Incentive - January 2009 - (Page 39)

efforts will damage your employer-employee relationship to the brink of putting your entire recognition system in jeopardy. Tighter budgets generally mean your top performers will be under increasing demands, and that, by and large, means longer hours. Very soon, responsibilities at work added to responsibilities at home leave them feeling overwhelmed. An overwhelmed employee will quickly begin feeling overworked. And overworked employees disengage. To assuage this stress, a solid employee recognition program can and will help. One idea during these difficult times is to offer a one-hour time-management workshop that focuses on mastering daily tasks, assignments and projects. Do this over a lunch hour and provide the food. It will be well worth the money spent, and they’ll see that you recognize the extra time and energy they are giving, and that you are making an effort to help ease their burden. Drastic change is needed to turn this economy around. “Change and Flexibility” Program award is given to an organization whose recognition programs are outstanding on an overall basis. Seven RPI Best in Class awards are given to organizations to recognize programs that are outstanding in one specific standard area. The seven RPI Best Practice Standards are: 1. Recognition Strategy 2. Management Responsibility 3. Recognition Program Measurement 4. Communication Plan 5. Recognition Training 6. Recognition Events and Celebrations 7. Program Change and Flexibility Time for Change and Flexibility As business and staff changes arise, your recognition program must continue to be extremely flexible. RPI 2008 Best In Class recipient for Program Change and Flexibility, Scotiabank, offers employees an open arena to suggest areas for improvement, by asking them to leave voice messages for their Scotia Applause recog- headquarters call center feedback and management meeting feedback (regular group touch-base meetings with branch managers). On the Spot Reporting To provide faster turnaround times on various program engagement information requests, an online query utility was developed that allows the Scotia Applause team to perform a wide range of data pulls and ad hoc participant data reports on the spot. This utility has resulted in an annual cost savings of $40,000 for the bank. “If the recognition program is effectively executed, it becomes an important factor in recruitment, motivation and retention strategies,” says Yvette Bryan, the bank’s director of employee recognition and motivation. “When employees see that their contributions are important, valued and recognized, they are more likely to embrace the organization’s core purpose and corporate goals. A culture of recognition leads to long-term benefits and gives a company a competitive edge in the marketplace. Moreover, research continues to show that, directionally, there is a correlation between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and financial results.” Your organization can thrive and even grow during these hard times with the help of your industrious and hardworking employees. Your employees are on the front line. Listen to their suggestions. Implement their cost-saving ideas. Change is not easy, but we’re all in this together. By safeguarding your most valuable asset—your employees—your organization can come out of this economic downturn on top. I For a look at Scotiabank’s broader recognition policies, see the July 2008 Motivation @ Work column visit: “An overwhelmed employee will quickly begin feeling overworked.” is also one of the seven Best Practice Standards upheld by Recognition Professionals International (RPI). These standards provide guidance for the creation and maintenance of a recognition system, and for independent evaluation of any system for best-practice rating and/or benchmarking. The standards have been designed to be useful in the public and private sectors, large and small organizations, and organizations with single or multiple locations or functions. Every year, RPI, a not-for-profit trade association, selects award recipients who excel in one or more of the seven RPI Best Practice Standards of recognition program excellence. One Best Overall Recognition nition program team members. In 2007, employees submitted 5,743 messages. Scotiabank also encourages employees to share their ideas on ways to support business success through their Ideas in Action program. First launched in 1967, this program rewards employees with tiered monetary awards for submitting suggestions that, when implemented, result in cost savings or other benefits to the bank. In the last fiscal year, employees submitted 2,951 ideas. The ideas that were implemented generated $101,473 in savings to the bank. Other key utilities for evaluating recognition program elements at Scotiabank include: Best of the Best surveys (a formal employee survey), employee panel surveys, Applause INCENTIVEMAG.COM/ SCOTIABANKRECOGNITION incentivemag.com | January 2009 | Incentive | 39 http://www.INCENTIVEMAG.COM/scotiabankrecognition http://www.INCENTIVEMAG.COM/scotiabankrecognition http://www.incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - January 2009

Incentive - January 2009 Contents Editor's Note: Rewards Must Be Sustainable Headlines Cover Story: Responsibility's New Role Incentive Interview: Patrick Lencioni Family Rewards: Who They're Working For Primer: Working Design Leap of Faith: Religion in the Workplace Cook Up Engagement: Kitchen Teambuilding My Turn: Procurement Possibilities Motivation@Work: Hard Times Recognition Legal Ease: The Tax Facts on Corporate Gifts Travel News: Where to Go and What to Do The Bahamas: Islands in the Sun Field Reports: Four European Destinations Golf: Around the World in 18 Holes Potentials Here and Now Watches and Clocks: Strike the Pose Golf Merchandise: Awards with a Solid Swing Computers: Digital Delights Retailers Band Together for Gift Card Market Gift Cards: The Prepaid Reward Spectrum Advertiser Index On the Web www.Incentivemag.com

Incentive - January 2009

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