"Happy Hat" Saves the Day!

IT ALL STARTED with a phone : "Steve can you please attend a meeting, we are having a real big issue with our customer satisfaction and employee productivity and we would like you to share a few words with our employees."

The problem was; 40% of their customers were unhappy and employee satisfaction was down! At that time this company had 4000 employees. I readily agreed to help in whatever way I could.

I soon found myself on one of the many buses the company hired to take the employees to a huge event sponsored by the company. For some reason I decided to wear my "Happy Hat" - a black baseball cap with a little smiley face embroidered on it. I don't know why I put that one on, but later it really came in handy. To tell you the truth, I was very nervous because this was the first time that I would have spoken to a large group of people. The good news for me was that there would be other people speaking who, like me, were not professional speakers, but rather they were from the "rank and file" of the company to discuss what was going on at the ground level. The people who attended and spoke were people with whom the company comes in contact with everyday such as customers, employees and vendors. I was a vendor. The idea was to show that everyone is important, not just the customers.

I remember feeling a bit sick, looking at the crowd, thinking to myself, "What words of wisdom could I offer these people? Was I even in a position to give words of wisdom?" I remember the CEO getting up and saying" Everyone and every job is important" He gave a big speech on how treating each other
with respect and taking requests from other departments and vendors is a serious matter, and it goes without saying how important it is to take good care of the customer. Everyone no matter how far removed they are from the customer has a direct affect on the customers' satisfaction. This CEO had the wisdom to know that making all the people that worked with this company feel important and appreciated was going to be what his company needed to turn things around. My turn to speak was approaching quickly. The butterflies in my stomach turned into a stampede of elephants; have you ever had an elephant in your stomach? (Speaking of elephants this same company had us customize a t-shirt for an elephant as part of an in house incentive program, but that's another story!)

I heard the MC introduce me and then handed me the mic. I first looked at the mic then looked at the people. The silence was deafening, all eyes were looking at me. Waiting for my "words of wisdom" I began to speak; it was the first time I heard my voice over a microphone and my facial expression reflected that fact. After the laughter, I told them that the bottom line is that it was all about "this" and then I pointed to my "Happy Hat" with a smiley face on it and said "Make it contagious". They all laughed again, clapped and shook their heads in confirmation.

Apparently I was a success since afterwards I was called into the corporate office to discuss some ideas about an employee recognition program. Since our customer's problem was actually twofold - low employee productivity and low customer satisfaction - we worked with our customer to develop an employee recognition program from the standpoint that there is a direct connection between recognition and increased employee productivity and satisfaction which then results in increased customer satisfaction. This program became so successful that after 3 years of using it not only did employee productivity substantially increase but so did their customer satisfaction rate. The customer satisfaction rate went from 60% to 95% with some divisions reporting 100%. The result of all of this was the creation of our unique PraiseStar" Portal for Praise software and system.

A Culture of Gratitude - Takers Vs Givers

Real Gratitude is Rooted in True Giving.

If any rewards and recognition program is going to have any real measurable and long-term positive effect it must be based on this concept because this type of giving, which is the root of real gratitude, is the force which drives employees.

The Source of Satisfaction

The source of satisfaction for a giver lies in the fulfillment of one's role as a giver. The nature of a true giver is one of rejection of "free gifts". The desire of the giver's being is to give and not to draw to oneself things that are outside of him or her.

Consequently, when the giver does receive anything from one's employer he or she is immediately prompted to give something equivalent in return. If the giver is unable to do this in kind, the giver's heart urges him or her to repay that employer by giving the employer happiness by way of true gratitude and appreciation, which translates into increased engagement, productivity, overall service and customer satisfaction. Therefore, even when a giver takes, the giver is actually giving.

The Taker

The opposite of this, obviously, is the taker. The taker is one who aspires to draw to oneself all that comes within his or her reach. This is egotism or selfishness.

In contrast to the giver, even when a taker gives he or she is actually taking because the whole purpose of the taker's giving is for the sake of taking - recognition, honor, prestige, and the like.

A taker therefore by his or her very nature will never be satisfied with what he or she has and will always want more and greater in the wrong areas, i.e. greater rewards, greater honor, greater recognition and greater prestige because the taker will always see what he or she does not have and will always feel a sense of deficiency and this is what drives the taker.

