🤓 values that stick & recognition that matters

✍🏾 How do I implement employee recognition programs that don’t feel patronizing to employees?

Context: I’m the new HR at an outdoor recreation company. The month before I started, the company announced that they would not be doing merit increases or bonuses for 2024 due to a 34% drop in profits. I’m trying to implement employee recognition programs for employees (monthly events, employee of the month, swag for bdays and anniversaries, etc) but I’ve gotten feedback that the efforts feel patronizing and that employees would rather have money than a ‘pizza party’. I’ve even tried giving uber eats/grocery/gas gifts cards as a part of recognition, but the employees are not into it. I’m not sure what to do, because the employee sentiments are valid but the c-suite is not interested in reallocating/revaluating our events & recognition budget.

📣 Dani Herrera, Talent and DEI Consultant @ DEI by Dani:

It sounds counterintuitive, but if your C-Suite is determined to not reallocate the budget they have, your best bet may be to let their plan fail. If you do annual engagement surveys, the scores will drop significantly, and sometimes leaders listen to those numbers more than ad hoc feedback, valid as it may be. You can also try presenting the information back to the C-Suite in numbers they’ll understand: by not spending money on salary increases now, they’ll need to spend it later on rehiring and training when talented folks move on.

In terms of responding to the employees, the best advice I have is to be as transparent as possible without throwing anyone under the bus. If you have updated comp bands and employee pay is still falling within those bands, you can be more transparent with that data. You can also highlight other benefits your company offers, but the reality is that it still may not be enough for some individuals if the only thing that will make them feel appreciated is an increase in compensation.

📣 Lia Seth, Director of People @ Cylinder Health:

I second Dani’s opinion here. It’s essential to lead with transparency.

It sounds like they are asking why you are asking for demographic information. It’s also important to know your organization’s stance here so that whatever you share is supported should you continue to see pushback.

As People and Culture/HR Folks, our worlds around DEI will become more complex under this current administration.

📣 Rachel Booth, People Partner @ Flawless:

For this one I would direct you towards hosting some small (safe) focus groups. I think one way we easily fail here, when our hearts are in all the right places, is when we make any kind of assumption of what kind of recognition our employees want. It’s even great to reach out to our community, as you have! However, even someone like myself does not have the data or experience of your company culture and inner workings to give you the answer that will best work for you here. 

As we know, no two companies are alike and every human within those organizations has completely different wants and needs based on their own intrinsic motivators. For this reason, hosting focus groups with selected employees you know will give honest, respectful and constructive feedback and ideas will help you support engagement efforts based on what your specific employees ACTUALLY want. Use the time in these focus groups to build trust with them by being honest about the situation: ie. “Due to % profit drop, we are left with x resources to allocate towards engagement and recognition – if you were the company, how would you want us to show our deep appreciation for you given the situation we are currently in.” Right there you have now killed two birds with one stone by building trust with your employees with transparency and respect by valuing their opinion and operating based on what their actual wants are.

Have you heard of the People approach: People as a Product? Myself and my team are passionately operating against these principles and it really helps to make sure you are gathering data, testing, iterating, supporting feedback, and building people products that your employees actually find value in and would give their energy willingly to. I would recommend you look into this concept to help to combat your current and future issues!

📣 Will Pang, SVP, Finance & People @ Sharebite:

I’ll echo what others have said: there is no one good answer, because everyone wants something different.

I’ll also add: it’s okay to give it some time. One thing I’ve seen at other orgs is that it’s a quick downward spiral when there’s the combination of bad news, followed by a mitigating effort, followed by bad reception, followed by more mitigating effort, followed by more bad reception. At some point, people will just be upset because that’s their expectation.

Give it some time. Come back in a quarter or two and try again. There’s nothing worse than “forced” culture. People smell that a mile away.

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✍🏾 Are company values still landing with employees and leaders? Is there any new approach?

Context: AdTech company that just acquired another company, moving from 200 employees to 500 employees. Trying to integrate our cultures into one company culture.

📣 Karen Wood, Human Resource Department Manager @ United Consulting:

In my current company, yes, company values are VERY important to employees and leaders. I always say, values start at the top. If a leader leans into the values and behaves in alignment with those values, it creates a culture where everyone begins to lean into those values. If the leader doesn’t, and says to behave a certain way and they don’t, then that demoralizes employees (why even try?).

It is reflected in our hiring process and retaining process. If they are competent on paper but do not align with our values, (after meeting them in person), we do not issue an offer. Values are based on repeated behaviors over time (when we ask an interviewee a question, we get a picture of what their values are; how they handle situations).

In your context of acquisition, I would have an open, honest conversation with the leaders about what the company’s values are and compare them to the acquired firm’s values. Which values are the same? Which ones are different? They need to reconcile them and then inform all staff of what the values are in this company moving forward, any questions, ask HR or the leaders.

It will become obvious when people don’t align with the espoused values and behaviors; they will either leave on their own accord or will be terminated. I was part of a very distinct culture of 15 people that was acquired into a 40+ person firm that contrasted with our culture. There was no effort to combine the two distinct cultures, which still 4 years later, there is still a bit of a difference (I am no longer at this company).

Good luck!! It can be done; it just needs to be intentional and have honest conversations around it.

📣 Amanda Small, VP People & Culture @ Nest Wealth Asset Management:

Following an acquisition I think part of the PMI plan should be a re-focus or re-engagement with values. Lived values are a game changer when they are embedded in Talent Management and Talent Acquisition. Plus, a very important part of the employer value prop.

Following our acquisition we had a leadership discussion regarding combining company values and focused on the “pillars” – what are the most important behaviours to our collective success? We pushed it back out to the company for buy-in through a “tiger team” of folks from different levels of the business to talk about the pillars of success (our values) and then come up with behaviours that built up those pillars.

Then we took that in a feedback form to the whole company and got lots of input. This way it was community focused and if people wanted to participate in adding value they could.

After this process we added our values pillars to all the things: talent assessments, candidate evaluations, perf reviews, and we also have an R&R program focused on rewarding and recognizing values categories. Make it fun and let folks be part of the process!

📣 Michelle Willis, HR Director @ Apparel Impact Institute :

I’ve found they land with employees when they’re actually modeled – and have the opposite effect when they’re not.

I’ve also found they work best and are most effective when employees are involved in their creation and they’re weaved into everything (performance evals, recognition programs etc.)

They’re least effective, and even demotivating, when they’re made by senior leadership, put up on a pretty poster and never talked about again (and usually not modeled by anyone).

I would find a way to make employees involved in their creation, you always get more buy-in that way. I realize with larger companies, especially one doubling in size, that can be harder, but maybe some kind of poll/vote/survey on what is most important to employees in their workplace values (integrity, passion etc.) and then being transparent with responses and how they shaped the value creation when you roll them out.

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