7
Celebrating achievements

THE CREATIVE CHALLENGE:
Recognizing those connected with your business so they feel good about their contributions to your organization

In this chapter, we want to show how valuable it can be to recognize your employees (and others who may assist you) and to celebrate their accomplishments and contributions to your company’s mission and growth. If you’re just starting a business, such a goal may appear to be one of those “someday” objectives: when you have more sales coming in, when you’re making a substantial profit and can afford really nice recognition gifts, when the business is more established and your staff is more experienced.

We ask you to dismiss that notion and consider making recognition and celebration a regular, robust part of your business plan from day one. Why? Because celebrating the accomplishments of those in your organization, especially those directly responsible for sales, will help build confidence, loyalty, and enthusiasm in your company. And if you’re already in business, implement some changes if you have to and make recognition and celebration an integral part of your day-to-day activities. Studies indicate that companies that routinely recognize and celebrate their employees’ contributions do well financially and have lower employee turnover. An added bonus is that you will create a workforce that really likes working for you. And isn’t that in itself a worthy outcome?

In their book The Invisible Employee: Realizing the Hidden Potential in Everyone, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton refer to a survey conducted by Sirota Consulting (cited in Giving Employees What They Want: The Returns Are Huge, by Louis A. Mischkind and Michael Irwin Meltzer), which reported that out of twenty-eight companies surveyed, the fourteen considered to have high morale saw their stock prices increase an average of 16 percent in 2004. The industry average for 2004 was 6 percent. And the “low morale” companies? Their stock increased an average of just 3 percent.²

“But my company is a small, privately held business,” you say. “I’m not worried about stock value.” Adrian and Chester also cite studies that reveal a direct correlation between recognition and return on equity (ROE) as well as return on assets (ROA). A survey conducted by the Jackson Group in cooperation with O. C. Tanner, an employee recognition firm based in Salt Lake City, Utah, revealed that companies committed to rewarding excellence enjoyed an ROA more than three times higher than companies that don’t practice routine recognition. After all their analysis, the researchers determined that employee recognition is perhaps the one factor in regard to financial measures that most significantly impacts operating margin.³

To help you find recognition and celebration techniques that may help those connected to your business feel better about what they do, we’ve created some Recognition Strategies. Remember, your sales are not dependent on a simple “goods for money” transaction. Strong sales that continue to grow are built on many factors, including the loyalty and enthusiasm of those selling your products, the quality of your products, your ability to get your products to your customers in a timely fashion, and how your customers are treated by everyone in your organization. Celebrating the accomplishments of the people who are responsible for these aspects of your business can make a difference in your ability to build a healthier bottom line.

RECOGNITION STRATEGY NUMBER ONE:
Use the power of the Internet and company intranet to keep in touch with your employees.

In today’s high-tech age, you would be hard-pressed to find a company that doesn’t use computers and the Internet to move its business forward. And while you may have created a dazzling 120Web site and have a sophisticated Internet system in place to handle online orders and customer inquiries, you may be overlooking the value that Internet technology can offer you internally.

As your business grows and you add more and more people to your workforce, consider developing an intranet system that will heighten communication and recognition possibilities between management and employees and also among employees themselves. An intranet provides an easy way for everyone to stay connected and gives you a method for instantly recognizing the accomplishments of your staff among their peers.

Canada’s Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) has found a great way to give its employees a “voice,” which goes a long way toward building morale, recognizing great ideas, and helping solve problems—all of which can add up to more and bigger sales.

Talk to the Blog

Sustainability manager Denise Taschereau knows that recognition and celebration are important elements in MEC’s success. And like many managers, she’s always looking for novel ways to support the co-op’s business efforts in these areas. “I think it’s endemic that people don’t celebrate enough,” she says from her office in Vancouver, British Columbia. “One of the things that we’ve recently built is a sustainability team at MEC. We have a rep at every store that works with the team here at the head office.” MEC has created its own Web-based forum, the Sustainability Center. In the form of a blog, it enables people to tell others within the company about events they’ve held and to do a little bragging. As Denise explains, “It’s been a really nice way for people in a really short, quick forum, to say, ‘We did this. It worked!’”⁴

Once items are posted on the blog, Denise can easily search the site and forward information to the senior vice presidents so they know what’s happening in the co-op. In addition to posting121 “successes,” the Sustainability team can seek solutions to problems or ask questions that may pop up. A case in point is excess packaging from the boats the co-op sells. Someone asked for suggestions for what to do with all the plastic wrapping used to protect the boats when they’re shipped, and the answers were quick to come in. One person at an MEC store gives the packaging to an eBay seller who reuses it when shipping items. Another cuts the plastic into sections and gives it away to customers to use as ground sheets for tents. The Sustainability Center site also allows staff members to vent if faced with a challenging issue. Denise believes this communication forum is a valuable asset to the company, whether it’s to celebrate, to recognize, or just simply to communicate.⁵

As this example demonstrates, allowing your employees to share successes and seek solutions to problems via your intranet is a great way for everyone involved in your day-to-day operation to connect. And being connected helps build teamwork, which can be critical when trying to come up with new ideas for increasing your sales or solving distribution issues.

