Tips, Best Practices, &
All Things Engagement

Have you thought about ways to thank your employees this Thanksgiving? It's natural to think of our family and friends first, but let's not overlook our dedicated colleagues this season. Show sincere appreciation to those who make your work life easier and more enjoyable. They will love you for it! Are you not sure how to thank them? Kevin Kruse wrote an article on Forbes.com this past Employee Appreciation Day (March 1, 2013) with great ideas and low-cost ways to thank employees. In case you missed it, take another opportunity to read it and borrow ideas to Thank Different® this Thanksgiving week!

So, here at Kudos we thought we’d try something a little different about our semi-annual performance reviews. 

We decided to try out the concept of stay interviews. Are you familiar? Stay interviews, as opposed to exit interviews (which I’m sure you’ve all heard of) aim to engage and retain your personnel by getting their thoughts, ideas and opinions while they are still employees, rather than when they’re on their way out. It’s a chance to engage in two-way conversation and feedback about the work they’re doing for you and the environment, culture and tasks of their everyday life at your company. 

Kudos will be hanging out with 14,000 other HR professionals from around the world at The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)'s 65th Annual Conference & Exposition this June 16-19, 2013. This exciting event features a lineup of world-renowned thinkers and speakers, and an exposition of noteworthy companies who push the boundaries of HR. Kudos will be there with bells on, and will be celebrating the occasion with a special offer, we're giving you Kudos Pro FREE for 90 days!

I’ve been with Kudos for the past five months, working to develop and document their HR polices procedures and set up their systems. My professional background is a mix of technical recruiting and HR in the tech space. Away from work, I spend my time as a dance teacher and choreographer. When approached by Kudos, I was excited about the opportunity to work with a company that was HR-centric, that aligned with my beliefs and that every day, worked to make the workplace better for others, while practicing what they preach right here at home.

Every year, Alberta’s top Human Resources managers come together for Alberta’s Best Workplaces conference and awards. The goal of this exciting event is to recognize and support Alberta-based companies who lead the way in corporate culture and human resource development.

The competition awards organizations in 12 different categories, including Perks and Incentives, Health and Safety, Benefits, Environmentally Conscious, and Volunteerism and Community Involvement. This year, the conference will be held on May 23rd at Hotel Arts in Calgary and will feature a keynote from Jonathan Wolske, the Culture Evangelist for Zappos Insights.

This month, we'd like to highlight a very special client who has been with us since the very beginning, and implements really cool programs to ensure its employees are engaged and motivated to continue to perform their best.

About Community National Bank

Community National Bank (CNB) strives to be the premier provider of banking and other financial related services in the communities they serve. They started with two locations in Iowa a little over 15 years ago. They now serve Cedar Falls, Waterloo, and Mason City in Iowa, and Austin, Minnesota with two branches. CNB’s core values include loyalty, trust, and commitment to customers, employees, shareholders, and the community. Check them out!

CNB has been with Kudos since we launched the product in 2011. As one of our original clients, we asked how their recognition program has evolved and how they use Kudos to complement and reinforce their culture and values. What was most impressive to us, is how frequently they send external Kudos, and their goal to achieve 100 percent participation amongst team members. Our Kudorrific friend Deb Dralle, Secretary to the Board at CNB, manages the Kudos program and was kind enough to give us some insight to the Kudos program at CNB!

We love staying connected with our clients to learn how they use Kudos. This month, we got in touch with Jonathan Leung, the Manager of Mail Order Operations for LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics in North America. Jonathan spearheaded the recognition program in his department in 2012 and was kind enough to share his insightson employee engagement and Kudos.

For all the wonderful visual learners out there such as myself, we thought it would be fun and helpful to create a tight illustration of the crucial benefits of employee engagement and recognition. We’ve put together an infographic to get to the heart of what makes recognition in the workplace so powerful. 

When it comes down to it, what do employees want most? Are they getting it? What is the benefit to my company if I make appreciation a part of my daily culture? 

All of these questions and more are answered in our handy-dandy infographic, so check it out!

"Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do." -Walt Disney

If we think back on our favorite memories at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, more often than not, these memories involve kind and talented cast members. It is these passionate, warm-hearted, and talented people who attract millions of people back to the parks to see them do it again and again. They even bring their friends to show them how well Disney does what it does.

It is in every company’s best interest to provide superior customer service so that their customers, whether they are businesses or individuals, return the favor with their loyalty. This loyalty leads to word-of-mouth advertising, and also creates strong and lasting relationships.

Team recognition is a powerful tool most companies are failing to harness to create engagement at work.

It seems most organizations are struggling with employee engagement. Sadly, most organizations do not have a strategy to engage their teams, or if they do have a plan or program, they are unsatisfied with the results. Worse, some organizations are doing nothing at all.

 We’ve developed a new set of techniques for measuring employee engagement in the office

1. Collect the drool off of sleeping employees’ desks. Measure it in a beaker. If the total volume is under 5mL, your employee is probably minimally engaged. If it measures over 5mL, your employee is probably actively disengaged, and/or should be tested for narcolepsy.
2. Check your employees’ Facebook profile. Engagement can be calculated by dividing the number of cat videos posted per hour, by the rate of comment responses, then multiplying this by the number of status updates, per minute.
3. Employee engagement as a whole in the company can be calculated by randomly sampling the number of employees hovering at the water cooler at a single time, correlated with each employee’s sips per minute (SPM). If this value proves that employees are using time at the water cooler for activities other than drinking water (examples include, but are not limited to: chatting, staring aimlessly out the window, sleeping, playing ultimate frisbee) it is safe to assume that your engagement levels are low.

...Don’t worry, I’m just kidding...

We’ve recently spoken with a few clients who, unfortunately due to economic difficulties, have had to lay off some of their workforce. Now, they feel as though the remaining staff is not confident about their future in the company, and as a result, have become disengaged. This turned into a great opportunity for us to discuss ways to engage employees during difficult times.

Engaging employees after a reduction in force (RIF) was a hot topic about three years ago, at the height of the economic recession. Unfortunately, many businesses are still suffering the effects of the recession. After doing a little research in a few blogs, websites, and discussion forums, I compiled some advice and steps that you, as leaders of your company, can take to ensure that employees feel secure and engaged. Here, I will outline how to use Kudos in conjunction with the three steps to dealing with a difficult time suggested by Leadership Beyond Limits, LLC: Healing, Hope, and Health.