Engagement & Motivation

The idea of planning, implementing, and monitoring an employee recognition process may seem daunting at first, however, that doesn’t have to be the case. It’s the combination of knowing what makes your employees tick and aligning employees' engagement with your organization's values and goals. 

Here at Qarrot, we believe that incentive campaigns are a staple when it comes to driving results from a rewards and recognition program. Whether they’re crafted to motivate employees to achieve goals or complete tasks, incentive campaigns can tailor any recognition process to fit your team's unique needs. Qarrot makes motivating improved performance with campaigns easy - from our fun gamification features to effortless campaign administration. Our campaigns feature customizable badges and awards, further reinforcing your company's core values and culture.  

Related Article : Customize your rewards and recognition program with Qarrot 

Manual vs. Automatic Campaigns 

When creating incentive campaigns within Qarrot, users have the choice between two types of campaigns - automatic or manual. It will ultimately depend on how you would like awards to be paid out to the participants of your incentive campaign. 

If you select 'Automatic', the campaign will let participating employees enter their results data. If an employee's results meet the award rules you set up, then the corresponding badges and points will be given to them. 

If you choose “Automatic’, then you need to decide what awards (points and/or badges) will be given to participating employees for accomplishing the campaign goals, KPIs, or targets. Awards can be given in three ways :

• Ongoing earn : Employees can earn awards throughout the campaign
• Threshold bonus : Employees can earn awards when a specific threshold is achieved within the campaign timeframe 
• Winner takes all : Like a contest, this format rewards one top performer at the end of the campaign 

Alternatively, if you select 'Manual', then you will have to create the award(s) and decide who deserves to be given the award(s) during, or at the end of, the campaign. You can give employees awards any time by closing the campaign and selecting winners.

Related Article : Dell Technologies cuts admin tasks by more than half with Qarrot 

Whether you’re new to creating objective-driven campaigns or just looking for some fresh ideas, we’ve got you covered. From customer support to employee development, you can create customized campaigns for just about anything - here’s some inspiration to help you get started!  

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has received a 5-star review in the last 30 days.

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for receiving a 5-star review.

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when participants have accumulated ten 5-star reviews.

Winner Takes All : The employee/team with the most 5-star reviews wins. 

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Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has completed one training/development course in the last 30 days. 

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for completing one training/development course.

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when every participant has completed one training/development course.

Winner Takes All : The employee/team with the most training/development courses completed wins.

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has attended a company yoga class. 

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for attending a company yoga class. 

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when every participant has attended a company yoga class. 

Winner Takes All : The employee/team that attends the most company yoga classes wins. 

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has closed a new deal in the last 30 days. 

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for each new deal closed. 

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when every participant closes a new deal.

Winner Takes All : The employee/team with the most new deals closed wins. 

Example Manual Campaign : At the end of the campaign, you manually award every employee who has completed all tasks on time in the last 30 days. 

Example Automatic Campaign; 

Ongoing : Every employee can earn an award for completing all tasks on time.

Threshold : The whole team is rewarded when every participant has completed all tasks on time.

Winner Takes All : The employee/team with the most tasks completed on time wins. 

These campaign examples, and their corresponding rules for award distribution, depend on campaign format (individual vs. team), units tracked, and how results are recorded (employees vs. manager). To learn more about incentive campaigns and how your team can benefit from some friendly competition, visit the Qarrot help centre.  

Discover how you can align employee engagement with your organizations core values - book a demo with Qarrot today!

Sometimes - no matter how many hours of sleep we squeeze in or cups of coffee we guzzle - going to work seems like an impossible, insurmountable task. We push through the morning fatigue to slug our way through daily tasks and meetings, absolutely exhausted by 5pm, only to realize our day wasn't that productive. We’ll shrug this off as “one of those days”, and look forward to starting fresh the next morning.

But what if that feeling isn’t a one-off - what if you, or members of your team, are constantly feeling like a candle burning at both ends? Employee burnout is a real thing and it can happen to anyone. 

Many of us will be quick to point the blame on ourselves, second-guessing our ability to handle the stressors at work on top of the unexpected curve balls life can sometimes throw. More often than not, however, the culprit behind employee burnout is how leaders are running their organization rather than the capability of an individual. 

