Practicing What We Preach: Terryberry Employees' Recently Recognized

As a leading provider of solutions that help our clients create “great places to work” we are often asked about our own internal recognition programs and their effectiveness. At Terryberry we take our belief in a balanced approach to recognition to heart and have a number of formal, informal and day-to-day initiatives that drive real value for us.

As the National Sales Manager for Terryberry, I’ll focus on the impact our initiatives have on our nationwide sales force. Keep in mind these folks work in any number of environments from single team member home based offices to larger regional offices with 6-8 team members.

Throughout the year we utilize Give-a-WOW, so a large and geographically diverse sales force maintains a ‘family’ feel. Daily, our sales force interacts with each other as well as local and national support staff to recognize their successes. When it comes to achievement, no woman or man is an island, and peer-to-peer and team recognition is critical in fostering higher levels of engagement and winning effort.

We also recognize with a significant travel incentive that drives a ton of excitement all year. It is a huge honor to earn our annual spring trip and the spirit of that event drives a great deal of internal competition that directly impacts our corporate success.

Our recent National Sales Meeting provided ample opportunities for both informal and formal recognition. We work to maximize a culture of recognition throughout this annual event. For example, we ask for high levels of sales team participation. It is a big deal for our team members to be invited to present in front of their peers and the pats-on-the-back they receive after leading an impactful session are gratifying. These sessions also directly impact our corporate success, so it is a true win-win. The creation of the Terryberry Flight Team this year allowed us the opportunity to recognize the achievements of our top performers. Flight Team members were flown in private planes for a life changing aerial tour of the Grand Canyon. For many of our folks this was their first time to see the Canyon! Finally, we split our sales team service awards and our sales team performance awards into two distinctly different events. This strategy allows us the time to fully recognize and personalize the process and maximize the impact.

Maybe the best thing we do is work to keep things fresh. The structure of our year is similar from one year to the next, so the more creative we can be, the higher levels of performance we can earn from our tremendous people.

- Bill Bergstrom, National Sales Manager

#WOWWED: It's WOW Wednesday

It's WOW Wednesday! HR leaders, execs, and managers: How do you WOW the people who go above and beyond for you in your business? Or, how have you been WOWed?

Today's WOW Wednesday idea comes from Kimberly. She says: "We have a cookout in the summer for all of our employees of the month recipients. They are allowed to bring a guest and gifts are given as well. Employees receive a gift from their supervisor at 1 and then 5 years of service increments." Share your own "WOW Wednesday" tip or story. Leave a comment here or post on www.facebook.com/TerryberryCompany or Twitter using hashtag #WOWWED. Make it a WOW day!

Social Networking and Employee/Employer Relations

by Colin Balas, Terryberry Chicago

Monster.com recently posted an article on Company Branding and Employee Social Networks in which the author describes how the development of social networks allows people (i.e. employees) to reach thousands of people in seconds. Like it or not, social media gives employees the ability to communicate on a large scale about their employers. How should employers respond? The author encourages businesses to look at it as an opportunity to build a "brand army."

"Consider this: If 100 of your employees posted something positive about your company right now, their message could potentially reach 13,000 social media users. That is significant leverage!"

Why not apply the same concept to your employee recognition programs? With social media now being second nature to so many people, the ability that companies have to break down the communication walls with their recognition efforts is out there. Not only can you create a new culture of recognition within the walls of work, but you can also reach family and friends by integrating an internal recognition program with Facebook and Twitter. From a corporate standpoint this is very appealing because to the outside audience (friends, family, followers) looking in, all this recognition is tied to the company's brand.

The advantages of merging social media and recognition within the workplace allows one message (i.e. wall post) to reach all employees. This unprecedented visibility can dramatically impact communication and understanding within a company. It opens up the doors into offices that some employees may never get to see. For instance a West Coast office can see all the positives in the East Coast office simply by viewing the company’s virtual recognition wall.

While some companies still fear social media when it comes to their corporate brand, others are embracing it. Ask yourself the question “Why have so many companies built a Facebook page?” It allows companies to let outsiders look in, through the use of photo galleries, status updates, blogs, and discussion pages. Through these efforts it’s the company’s hope that you, as the potential customer, will “Like” them (we all know the famous Facebook Like button). In a way it’s almost like they’re seeking recognition from the general public that they have something of quality to offer. It only makes sense that since companies seek and appreciate recognition through social media, their employees will too.

As the article described, Sodexo used an internal social media program to maintain a company culture where employees were proud to align themselves with the organization. Similar to what Sodexo did through their internal program, whenever you can reinforce your company brand / mission, vision, values through your recognition and engagement efforts, it allows employees to understand why these types of programs are in place and will better align their day to day objective with the company’s mission.

#WOWWED: It's Wow Wednesday

It's WOW Wednesday! HR leaders, execs, and managers: How do you WOW the people who go above and beyond for you in your business? Or, how have you been WOWed?

Today's WOW Wednesday idea comes from Bonnie. She says: "To make the presentation exciting, we ask some trivia questions about the recipient. Employees who guess right recieve a small gift, such as pens or pencils with our logo on it." Share your own "WOW Wednesday" tip or story. Leave a comment here or post on www.facebook.com/TerryberryCompany or Twitter using hashtag #WOWWED. Make it a WOW day!