Without employees we don’t have a business - a pretty obvious statement. However it is the level of connectedness to the business that will determine how successful a business really is.
Happy, connected employees will go above and beyond to deliver great projects and service. Unhappy, disconnect employees will turn up at 9 and go home at 5.
So the challenge for management is how do you build a connected workforce?
Yes, most of us will reward managers and project leaders who have clearly lead great projects or delivered great results. However we often miss the little things. The 1 percenters (in football parlance) that really help build the business. It is often the unsung heroes that go unnoticed.
So what can be done to recognised the unsung heroes?
Some of the initiatives we have implemented are
- Employee of the month awards - these are nominted by their fellow workmates and selected by me. To be nominated, a fellow employee must actually write a paragraph or two expounding the virtues of the nominee. It is a great way for me to find out who is doing a great job in the business.
- Spot awards - these are usually for those that have really put in big time. We will occasionally send an employee and their partner away for a weekend or a dinner for two.
- Bonuses - while all employees have a bonus component to their package, we often pay above and beyond when employees have done a great job over the half year.
- Walking around - this is a simple thing but one that is as important as the above. I spend a chunk of time in the head office and other offices, walking around, chatting to folk, listening to what they are doing and relating it back to where the business is going as a whole. This is priceless.
My HR manager recently sent me an article called Recognizing Unsung Heroes by Matthew Gilbert in Workforce Management, November 2004. It talks about KeySpan Corp and how the CEO approaches recognition of unsung heroes. A must read.
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