Employee burnout has been around long before our current COVID-19 reality, but tossing a global pandemic into the mix certainly doesn’t help. In addition to the stress and uncertainty brought on by these unforeseen circumstances, organizations have been forced to rethink their approach to employee health and wellbeing. Don’t be fooled - employees can still experience burnout while working remotely from the comforts of home. 

Related Article: The Cost of Poor Employee Engagement 

Based on research conducted by Gallup, there are 5 main factors that contribute to employee burnout; 

1. Unfair treatment at work 
2. Unmanageable workload 
3. Lack in clarity of role 
4. Lack of communications and support for manager 
5. Unreasonable pressure 

Signs & signals of potential burnout

The best tactic when it comes to combating burnout is being knowledgeable on warning signs and acting proactively. While it may be trickier to detect these while working remotely, the earlier you can spot these signs the better. 

• Withdrawal from social activities, group calls, or messaging 
• Lower productivity and efficiency than usual, trouble managing time  
• Easily distracted and unable to focus on specific tasks 
• Frequently using paid time off and sick leave 
• Easily frustrated or overwhelmed 

It is crucial that leaders recognize how detrimental employee burnout can be to an organization as a whole. People are a company's biggest asset, and when that employee morale or drive is lost it won’t take long before it’s reflected in the success of your business. But beyond dollars and cents, routinely burning out employees is not great for the reputation of a company. More burnout means more turnover, which not only costs money and time but can also suggest a toxic culture.   

Related Article: How to Reward Wellness at Work 

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Strategies to overcome burnout 

1) Make self-care part of the routine

This pandemic has been the kick in pants a lot of companies needed to make their people a priority. Practicing human empathy is a large part of supporting your team - pandemic or not. Encourage your remote employees to take breaks throughout the day to destress and regroup whether that means an extra coffee break, meditation, or afternoon walk. Even more, collectively brainstorm strategies for practicing self-care so everyone is on the same page and can identify potential stress signals if/when they occur. 

2) Implement various channels for feedback & communication

Although there is no substitute for face to face interaction, we will be conducting business virtually for the foreseeable future - so embrace it. Ensure your team has a variety of different methods to stay in touch, and don’t neglect to have regular one-on-one check-in with team members - they are more important now than ever. This is also a great opportunity to adopt collaborative tools and applications if your organization has yet to do so. Encouraging transparent and consistently open communication is always a great investment. 

3) Put people first 

The unfortunate reality of employee burnout is that it usually isn’t recognized until someone already has one foot out the door (that is if they haven’t completely left). Question how your team approaches work, their accessibility of resources, and work relationship dynamics. Are your employees feeling supported? Are you investing in your team like you would any other asset of your organization? Prioritizing the wellbeing of your remote employees will only improve productivity and engagement, and in turn, your bottom line. 

Discover how you can strengthen workplace culture with Qarrot - book a demo today!  

Employee motivation is an incredibly powerful driver of performance in any organization. Whether you’re focused on improving productivity, boosting performance, or increasing retention, employee motivation will no doubt be central to your considerations. And yet, it’s tough to effectively manage and most days can feel equal parts art and science.

Management training usually provides helpful frameworks for areas such as effective communication, performance management, and how to manage different types of people. But all too often, the actions and behaviors that deflate employees the most result from simple oversight or a lack of consideration.

With that in mind, here are 6 mistakes that can kill your employees’ motivation:

Unrealistic goal setting

Do you work in a high-pressure environment that promotes tough goal setting? If so, it can be tempting to set unrealistically difficult goals for employees. While goals should be challenging to achieve, employees won’t buy into them if they’re not realistic. If left unchecked, a lack of buy-in can easily transform into demotivation and active disengagement. Similarly, this type of goal setting can impact a person’s physical and emotional health causing deeper issues within your team long term.

Tolerating poor performance

There's nothing more demotivating for your hard-working staff than to see the poor performance of someone else being tolerated. In fact, poor performance often has a double whammy for managers. When one team member doesn’t pull his weight, other team members often have to step up and do more than their share. This causes resentment but can equally leave those stronger contributors questioning their manager’s competence. A bad situation, no doubt about it.

