Peer-to-Peer Employee Recognition Video

If you do not already subscribe to our e-Newsletter you may not have seen our latest video about peer-to-peer employee recognition and the Give a WOW! solution. Watch it below, and feel free to leave any comments or questions on this new program offering from Terryberry.

How Mickey Makes Magic

I just finished reading a great article about Disney's employee recognition system, HOW MICKEY MAKES MAGIC by Melinda Ligos of Success Promotions Magazine. The article talks about the importance that Disney places on employee recognition and quotes Disney Institute Facilitator, Tom Madden as saying, "Even when we're cutting budgets employee recognition is something we don't touch." That type of expression is something we've seen a lot of during the last year.

The writing highlights some great practical examples of how different Disney managers have put their mark on their personal recognition initiatives and the various tools their managers use to foster that culture of recognition like recognition tool kits which appear to be similar to Terryberry's Recognize Me Presentation Packs.

Ligos' article is another great example of how a successful organization uses recognition on a daily basis to engage their people. The Recognition 101 section at the end of piece emphasizes five key areas of their recognition strategy which includes encouraging peer-to-peer recognition. This is a trend we see the marketplace echoing as interest in our online peer-to-peer program, GiveAWow.com, grows every week.

How Mickey Makes Magic is a nice employee recognition yardstick for most businesses.

No more "Employees of the Month"

One of the emerging themes that we are seeing from our employee recognition clients throughout North America is a shift from traditional manager only nomination schemes. Businesses are doing away with initiatives that could be viewed forever as "favoritism" or talked about as "it's your turn to get recognized this month."

In order to address this organizations shifting away from processes that single out an individual, such as "Employee of the Month" and moving towards more open-ended programs that allow multiple employees to be recognized when goals are reached. The objectives is to insure that more team members are eligible for recognition and in order to be truly effective recognition needs to reach as many people as possible not just a select group of high achievers.

The results have been encouraging in building employee engagement. To add another level excitement consider offering a peer nomination process.

Nice Catch

We recently heard about a great informal peer to peer recognition program being used by a company in Mentor, Ohio. This manufacturing facility was looking to encourage employees to catch fellow workers doing extraordinary things and was charged with finding a way recognize these actions.

The program they developed, the NICE CATCH award, started when Human Resources and other company leaders initially saw an employee doing something above and beyond their normal responsibility. The awarded would be presented with a full-size football and a Sharpie marker. The recipient would sign the ball and then it became their responsibility to "catch" fellow employee. When they were able to locate the individual, the football and marker would be passed along for signature and of course, it became the next recipient's job to locate the next winner.

The program took off very nicely and the business had 8-10 footballs in circulation at any given time. When a ball was covered with names it would be retired to a display case near the door where employees entered the building. In the display case the balls were supported by tees that were signed by the company's leadership to symbolize the fact that management supports the program and the employees.

The feedback from company leadership has been very positive. They feel they've developed a traveling trophy that acts as continual reminder to employees about what the company values and how great catches happen every day!