Deep inside of the taker is the belief that people and things exist for his or her sake, therefore when the taker is given recognition or award for something, say from his or her employer, the taker may give wonderful words of gratitude and thanks to his or her employer but he or she does not really mean it because the taker is only showing gratitude and thanks in order to get a bigger and better award.

Unlike the giver, it won't matter what the employer gives the taker since it will never translate into the employer getting anything meaningful in return, such as engagement, productivity, overall service, etc. since the taker is only driven by the next award or recognition. It is not hard to see how costly this can be for an employer.

The Culture of Gratitude

It is exactly for these reasons that any awards and recognition program must be based on a culture of true gratitude from both the organization and the employee whose roots lie within the nature of giving and not the nature of taking.

If the organization develops a program from this perspective then this will create a level of gratitude from the employee to the organization that will ultimately translate into a symbiotic relationship which nurtures increased employee engagement, increase productivity, increased overall service, increase satisfaction, lower turnover rates and increase customer satisfaction.

Work Place Kindness - Seeing The Goodness In People

Work Place Kindness

It never ceases to make me feel good to see the nice things that people do for each other in the work place. I guess you might call me an optimist but I do believe that most people are just plain good folks, there are the few exceptions that can give everyone else a bad name but, for the most part they seem to be in the minority.

I feel lucky that I get to read really nice letters of sincere appreciation about employees; perhaps that accounts for my bias to seeing the goodness in people.

Here I'll share one of the letters with you:

Actual Letter to Management from One Employee About Another

"On Friday, Rosalinda saw me walking with my cane, hands full, and offered to help me out. Even though she was only planning on going as far as the employee lounge, she walked with me all the way to my office carrying a bag for me. This was a selfless act that demonstrated service, teamwork and all the positive attributes associated with deserving praise."

Caught in the Act of; Random Kindness!

By this I can see that this Rosalinda is a real caring and kind person. Little did Rosalinda know that this act of random kindness was to be "reported" the management!

Another funny story I'll share with you:

Complaint Department

I was referred to the "Complaint Department" of this company that had some strange policy that made absolutely no sense at all, I kept going around and around with the customer service person until finally she moved me on to a manager, this manager saw the error in their policy and went out of his way to get things straightened out for me, but we had to do this through the "Complaint Department" I asked do you have a "Praise" Department? The manager said "No he never heard of one there." I replied "Don't you think you could use one?" He laughed and said that would be something nice.

Yes, that would be nice.

Best in Employee Morale

A Positive Work Environment brings out the Best in Employee Morale, Productivity, and Job Satisfaction. They'll do a better job--and stay with you!

Those in the know can tell you that this can alone save companies hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year.

Be Careful Not to Insult Your Employees!

Be careful though, implementing a system can be tricky and some employee motivation programs actually are insulting to employees!

For example:

• Praise that is not sincere; Employees can tell the difference.
• A reward that does not reflect the employees perception of the employees value; this does not have to be expensive, just has to be valuable to the employee.

In the next article I will cover "Effective Employee Motivation Programs; Don't need to cost you an arm and a leg!"

Thanks for reading!

Steve Howard, President and Creator of PraiseStar™ Your Portal for Praise /

Chasing Carrots

Some companies would like to think of their employees as a bunch of animals that only will do something if you dangle a carrot on a stick in front of them. These same companies even set up "Carrot Shops" What has this world come too?

I think this approach actually ruins the work ethic. In this approach people become takers rather that givers. Just doing a good job for what they were hired for is not enough for them. These same folks won't lift a finger unless they are, well lets call it what it is...Bribed.

Although the good news is there are still many people out there that have been brought up to have a good work ethic, they feel a genuine desire to take pride in their job, and will expect nothing in return. Imagine that! When acknowledged for the good service, these humble people will usually respond a bit surprised and say, "I'm just doing my job, but thank you just the same." When someone is lucky to run into one of these people, the results are that you really appreciate what that person does and you want to thank them, a lot of times by letting their manager know.

These wonderful people don't chase "Carrots on a stick!" But a smart employer will want to keep these excellent employees happy and not lose them. A smart employer know that one of the top reasons employees move on to another company is "They don't feel Appreciated"

What say you on the subject? Are you for chasing a carrot on a stick? or do you believe in taking pride in your job? Perhaps you even have another point of view, I'm interested in what you have to say on the subject.