Boost Employee Recognition in 2009: Innovative Ideas for Your Workplace

[annew]

I'm just wondering if anyone is doing anything different for recognition for 2009????

I used Debbie's Bonus Bucks for this year & that's been great but I'm trying to be productive today & make something new.....

any ideas.....??

 

[cheftiffany]

Ok so I am putting together my recognition for 2009. Does anyone still give Ribbons say for $1000 month or higher? If so where do we get them? We still have some left over from when my director retired but the ones on Merrill aren't the same.

Also did you like getting ribbons as a consultant? What did you do with them? Did you ever have them at your shows?

So what is a better alternative? I personally never cared for the ribbons. They were great to get but I never did anything with them and I never took them to shows. Someone once said that they put them on a shower curtain ring but I couldn't get it.

I will post my recognition sheet when i am done. Other than the recognition for sales acheivement I have the rest pretty figured out. Hopefully I will have it done in an hour or so.

 

[cheftiffany]

Ok so here is what I think I am going to do. I also think I figured out the ribbon thing--they are getting plenty of other things.
Please let me know what you think. I still have to get it approved by a few other people but I think I really like it. Oh I may also add something in there about a 25 show/month team like I will take them all out to dinner when we do 25 shows in a month. I think my commission check for something like that can cover dinner. LOL

 

[cheftiffany]

By the way why can't we add word 2007 (docx) attachments? I had to go back and re-save it to a 2003 doc.

 

[pamperedbecky]

By the way why can't we add word 2007 (docx) attachments? I had to go back and re-save it to a 2003 doc.

And how do you do that, might I ask?? I must have a program that does the .docx thing and some of my customers can't open attachments I send. I wish I knew how to re-save it to a 2003 doc.

Sorry to hijack....just had to comment on the docx thing.

 

[cheftiffany]

You go to save as and it is the 3rd option. Save as a word 2003 doc.

 

[Christ Follower]

I think I will be doing PC $'s. Ribbons are nice, but I like receiving something practical (and it also work's as a carrot for me). I still haven't worked out all the details yet though. What does everyone else do?

 

[melodyprine]

Wow, this year i did joint meetings with my director so I totally forgot that I need to set something like this up. I will be starting my own team trainings in January. Okay what do the rest of you do? I like your ideas though Tiffany. I also love the clipart. Where did you find it?

 

[Koolotus]

Tiffany, you are very thourough
I stole Colleen's idea for roses. The one thing I tried to do was to keep it simple, cheap and duplicatable. I have a team of 15 that comes to meetings and 2 hospitality. What I do costs me the same now as it did when I had 4 coming. I do BIG recognition in the newsletter and at meetings. The gift of your time is really, I beleive the best gift.
Attached is my recognition plan, and sign up sheet.
By the way I love the Traveling character idea. I am thinking I might have to steal it!!


Business buildere, special recognition is a $5 dunkin donuts gift card

 

[cmdtrgd]

I discussed the program at my cluster meeting last night and have attached what we decided on. They had some good suggestions and we did tweak a few things.

 

[annew]

Thanks so much for posting what GREAT ideas!
I'm going to borrow a little bit from all 3 of you & I'll post later.

 

[cheftiffany]

Just wanted to clarify some of my thoughts. I didn't come up with some of the idea and in facat stole most of them from my director when we last earned a trip to Disney.

There will be some qualifiers at the bottom such as they don't get the disney dollars until the end of the year and they must still be active to receive them.

Also I have recently seen some directors who like to emphasize too much competition. It is actually very bothersome to me so I didn't want to put anything in there for top seller or highest show. I will recognize some of those in my newsletter but won't make a big deal about it in front of everyone. I have too many hobbiest (Spell) and so it would be the same person or people each time and I don't like that feeling of the they're always the "winner". I can see that it worked when I first started but there were several of us consultants that wanted to make a real go at this and not a lot of hobbiest so it wasn't always the same person. (can you tell I am a littel aggravated and kindof upset for some people in another cluster)

I like the Business Builders section and will have to reflect on that some. I know I need to work with them some more. Even the way part-timers want training.

Thanks to everyone who posts and gives us all ideas.

