Companies are turning to employee recognition as an internal strategy to boost employee engagement and positively impact such metrics as productivity, ROA, ROE, and retention of both employees and customers. For example, companies that have a formal strategic recognition program in place had a voluntary turnover rate (i.e. people choosing to leave) of 14%, vs.…
They’re either disengaged or under engaged in their work but they very much intend to stay with their current employer for a long time. This is what a new study by Modern Survey revealed. For government workers, 80% were less than engaged but 60% plan to stay. Not like the private sector, you say? Well,…
I left the world of compliance consulting for a career in incentive consulting because I was tired of management by consequence. For years, I have stood fast by the premise that there are two ways to manage employees: By the bench or by the basket If you manage your players by fear, they will do…
First there was Maslow who created an avenue to employee benefits, then Employee Rewards, and more recently Employee Engagement. Today, Culture seems to be the buzz word. We are consistently evolving employee rights into human improvement strategy. The fluff is gone and even kindness has an ROI metric: ~ Does a rewards strategy cheapen the…
The Ables are not just a family from Oklahoma. They are the functions of what empowers talent in your organization. I was conducting a thorough organizational assessment for a large company recently. One of the organization’s leaders explained to me that she did not have the luxury of examining every area of her organization. There…
I am always asked what makes a great leader. We are all different. Some people have exceptional product knowledge while others know how to fill in strategy gaps. There are those who inspire their team and others who keep their team honest. While every individual has their distinct areas of expertise, there is a method…
Edgar Schein, a titan of the field of organizational development, says in his recent book, Helping, that there are four questions on the minds of new members of any team. While these concerns operate at a subconscious level, nevertheless, any team member must become comfortable with the answers before he or she can relax and…
The CEO prowled the stage like a panther. He had total control of PowerPoint, was animated in sharing his experience and made the thousands in the conference hall feel as if he was speaking directly to them. The team left the keynote feeling inspired to produce great things, confident in their decision of joining the…
City councils, boards of administrators and other governing systems demand a performance management framework that focuses on what outcomes employees will achieve, and how success is going to be measured. This tool reveals how to construct an integrated performance management framework that takes into account the many different functions which a city or a county…
This tool is useful for visualizing the steps in a typical strategic planning process, from the initial environmental scan to the narrowing of strategies and developing of related performance targets. Managers and leaders can use this tool to communicate their planning process to other managers, employees, board members and other stakeholders. This tool is best used…
People with a strong business and entrepreneurial sense are always praising the merits of focusing. They focus on their strategic priorities. They focus on the numbers, benchmarking wherever it makes sense. They focus on the company’s core values, unique selling proposition, and so on. They do so because it is the best way to optimize…
I worked recently with the Board of Directors of a large public power company. They needed stronger governance systems. I mentioned how efficient boards operate. I broke down our approach. “With our framework,” I told them, “the board expresses exactly what it wants the organization to achieve in the form of policies. By defining what…
When people ask me to describe our change management model at LRI, I tell them it boils down to three principles. Principle number one: Focus on the first five percent. To guarantee a successful outcome you must gather champions, set expectations, how extensively you engage stakeholders, and how well you paint a picture for people…