Incentive - November 2008 - (Page 16)

COVER STORY Tipton says his engagement survey in September 2007, five months after “Thirst for More” launched, showed an improvement of 8 to 10 percent year-over-year on the questions that involve the company’s efforts at recognition. “We’re trying to go deeper into it now to see if we can relate these improved scores to improved business results.” One way to do that will be to look at the locations that are doing a lot of ecards and spot rewards and see if their other numbers—turnover, productivity, sick days—can be correlated. Give Line Managers the Tools “If they really want to differentiate themselves [companies have] got to hire managers that get it, [and then] give them the tools,” says Clayton. Senior executives, managers and supervisors are all trained in how to do recognition events. “This … is something that has to be ingrained in your culture,” PBG’s Broderick says. “We’re focusing on it across the board … and building it into our core training with our leaders.” O.C. Tanner has helped both companies to ramp up their training. Tools include a private Web site that gives supervisors just-in-time training on what they might want to say to a person at a particular ceremony, says Smith. But that merely supplements formal training. “We’ve found that the supervisor or the manager is really the linchpin in this whole process. People leave jobs or stay primarily because of their relationship with their manager. Pepsi Bottling Group revamped its Retirement program so that all units recognize retirees with a painting, a deeply memorable award Measure and Improve Both PBG and PepsiAmericas have a commitment to continuous improvement and measuring results. PBG surveys program winners every quarter, so January, February and March winners got a survey card in April. In addition, says Broderick, the best presentations—whether for a service award or retirement—are entered each month in a “best practice” competition. “We’re trying to relate these improved scores to improved business results.” Some absolutely get it and are quick to praise and know exactly the right words to say,” says Smith. But many other variations exist, including some who never vocalize praise. –David Tipton, PepsiAmericas Neither company has ROI data on their programs at this point, although Tipton sees his by-location analysis, which he hopes to complete by the year’s end, as a move in that direction. Research by the Jackson Organization reported by Chester Elton, vice president of performance recognition at O.C. Tanner, in The Carrot Principle, shows that a culture of recognition boosts the bottom line significantly. Elton’s mantra is that recognition is an accelerator: By adding recognition you’re going to get enhanced rewards in terms of return on equity, operating margin and return on assets. “We’re starting with Chester’s research and we want to do our own correlation piece,” says Tipton. “We’re going to take the survey questions and bounce them against a bunch of other numbers to see what the relationships are. We think we know what we’re going to see, but we actually want to do the analysis ourselves as well.” He adds, “I don’t think [what we’ve got is] perfect. We’re continually trying to use it and improve it, and make sure people still find value in it.” Send comments to feedback@incentivemag.com 16 | Incentive | November 2008 | incentivemag.com http://www.incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - November 2008

Incentive - November 2008 Editor’s Note Headlines Cover Story: Pop, Fizz! Incentive Interview Cracking the Recognition Code Primer Travel News Canada, City Style Potentials Here and Now Cameras: Picture of Innovation The Spirit of Giving Advertiser Index Last Word

Incentive - November 2008

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