 

[Koolotus]

I hear ya Tiffany, it is difficult when the same people are always recognized. That is why I put in Most improved and business builder and guests at meeting. Gives others something to shoot for even if they are part time.
I have 2 thoughts on it.
first- always recognize what you want repeated. I think that 1250 for the month is achieveable for everyone-even hobbyiests.
second- sometimes it is ok to always recognize one or two people every month! If they are doing fabulous and really taking off why should they be punished because the rest of their cluster chooses to be part-timers. It is a choice both ways and I have been the consistent achiever with a bunch of hobbyists. It sucked when the recognition changed because people who were happy with and choose to be part timers grumbled because I did well.
Fact is I can't make everyone happy and they have to be at peace with their decisions. If those decisions affect the recognition they recieve, to me it is just part of their choice.
As a Director I always celebrate with them on their personal level of commitment. That being said I love to work with people who have big goals. I choose not to set my bars too low

ahem. My opinion only!!

 

[cmdtrgd]

I try to recognize in a few different ways1. hitting your personal goal (provided that goal is something you have to reach a bit for)
2. Top of anything - I think it is important to show who is top so they can reach out to each other. When someone in my director's cluster sold $11,000 last month and I need to sell more than I ever have in order to earn Miami, I emailed her.
3. Beating their personal best or beating me.
4. Anything I want repeated - I don't want to recognize someone who submitted 4 shows in one year unless that is more than they have ever done, and that is more than we thought they should do.

 

[cheftiffany]

Great points of views!

I guess it just seems like favoritism with the group that I see. It is just the way it is presented I guess.

Good point made about its good to know who is doing well so you can ask their advise when you want to improve.

Hopefully I will still be recognising the top performers just not pointing out that they are on "top" or the Best.

That's what is great about this site we can all express our views and most of the time I can get something out of it and we don't take it all personally.

 

[BethCooks4U]

When my director lived locally I never missed a meeting and I was always one of her top 3 consultants. She never recognized me because another consultant was always just above what I did. I tried really hard to beat her but never seemed to be able to but I wished that she would at least recognize THAT.

I try to find something to recognize in everyone. Everyone that bothers to attend the meeting deserves recognition. Most of my team is hobbyists but one (Danielle) has really stepped up to the plate and is doing very well. She's been tops for several months now and last month she was dynamite! But she was embarrassed to be recognized. I emailed her later and said she shouldn't feel bad, that I do look for things to recognize others for and November was HER month more than ever before. She replied that she just felt bad because she knew how it was to see someone else succeed and to not have the sales herself. I reminded her that she is an inspiration.

 

[Christ Follower]

Sandra can you re-post what you do with the PC $'s? I can't seem to find that anywhere.

I love the idea of giving the PC table cloth for qualifying in 30 days!

 

[PamperedChefDebi]

This is exactly why I started recognizing each Consultant who met HER personal goals each month, regardless of what those goals are, in addition to the top in each category in the stats. Trying to recognize what I want repeated without discouraging those who will likely never aspire to be more than hobby-ists.

 

[Chef Kearns]

My thing is just someone else's tweaked for my team. I will post it again though.

 

[Koolotus]

Great points of views!

I guess it just seems like favoritism with the group that I see. It is just the way it is presented I guess.

Good point made about its good to know who is doing well so you can ask their advise when you want to improve.

Hopefully I will still be recognising the top performers just not pointing out that they are on "top" or the Best.

That's what is great about this site we can all express our views and most of the time I can get something out of it and we don't take it all personally.

Thank you. I totally meant it as helpful and was a little nervous to check. Typing can sound different than intended!
Anyhoo, I love the different ideas. My one question is that some of the recognition plans sound expensive! I know that we can right it off and we get a production bonus but....
Honestly, how much will it cost you? I am curious!!
Mine is a doxen or two roses and the gift card, a prize from my stash and a team incentive if their is one that month.
So roughly $45 bucks.
anyone else??

 

[Chef Kearns]

The $$ question is why I am re-visiting my promotion. However, my team is extremely small, barerly large enough to even be a team. So, right now it is do-able. But when my team is 20 people large...I don't know. However, because of the different levels at most I give out $20 a month in PC $. The first month I ran this challenge only 3 people got PC$. So, $15. That's do-able.

 

[melodyprine]

Okay im gonna do charm braclets and I really like it. I keep trying to upload them to show you but its not working for some reason. My only thought is Men will not want these so any suggestions on what to give men since im doing braclets for the women? I have no men right now but a couple of my recruits have men recruit leads. Thanks in advance for your suggestions. I will try later to upload it. ttys.