RECOGNITION STRATEGY NUMBER TWO:
Find innovative ways to recognize and reward your employees by tapping into their personal interests.

Every person in the universe has a talent or interest that is unique. Sometimes it takes just a little effort to find out what that interest is and then to recognize it to make your employees feel special. And what does making your staff feel special have to do with sales and distribution? The answer is simple: making people feel good about themselves creates a positive atmosphere. And a positive atmosphere can generate more energy and cooperation in the workplace, which can translate into more productivity and sales.

In The Invisible Employee, Gostick and Elton point out that sometimes the most important time to celebrate is when it appears nothing is worthy of celebration.⁶ When you’re experiencing a slump in sales or challenges getting products to customers in a timely fashion, could be the time you need real ingenuity and a chance to celebrate suggested solutions.

Tapping into your employees’ interests and recognizing them for their talents can be a wonderful way to get their creative juices flowing and get them feeling more relaxed about offering valuable input into ways to improve your operation. If you’re willing to listen and have a sincere desire to help your employees live a better life through your actions as an employer, you may discover a host of new ideas that put sales on a profitable track or save money in getting products to customers. And as Albert Einstein said, “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”⁷

You don’t have to spend a lot, in either time or money, to give your employees a boost in how they feel about themselves and how they feel about working for you. In the following example, we show you how MEC combines supporting its mission as a company with supporting its employees’ personal interests.

The Value of Rewards

MEC rewards its employees through programs that benefit them on a personal level in a way that matches the co-op’s mission. The co-op recently launched a boat/bike loan program that enables full- or part-time employees who have been with MEC for over a year to take out an interest-free loan up to Can$3,000. Employees may buy a canoe, kayak, mountain bike, road bike— whatever they want—and the interest-free payments are deducted from their paychecks over a two-year period. This program helps employees enjoy some of the recreational activities123 MEC supports as a business, and it encourages interest in such hobbies, which can make MEC employees more knowledgeable and more enthusiastic about helping customers interested in the same activities.

The organization does a lot of in-the-field staff training, which Denise says not only provides valuable instruction but also is enjoyable for employees. “A group of staff can sign up to go to an Avalanche Awareness course for two or three days and be [trained] in the mountains,” she explains. Such trainings help build expertise on the floor when employees are dealing with MEC members, plus they’re fun and give staff members a break from the usual routine in the store. In addition to these methods of helping employees become more familiar with and passionate about outdoor recreation, by 2007 MEC hopes to launch a program in which employees may volunteer to work for an organization of their choice on company time. This is another example of how the business enhances its mission through supporting its employees.⁸

One other way the co-op recognizes its employees is through its order line on-hold music. We’ve all been put on hold and often hear music while we wait for someone to help us. What is unique about MEC’s on-hold music is its source—the music is composed and performed by an MEC staff member. How do you know that? Because a woman announces this fact. When Angela called MEC’s 800 number and heard this, her immediate reaction was “How cool!” And then she thought, How easy to do! Why aren’t more companies doing this?

According to Harry Henderson, MEC service center manager, this unique foray into employee recognition came about because the co-op wasn’t happy with the corporate music and messaging service it was purchasing. Customers and staff members complained that the music just didn’t fit the MEC culture.

And when someone on staff said employee musicians could do a better job, the company agreed. Besides the employee musicians, the woman who does the announcing (in both English and French) is also an MEC employee.⁹

If you examine the employee rolls of most companies, especially large ones like MEC, you will no doubt discover a number of artists, writers, and musicians who spend much of their free time nurturing an artistic passion. And any talent agent can tell you how tough it is for an artist, writer, or musician to get his or her work before the public, whether it’s a gallery showing of artwork, a book published, or a music CD produced.

Why not allow talented employees to showcase their talent where they work and brighten your environment at the same time? For example, in addition to musicians supplying your on-hold music, artists could submit works of art for lobbies or other areas in your building where people gather or pass by regularly.

Your first step in creating such programs may be to find out what your employees are interested in and how their interests could be showcased. It all comes back to appreciating people and making them feel good about their job and working for the benefit of your company. If your employees enjoy being part of your company, chances are that enthusiasm will reveal itself when they encounter customers or others who play a role in your success, including suppliers, distributors, the media, and potential investors. Selling your merchandise often begins with selling the spirit of your values and company mission to those who are on your front line—i.e., your employees.

