Incentive - December 2008 - (Page 30) CASE STUDY Traders from Black River Asset Management, a global asset management firm that is an independently managed subsidiary of Cargill Cargill’s Course Is Set With engaged employees helping it diversify and grow, Cargill seeks to be a global leader in nourishing people By Andrea Doyle T he chief recognition officer at Cargill Inc., a food and agricultural company based in Minneapolis, goes to work each day and thinks about the best ways to recognize the contributions of 160,000 employees in 67 countries. While that might seem extremely challenging, it actually comes down to simple ideas. For example, one thing Bill Buckner, who holds that position, has discovered is that common courtesy and respect have to be built into any recognition program. “Without the foundation of common courtesy and respect day-to-day, the informal gestures, like writing a note or giving a team member a high five, can seem disingenuous and cause a lack of overall credibility,” Buckner says. Incentive Cargill, a diverse company with more than 70 businesses, is on a recognition journey, says Buckner, who has been chief recognition officer since 2002. “It’s like a marathon; we’re not at 26.2 miles yet, but we are moving ahead. We will continue on our marathon to achieve a goal of enhancing high performance by growing our global culture of recognition. We’ve set the course and know where we need to go, but we have a lot of work to do,” he says. “We need to be consistent in our deployment of recognition both individually and organizationally. We are just scratching the surface of appreciating the cultural differences and how they affect our recognition programs.” Buckner is one of six senior executives overseeing strategy. They work with a global recognition steering team. Six years into the PROFILE: Cargill Inc. Industry: Food and Agricultural Challenge: To motivate 160,000 employees in 67 countries in more than 70 businesses Solution: Create a global recognition steering team and a formal recognition program ROI: Cargill’s fifth completed employee engagement survey, translated into 22 languages for employees around the globe, showed a 14 percentage point increase in employee engagement over the past five cycles of assessment. 30 | | December 2008 | incentivemag.com http://www.incentivemag.com
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