Mel

 

[cmdtrgd]

Mel - you might want to have a different option not only for me, but for people like me that don't wear charm bracelets.ChefKearns - my director always said that a recognition program needs to be inexpensive and duplicatable. So, just because you have a small group doesn't mean you should spend more on them. We are given the production bonus to cover our recognition expenses. Don't exceed that! Also, if you make it too much, your downline will love it but not think they could do it as directors. It's a fine line to walk.

 

[melodyprine]

Mel - you might want to have a different option not only for me, but for people like me that don't wear charm bracelets.

ChefKearns - my director always said that a recognition program needs to be inexpensive and duplicatable. So, just because you have a small group doesn't mean you should spend more on them. We are given the production bonus to cover our recognition expenses. Don't exceed that! Also, if you make it too much, your downline will love it but not think they could do it as directors. It's a fine line to walk.

Oh im getting frustrated. I hear what you are saying and they are really good points, thank you. They really are not expensive the initial braclet is $4 for me and the charms are all less than $1 a piece so really not bad. I did think about those who may not want the charm braclets and then I thought two different programs would be waaaayyyyyy to much for me to keep track of. I dont know what to do. Man this sucks! lol....sorry im just stressed about it.

 

[finley1991]

Oh im getting frustrated. I hear what you are saying and they are really good points, thank you. They really are not expensive the initial braclet is $4 for me and the charms are all less than $1 a piece so really not bad. I did think about those who may not want the charm braclets and then I thought two different programs would be waaaayyyyyy to much for me to keep track of. I dont know what to do. Man this sucks! lol....sorry im just stressed about it.

Have you asked your TEAM what kind of recognition they would like to receive? That might make it easier on you instead of trying to decide for them... just a thought!

 

[cmdtrgd]

I agree with Colleen. I had my team members who came to my cluster meeting last week go through the program and pick it apart with me. I want something that will motivate THEM not me. I might think something is cool, but they wouldn't ever wear it. In fact, I have had a red apron for 2 years (and have an embroidery machine to put RED HOT on it) and haven't used it because I didn't know if it was worth it. They got so excited that I am so thrilled to hand it out next month! And, they had some good ideas. The one about sending out an update email on where people are in the "long term" type of competition recognition was not something I thought of doing. Then I wondered if there would be anyone who would be embarrassed by their lack of progress. I have people who are proud to submit 4 shows in one YEAR. So, I didn't want people to feel bad. We came up with an "opt out" part that basically keeps everyone in the chart unless they ask to be taken off. Make sense?

 

[Christ Follower]

Okay so I "think" I am going to do Pampered Chef dollars monthly. There will be categories such as top sales, top show, most bookings, recruiting, etc. I will give $5 PC dollars for each category so I won't give more than around $30 worth in a month.

Because I don't want to overlook those in my group that are part time/hobbiests, I will also do a basket thing. I am going to have everyone tell me their goals such as how many shows do they want to do a month. If they want to do 3 shows a month and hit their goal, they will get a pick from my basket at the meeting. The basket will have little things like paring knives, etc that they can use for give-aways. That way they are not totally overlooked at every single meeting.

What do you all think of that idea?

 

[finley1991]

I think the hardest part about figuring out any sort of recognition program is that it's based on OUR goals for them... not necessarily theirs. If someone's goal is to do 2 shows a month and they do that, they are successfully achieving *their* goals. We might think that's hardly working at all. That's why it's so important for us to find out what they want from this biz and reward them accordingly. JMHO.

 

[cmdtrgd]

Colleen - I don't know if you looked through mine, but I do have a place where they get recognition when they meet THEIR goal. The only stipulation is that I have to believe it is a bit of work, not just orders falling in their laps.

 

[finley1991]

Colleen - I don't know if you looked through mine, but I do have a place where they get recognition when they meet THEIR goal. The only stipulation is that I have to believe it is a bit of work, not just orders falling in their laps.

I agree Kate! They do have to *work*. Although, sometimes they don't get it!

SEMI-HIJACK BUT I HAVE A POINT: I was speaking with one of my consultants today who has been working her A$$ off to promote to director. She wants it so unbelievably bad! She's signed 2 in the last week! She's also activating one (one who signed a year ago and never did anything) and has another active. She is so excited to go to Leadership. She got her plane ticket knowing she'd be going but wasn't yet qualified to go when she bought it. Now she's going to Leadership with 4! YAY!!! When we were talking today, she said something so great: "There honestly were times that I thought about giving up on PC, but then I asked myself, 'how could I give up on something that I never really gave 100% to?' That's when my attitude changed." That blew me away! What a smart cookie!!!!!

It's amazing what happens when we really decide to *work!*