It is important to engage your employees and recognition is a very useful way of doing that.

1. Employee Engagement:
Reward & Recognition
Source: “Love’em or Lose’em”
By Kaye & Jordan-Evans

2. Group Exercise
Part 1
• Working individually, review the list of different forms
of non-monetary recognition which employees seek
from their manager.
• Identify the ones which matter most to you
Part 2
• Working in small groups, review the individual lists and
see if there is any similarities
Timing
5 mins individual work
10 mins small group work

3. Forms of non-monetary recognition
• An award, preferably given in • A chance to go to lunch with
front of my peers senior management
• A plaque to hang on my wall • An opportunity to work with
• A thank you, in writing, from my people from other parts of the
boss company
• A note to my boss’s boss about • A chance to be on one of the
my excellent performance important steering committees
• Frequent pats on the back • A promotion
• My boss actually implementing • A change in my title
one of my ideas • A small momento or gift
• A chance to be one a really • Some flexibility in my schedule
exciting, cutting-edge project • More freedom or autonomy
• A day off • A seminar or training class
• Words of praise in front of my
family

4. Exercise Debrief
• Many managers wrongly assume that
everyone likes or wants the same type of
rewards and recognition as themselves.
– Whilst one employee may feel rewarded by being
presented with a trophy at the annual conference,
another might be acutely embarrassed
Good managers take time to find out what type of
recognition works for the individuals in their teams

5. It wasn’t about the money really. Oh, sure, a
bonus would have been nice when I brought
that new client in or when I finished those
specs ahead of schedule. But a “thank you – I
noticed” would really have been appreciated

6. Money does play a part
• Pay fairly and pay • Challenge
competitively. • Growth opportunities
• But don’t stop there • Flexibility
• Research shows that • Great co-workers
money alone will not • Meaningful work
stop a person from
leaving. • Good boss
• Non-monetary
recognition

7. Detailed Praise
• Telling a member of staff
“You’re doing a great job!”
is not going to make them
want to stay.
• Praise can help a manager
retain an employee – but
only if it is detailed,
relevant and personal to
that individual

8. “Standard-Observed-Impact” Model
• The STANDARD is that client reports are
completed by the 5th of the month
• I have OBSERVED that you consistently
complete the reports ahead of the deadline
and to a high quality
• The IMPACT is that the front office staff
appreciate your support and have voiced this
to me on several occasions

9. Individual Exercise
• Use the Standard-Observed-Impact model to
devise some positive feedback for a member
of your team or a colleague in your team.
“so many otherwise able managers act as if compliments come
out of their bank accounts”
Warren Bennis, author / consultant

10. Pairs Exercise
Instructions
• Working in pairs:
• Round 1 – one person to act as the ‘manager’ and
use the prepared text to recognise the
‘employee’. The ‘employee’ in this exercise to
feedback to the manager how it felt
• Round 2 – swap roles
Timing
5 mins

11. Finessing the Standard-Observed-
Impact Model
• Rather than always starting positive feedback
with “the standard is ....” why not try an
alternative starting line:
– “You really made a difference by ...”
– “I’m impressed with ...”
– “You got my attention with ...”
– “You’re doing top quality work on ...”
– “We couldn’t have done it without your ...”

12. The line manager has a huge impact
• In a study in Incentive Magazine, 57% of
respondents indicated that they preferred to
be recognised by their immediate line
manager, compared to only 21 % who placed a
higher value on a presentation from the
company president.

13. Individual exercise
• Working individually, identify:
– Someone in your team who you will take to lunch (at
your expense) to show your appreciation for work
well done.
– Someone in your team who you will thank verbally in
private
– Someone in your team who you will thank verbally at
the next team meeting
– Someone in your team who you will thank via email
(perhaps copying in higher-level management)

14. Summary
• Session has identified that there are other
motivators than money
• Different people like to be recognised and
rewarded in different ways
• The standard-observed-impact model to
giving praise
• The line manager’s impact is huge – line
managers need to find ways to recognise their
direct reports