Letting accomplishments go unrecognized

Recognition is a powerful motivational tool. And yet, it’s an unfortunate reality that so many employee achievements and contributions go unrecognized. All too often, the fast-paced nature of our work has us forget to communicate our appreciation to a team member or a co-worker for a job well done. This can leave employees feeling under-appreciated and taken for granted. This is a horrible feeling and a very powerful demotivator for those affected by it.

Lack of trust

Trust is built over time. But generally, when a new employee joins the team that period is the first 3 to 6 months on the job. As trust is built between the new employee and her manager and teammates, she should be given progressively more responsibility.

In theory, at least.

Sometimes a mistake occurs that puts that trust into question, and sometimes the manager is simply overbearing and not willing to delegate tasks that the employee is clearly ready to handle. Either way, a lack of trust is a very visible signal to the employee that her manager is not comfortable giving her more responsibility. This can be incredibly frustrating and deflating for individuals in this position. Moreover, if the manager handles tasks that should be done by the employee, then additional tension is created and serious demotivation ensues.

No team bonding or workplace fun

While a lack of workplace fun is not considered an egregious managerial oversight in our books, we feel strongly that opportunities for team bonding should be encouraged.

Not only does team building bring people together outside of their regular work context, but it also opens the door for better communication and collaboration. Organizations that rigidly ignore these practices often have siloed structures where poor communication and a lack of collaboration stifle innovation. Not very motivating.

Micromanaging

Micromanaging is a symptom of a lack of trust. The manager is simply not comfortable letting the employee execute the task himself and involves herself overwhelmingly in the process to ensure it’s completed to her satisfaction. The short-term result may be a higher-quality deliverable, but longer-term, the employee won’t feel trusted and valued. As with any lack of trust, tension can also build between the employee and his manager leading to a deteriorating relationship and disastrously poor motivation.

While some of these motivation-killers can be due to a lack of managerial training, often it’s more of a question of open communication between managers and their employees.

Actively communicating with staff and inviting their feedback is a great place to start. Most direct reports won’t be shy to let you know if something’s bothering them. By openly and actively listening to them, you’ll learn what steps may be required to address the situation and stave off a larger motivational issue.

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Don't let these 6 common mistakes kill your employee motivation: book a demo of Qarrot to see how we can help you engage and motivate your workforce to go “above and beyond”!

Motivate employees to do their best work has benefits for both the company and its workforce. For the organization the benefits are obvious, higher revenue, lower turnover, improved product quality, and so on. For the employee, the benefits are less quantifiable but we know that motivated employees feel valued, and employees who feel valued are more engaged with their work.

What motivates an employee to go the "extra mile?"

That seems to be a question that often perplexes business owners, management and stakeholders. A survey conducted on key trends impacting the workplace asked that very question. “What motivates you to excel and go the extra mile at your organization?” The survey involved over 200,000 employees in more than 500 organizations.

What did they determine to be the top motivators? Camaraderie, peer motivation, inherent desire to do a good job, and feeling encouraged and recognized. While, of course, money and benefits are important, this suggests that working in a particular environment has greater impact.

So what can we do that can make a huge impact on motivating your employees?

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Reduce workplace stress

Stress on the job and unhealthy work environments are not conducive to anybody’s desire to do a better job. It is essential for employers to recognize the connection between employee well-being and overall organizational performance. You can lower stress in your workplace a number of ways, including setting clear goals and roles, encouraging a culture of wellbeing, and through clear, candid communication.

Give them time off

Giving employees extra time off is a small gesture that goes a long way. According to Entrepreneur, it is the secret to increased productivity. Why? Good employees will simply “run out of juice” and require a little R&R from time to time. Giving them the time they need to recharge their batteries will have them operating at their best in no time.

Give them feedback

Most employees want to be recognized, to achieve this recognition they need feedback. Effective feedback motivates the employee to improve their job performance. It’s suggested to offer feedback regularly and not just at annual performance reviews. Annual conversations about past activities are not sufficient enough to motivate future productivity.