RECOGNITION STRATEGY NUMBER THREE:
Find small ways to reward your employees.

If you think it’s strictly the paycheck that keeps your employees showing up for work every day, think again. Your ability to lead 125plays a significant role. It’s no secret that good leaders can guide their teams to amazing heights of success. Part of being a good leader is understanding the challenges your employees may face in their personal lives and finding ways to work with them to help improve their quality of life and, thus, their ability to do their jobs. It really boils down to making it easy for your employees to like working for you. And consideration for your employees today can mean payoffs tomorrow when you have a business crisis (e.g., you have pallets of products that have to be unloaded in a hurry, and you need employees to stay late).

In our opening example, we highlighted a few ways that Hot Lips Pizza does little things to help its employees enjoy their work and feel appreciated for their efforts. Here are some other actions David Yudkin takes to give his business a strong sense of community (integral to his mission) as he builds respectful relationships with those connected to his business.

As Much Pizza as They Can Stand

One way you can see how Hot Lips recognizes people is by going to its Web site. There you’ll see a photo of the local farmers who supply Hot Lips with the ingredients for its pizzas and homemade soda. It’s a nice way to recognize these members of David’s community who help him make quality pizza and original soda. And in the case of the soda, David also uses the name of the farm on the soda labels if all the fruit comes from that one particular farm.

Does it cost David anything extra to feature the farmers on his Web site or use their names on a soda label? No. Does it mean something? You bet. According to David, the farmers love it. And will this appreciation for their contributions to Hot Lips Pizza show itself when a problem erupts and a supplier has to go that extra mile to get David the produce or flour he needs? Very likely. And as any business owner will tell you, having the 126ingredients or parts you need when you need them is essential to fostering healthy sales. It all goes back to creating a quality product and giving customers what they want when they want it.

In addition to celebrating employees’ birthdays and appreciating their cultures, David makes an effort to train his employees so they will understand the nature of his business. Because Hot Lips uses fresh, locally grown (and often organic) produce—which of course is seasonal—it’s critical that his employees know why some ingredients may not be available for a customer’s pizza and can therefore relate that information confidently to customers. They also learn the meaning of “organic” and “sustainability” and the various ways Hot Lips Pizza works to lower its impact on the environment. “When an employee is supporting their job in that kind of way, they are happier! And it lowers turnover,” adds David.¹⁰

Another way David tries to keep his employees happy is by offering flexible work schedules and vacation pay no matter what level job they have. David is also working on a volunteer program so employees can volunteer up to three hours a month, for which they will receive one hour of pay. And he adds, “They can eat as much pizza as they can stand.”¹¹

Gift certificates are a staple at Hot Lips—for going beyond the call of duty or just for brightening up a bad day. David even let a music-loving employee negotiate a deal with a local record store so he can select the music to play in the stores. Another employee loves hot sauce, so he helped the company create a hot sauce to market. All of these perks are small compared to the huge bonuses some companies pay, but for a small operation they can be monumental when it comes to creating and nurturing a satisfied workforce.

David has found that these actions attract employees who want to have an impact in the community or on the world and 127are concerned about environmental issues. In short, he feels they come to work because they feel like they can play a role in changing the world.¹²

All of this gives David the “thinking people” we mentioned earlier. And when the people working for you embrace your values, their enthusiasm radiates to those they encounter as they do their jobs. If those people are customers, you have a much better chance to sell your product the first time around and resell it over and over again. Your employees’ enthusiasm will also radiate to people they meet away from the job, which can add up to new customers and more sales.

RECOGNITION STRATEGY NUMBER FOUR:
If your company’s revenue depends on a large sales force, create a rewarding recognition program.

Your company may depend on a sales force to sell your products. If so, it’s important to create a recognition program that offers your salespeople incentives that they appreciate and that motivate them. Two direct-selling companies that depend on a large core of salespeople to tell their story and sell products are Warm Spirit and Nu Skin Enterprises. Both organizations have created recognition programs that play a critical role in improving sales and spreading the word about their companies. These programs highlight the individuals’ success among their peers and the public at large, which in turn helps motivate the award recipients to meet new goals. Simply put, it’s the old concept of rewarding behaviors you want repeated.

However, for both Warm Spirit and Nu Skin Enterprises, recognition is far more complex and sophisticated than merely handing out a gift when a distributor or consultant reaches a new level of achievement. And even though you may have a small 128company that is not dependent on high sales volumes generated by thousands of individuals, the techniques these companies use may give you ideas for improving your own sales efforts.

