done by PWC proves this, revealing that Millennials demand better work-life balance. That said, this generation won’t just accept a position for a high salary, they also want purpose, and will make sure that companies align with their values before they accept a job. What's more, with record-high employment rates, they can be choosy.

Did Millennials or Gen Z start the quiet quitting trend?

Both generations seem to rebel against the hustle culture mentality. According to Deloitte, Gen Z also craves more purposeful and flexible work with a particular focus on their mental health.  

But employees aren’t just refusing to work overtime or weekends; some are unmotivated and disengaged during regular working hours.

According to Gallup, almost 85% of employees worldwide are not engaged at work. In some cases, quiet quitting could arguably be another form of employee disengagement.

What can your organization do?

1. Get to know your employees well

It’s important to understand that each person sees work differently. According to Yale professor Amy Wrzesniewski, there are three different approaches people take to their work.  

First, we have the people who see work as a means to put food on the table and pay bills – these are ‘job oriented ’ people.

Secondly, we have people with a ‘career orientation;’ they see their work as a path to a better status in life, so they don't mind putting the extra mile into their work to achieve that.  

Finally, we have the people who take it even further. They don’t view their job as a career but instead as a ‘calling.’  

While none of these approaches are necessarily good or bad, it’s important for managers to find the right way to motivate each employee to keep them engaged.  

For instance, if a person who is job oriented has a family emergency, they will seek support from their employer to take time off to support their loved one. Similarly, if someone is career oriented and feels like they’ve reached their peak at work, you should find ways to develop a comprehensive career development plan with them. Finally, if you have a ‘calling’ employee, be mindful of burnout. While they love their job and find it satisfying, make sure they get the support they need by encouraging breaks and disconnection from work on vacation.  

2. Focus on engagement

Employees are disengaged for nuanced reasons, but at the core, they want to feel valued and that their organization cares for their wellbeing.  

Recognition is one proven way more companies are opting to utilize to improve their engagement levels. What’s more, it also helps you build a stronger connection with your employees.

According to Gallup, employees are up to four times more likely to be engaged if they experience regular recognition at work.

The key here is to understand that happier employees perform better. As a result, forward-thinking companies are coming to realize that the push toward a more balanced work life has produced benefits for both employees and employers.

With a tool like Kudos, employers can encourage peer-to-peer recognition, allowing people’s hard work to be highlighted in situations where it might normally go unnoticed. The platform allows your team to align their recognition messages to your company values, helping employees develop a better sense of belonging while helping employers measure their engagement too.  

3. Take good care of managers

Almost identical to the employee engagement study, today, Gallup reports that only one in three managers feel engaged at work. Taking good care of managers means giving them the resources they need to lead a team properly.  

Quiet quitting is a silent scream for managers to build a stronger relationship with their employees, but managers can’t do that if they are feeling burned out.  

According to a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, the most important factor is to build trust. If an employee trusts their manager, they will also feel the organization cares for their wellbeing.  

Remember, a trustworthy manager reflects a trustworthy organization. So, encourage managers to take time off, provide training and finally, work towards a culture where managers can get recognized too. Oftentimes, managers get forgotten despite the key part they played in achieving the outcome.  

Where to go from here

Quiet quitting poses a higher threat when an unhealthy workplace culture is in place.  

However, organizations that adapt to newer generations’ demands will see better results than the ones stuck in the past.  

By working towards healthy workplace culture, being there for your employees and managers, and praising their achievements through consistent recognition, you'll be well on your way to a thriving, engaged workforce.