Host a company event

A corporate event is one way you can motivate employees. Company events are much more than just a chance for employees to gather. They are a great way to show them you appreciate their hard work. Whether you have an awards ceremony, a dinner, a summer picnic, or a holiday party, it doesn’t matter. Your corporate event can improve company culture, boost company morale and award your employees for a job well done.

Celebrate milestones and recognize achievements

Celebrating Milestones, such as work anniversaries and birthdays, and recognizing achievements help employees feel appreciated. Whether with cupcakes, balloons and banners or a more formalized rewards program, recognizing employees on milestone dates or for their achievements strengthens workplace culture helping to make your business a better place to work.

If you’re a business owner, manager or supervisor, you know how important it is to have a workforce that is motivated. Research shows that motivated employees tend to be far more productive than those who are not.

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At Qarrot, we understand Motivation

Motivate your team, company, or department to perform with full-circle employee recognition. With the help of our software, we can assist you in building a culture of thank you, improve morale, bring employees together and strengthen workplace culture.

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If you want to learn more about how Qarrot can work for you, book a demo! We’ll show you how to engage and motivate your workforce to go “above and beyond".

Engaged and motivated employees help customers, take pride in your organization, and improve sales as a result. They are connected to your overall business goals, embody the culture you encourage and become excellent ambassadors for the future success of your company.

So, what makes an employee motivated and engaged? Hiring the right employees is a great start, but once you’ve got people working on your team you’ll need to make the right efforts to create a positive motivating environment for them to work in. To do this you have to understand what motivates employees, and what employee engagement really is.

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Here are the top workplace motivators according to the Harvard Business Review

Role design

Every company is different, and there is no set formula for determining the appropriate design for your organization. Better designed roles help employers make the best use of top talent but also clarifies responsibilities to workers. Less confusion leads to higher performance.

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Organizational identity

This is all about your company culture and business objectives. A full-time employee working 40 hours a week will spend about 30% of their waking hours at work. Who wants to spend that amount of time at a place that is tiresome, or worse, toxic?

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Career ladders

We’re not surprised that opportunities for advancement made it so high on the list. As noted previously, why would an employee want to spend so much time at a job that had no opportunity for promotion?

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Community

Even without redesigning business processes, managers can help the overall motivation of their employees by encouraging better peer-to-peer, and manager-to-employee relationships.  Building trust amongst employees, providing opportunities for feedback, explaining the “why” behind the work of employees, are all ways in which community can grow.

When these top workplace motivators are working together, you’re much more likely to have a highly engaged and performant workforce.

According to a Gallup study, the businesses with engaged employees were 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than the businesses in the study with disengaged employees.

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How recognition can further turbo-charge employee engagement

In a recent survey conducted by Interac and their 1000+ employees, it was discovered that their number one complaint, regarding motivation, came down to a lack of appreciation from their managers. Not the job, or the hours they worked, not even the pay that they received for their performance, but the simple lack of recognition for a job well done discouraged them from doing their best work. The same study goes on to show that when managers recognized employees’ contributions, their engagement level increases by 60%.

Employee recognition programs have forever been on the radar of large corporations as a tool to foster employee engagement, but what about small businesses? Can they benefit from recognition programs and encourage motivation and engagement to increase productivity and profitability as well?

Of course, they can!

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Here are 3 way in which a small business can use recognition to motivate and engage their workforce

Character Awards

My son’s school uses monthly character awards to reward children who embody character traits of value in the school’s code of conduct. Small businesses can adopt this concept by choosing character traits that promote behaviors that foster a better company culture. This is similar to the Employee of the Month concept, but goes one step further. Not only will you encourage better behavior through recognition of positive behavioral traits, but if you include a peer voting system you could promote better business relationships as well.  Taking the opportunity to reinforce your company’s core values by tying a monthly recognition award is a win-win for everybody.

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Gamification

This concept sounds way more complicated than it is. Gamification of business processes, specifically routine tasks, can help motivate through friendly competition and boost the idea of community amongst your employees. Think of this as a real-life game where people receive rewards for hitting milestones. The milestones people achieve, as well as the rewards themselves, can be anything you want. Consider awarding badges (buttons, metals, stickers) for hitting sales quotas that employees can turn in at the end of the month for a prize! Or award trophies to top performers at the end of each week who are recognized at a luncheon or ceremony at the end of the month. The sky’s the limit here, but understanding the core motivators above can help you design games that will not only motivate and engage but also encourage performance.