First, here’s a little primer on the direct-selling model. Although compensation plans and requirements to qualify for advancement differ among companies, the basic direct-selling model (often called network marketing) involves selling products and the business opportunity to other individuals. Distributors (Warm Spirit calls them consultants) may elect to just sell products at a suggested retail price (and earn income on the markup) or to create an organization of their own by signing up other individuals who will both sell products and recruit new individuals into the business. As individuals recruit more and more people into the business, they earn commissions as well as bonuses, depending on the size of their organization and the total sales volume generated by everyone in their group. For successful distributors who work hard and recruit many active distributors into their organization, incomes can be huge. And of course, since individual incomes are based on sales, those earning regular, large commissions are generating significant income for the company.

Nu Skin Enterprises, based in Provo, Utah, was founded in 1984 as a personal care company. Today it operates three divisions and spans the globe, with approximately 800,000 distributors in over forty markets.¹³ In this next example, you’ll see how the company grew by consistently celebrating the efforts of its sales force—often in small but creative ways.

Rolling Out the Red Carpet

From the beginning, Nu Skin put an emphasis on recognizing its leaders. They’re highlighted in company publications, featured on the lobby walls in the corporate office as well as in their individual market offices, and feted at regional conferences as well 129as the corporation’s large international convention held every two years in the United States, and they earn exclusive trips and gifts as they reach new levels within the company. Although Nu Skin rewards its top leaders handsomely, the “little things” often seem to carry significant weight. This is a valuable lesson for any business, no matter how small.

“It’s interesting to see what recognition really does—what motivates people,” says Nu Skin Enterprises’ director of global recognition, Darin Ashby. “We’ve had people who were more concerned about their title and didn’t really care what the check was.” Further evidence that the little things support big results can be found in the pillow gifts Darin and his team leave for their top leaders, called Team Elite members, on their annual trips. These are small gifts such as towels, shirts, jackets, umbrellas, water bottles, or even a kite. One year, due to a lack of storage space, the recognition team did not give the leaders pillow gifts on their Alaskan cruise. And did they ever hear about it! “Those things cost as little as ten dollars apiece,” says Darin. “Several of these people are millionaires—a good share of them. They could buy the company that makes those trinkets, you know? But they’ve got to have that little gift… Just taking extra care with every aspect of these trips, it’s really motivating to them. It blows them away. They haven’t had service or recognition like that—ever.”¹⁴

Nu Skin also recognizes its sales leaders through another very simple, low-cost activity. As individuals reach certain milestones within the company, they are brought to corporate headquarters to meet with company executives and are taken on fun outings. On their first morning in Provo, they are bussed as a group from the hotel to the company’s downtown high-rise, and there they are routinely astounded by what awaits them: a red carpet, celebratory music, and hundreds of corporate employees who applaud their entrance into the building. “A lot of them say 130it’s the highlight of their trip,” says Darin, “feeling like roy-alty.”¹⁵

For Nu Skin Enterprises, which has helped over 350 people earn over $1 million during the lifetime of their distributorship and 20 to earn over $20 million, recognition has been a very significant part of how the company does business and keeps sales moving upward. As Darin says, “Recognition is the name of the game in direct sales.”¹⁶

Shining Stars

Nadine also knows that direct selling is a business based on recognition, and she has instituted several programs that not only recognize her consultants but help them do their jobs better at the same time. Every month the company recognizes the top nine people, who are its Shining Stars. These consultants receive a nice gift or gift certificate, are highlighted in the company’s monthly newsletter and in an e-mail sent to all consultants, and are noted on the public Internet site as well as the company intranet site. They also receive mention in a press release sent to their local media by a public relations firm that specializes in publicizing the accomplishments of direct-selling representatives. This press release serves two purposes: it provides local recognition of consultants’ efforts and helps consultants publicize their businesses in their communities to aid them in making more product sales and attracting new recruits.

The final piece of the recognition program for Warm Spirit’s top earners is the three hours of coaching they receive the month following their Shining Star status. These consultants receive an hour each of life coaching, self-care and wellness coaching, and leadership training. The thinking behind this program is to let the consultants know that the company appreciates their leadership efforts and is willing to invest three 131hours of coaching time in them to help take them and their business to the next level.

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In all of these examples, we’ve demonstrated how recognizing a person’s contribution to your company—whether through his or her ideas, work performance, or commitment to your goals as a business—can help you realize a more profitable bottom line. In addition, we’ve shown you how recognizing people’s talents, interests, or simple needs in managing an often-hectic life can help them feel better about who they are and therefore probably do a better job as an employee.

It all boils down to one simple idea: if people are happy and feel appreciated, they’re going to feel good about coming to work, pitching in during tough times, and offering new ideas when you want to inject some energy into your sales. They’ll sell with more fervor and with a genuine passion for what they’re selling, and they’ll be more effective ambassadors when talking about their jobs and your company to friends or strangers they may meet when they’re not at work. By celebrating the contributions of those connected to your business, you create a more positive atmosphere that can definitely add up to bigger profits.