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Express Gratitude

A simple thank you can go a long way to motivating people to do their best work. When we focusing on “why” in gratitude we can also help connect employees’ achievements to the overall organizational success. For example, after a good sales month, a company may host a gratitude meeting where management, not only thanks the workforce for their job well done, but includes the reason why they are thankful. It’s possible that by increasing sales that month they were able to meet a higher objective, or expand opportunities. By expressing gratitude to the employees, and linking their achievement to the goals achieved, it allows the employees to understand the value that their performance brought to the company as a whole. Everybody wants to feel that what they are doing offers value. Gratitude is the quickest, and simplest way to show that.

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In conclusion

When you understand how to motivate your employees and the reasons why recognition is so important for better employee engagement you have the tools necessary to make real decisions on the design of your rewards and recognition programs moving forward. Use these ideas provided, or come up with your own! Rewards and recognition are as unique as your business is, and the people in it.

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Let us help you promote a culture of thank you, a culture of appreciation, and encourage company success through gamification with our recognition software.  Motivate your team to perform with Qarrot. Book your demo today.

Recruiting, onboarding and training is an expensive endeavor for all those involved. Some studies predict that the cost of employee turnover can be as high as twice the annual salary of the employee, depending on their role. When you lose an employee, you lose their knowledge and talent, plus your organizations' productivity can suffer from the loss. So how do you reduce turnover? By developing and implementing an employee retention strategy.

Building A Retention Strategy

An employee retention strategy will never entirely stop employees from leaving your company as a certain percentage of turnover should always be expected. What an employee retention strategy can do is prevent, or control, employees from leaving in an untimely manor due to disengagement, monotony, or out of sheer frustration.

A good retention strategy includes all aspects of your hiring process, your compensation plan, and your engagement strategy which includes your employee recognition programs and encouraging better manager-employee relationships.

Here are a few areas to look at when building your retention strategy:

Recruiting

Many companies treat their retention strategy as an afterthought to recruiting, but thoughtful hiring will prevent resentments about the job from starting in the first place. Qualifying candidates on more than job experience alone can better ensure the right candidate is hired. Career paths and development for long-term growth with the company is also a factor. Many candidates will leave a position once they realize there are no options for advancement.

Employment agency software can greatly aid in this process by streamlining the recruitment workflow, ensuring that all candidates are evaluated against a comprehensive set of criteria beyond just their job experience. With the right tools, companies can attract top talent and foster a more engaging and supportive environment for new hires, reducing turnover rates and promoting long-term career growth within the organization.

Compensation‍

It's true that compensation is a factor in retention, but it is also important to note that it is not the most important one. A good compensation strategy includes everything your company offers as payment in a total rewards package: benefits, bonuses, rewards, career advancement, and training opportunities. Being paid in line with what is competitive with your industry standard is also an important influence in employee retention.

Engagement

‍Ultimately employees stay at a job they enjoy. Work environment contributes to this, but so does company culture. Consider cultivating a culture of inclusiveness, transparency, and offering opportunities to build relationships amongst employees. Good onboarding and training practices can also encourage engagement. Employees who don't have a good understanding of their responsibilities, or job expectations, can easily become frustrated and confused and will ultimately disengage with their duties and leave.

Recognition

‍Recognition programs are more important than ever. The millennial workforce is particularly sensitive to feeling invisible. Build a culture of “Thank You” and appreciation for your workforce while giving considerate thought to providing ongoing feedback. Show employees how to contribute to the overall goals of your organization and communicate that they are part of a bigger whole. This big-picture perspective can increase retention of your employees when they realize the value their part has on company success.

Management‍

Management plays a big role in retention. Managers should emphasize acknowledgement, and offer rewards to employees for a job well done. This too aligns with a good recognition strategy, but more importantly, it’s about ensuring managers are well within reach of your workforce. Balance between visibility and mentorship opportunities will ensure good manager-employee relationships are developed. Steer clear of micromanagement. Telling employees what to do and when prevents them from engaging with their role. This often breeds contention and can lower overall workplace morale.

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Promoting Your Retention Strategy

It’s important to disclose your intentions to your management team and employees. Successfully rolling out any new employee retention initiative takes good communication as to why the program is being implemented and what employees can do to participate. Awareness campaigns and training can spread the word of your new strategy. Employees need to be aware of the benefits for it to make the biggest impact.

Internal marketing can only go so far, it’s just as important to measure the impact these strategies are having on your company. Disclosing these statistics to your employees to reinforce the importance of these strategies and can become the catalyst for a good reputation. Never underestimate the value word-of-mouth has on recruiting and retention. Simply giving an employee something to boast about can be the very reason qualified candidates want to work with you, or good employees want to stay.

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Qarrot to the rescue!

A good rewards and recognition program should work with your retention strategy aligning company culture and workplace engagement. With Qarrot, reward points can be earned for a completion of tasks, meeting goals or simply be awarded for a job well done. These points can be redeemed for gift cards incentivizing employees with the promise of additional compensation.

Employee engagement is encouraged with performance and opportunities for meeting objectives, aligning your company goal strategy with tangible milestones employees can readily meet.

Managers play a huge role in rewarding employees as well as offering feedback to their employees over our social feed. Coworkers can instantly see these acknowledgements and offer additional encouragement.

Qarrot is fun, easy to implement and cost-effective for companies to use. Plus, it’ll give your employees something special to talk about! So what are you waiting for?

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To learn more about Qarrot and how it can work with your overall employee retention strategy, book a demo!

I was recently speaking with an HR director exploring ways she could better equip her managers with tools to motivate her company’s staff. Her focus on managers was interesting. She understood what a growing number of HR professionals have come to realize: The importance managers play in attracting, motivating, and retaining talent within organizations.

According to Gallup, companies stand to increase revenue per employee by as much as 59% by employing four key human capital strategies. Having a great manager accounts for nearly 50% of this potential revenue increase. Great managers have the ability to develop employees’ strengths and get the best out of each person.Speaking with Marina Byezhavova, a human resources professional in our hometown of Montreal, only reinforced this perspective further:

“I conduct culture audits of companies and I see that most hiring managers and HR professionals who are interested in a happier workforce focus a lot on work conditions, social atmosphere and team building. However, studies show that 80% of employees leave because of their managers! Happiness is important but a long-term strategy ensuring employees are loyal and content should focus on leadership training instead of the bells and whistles.”

Marina’s comments ring true for me, not only because of the various conversations I’ve had with other HR professionals and business owners alike on employee motivation, but because I’ve managed people for years. And, I have to say I think she’s right.

With that in mind, here are 3 three strategies to help your managers develop their abilities and to improve their employees’ motivation.

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Train your managers to be better leaders

As Marina puts it, “bells and whistles” are nice but on their own aren’t substantial enough to develop long-term employee engagement. Rather, companies should focus on leadership training. Developing your managers’ leadership skills provides your organization with a much more robust basis for attracting, motivating, and retaining talent.

When I was first promoted to a managerial position (many years ago), I got a hearty congratulations, some coaching, and then a nasty trial by fire.

Thankfully, I soon was able to get formal leadership training. So, it wasn’t too long before I began learning about performance reviews, setting goals for my employees, managing conflict, removing barriers for my staff, leading team discussions, how to listen and resolve issues, and so much more…

I also began to learn about creating a sense of urgency and rallying my team behind a vision. But it certainly didn’t come by magic. I was coached by a mentor and participated in as much leadership development training as I could.

And while many individuals are “naturally gifted” managers, the majority of people promoted into management or leadership positions (even those ‘naturals’) would benefit from formalized training to help them understand the ins and outs of managing others.

Key areas to consider include: communication, performance management, and managing conflict.

If your organization doesn’t have formal leadership training, consider informal or formal mentoring programs where more experienced leaders can help newly minted managers navigate their first year or so in their position.

Encourage managers to use SMART goals

When I was first introduced to “S.M.A.R.T.” goals, I remember thinking the acronym sounded too clever to actually be of any use.

As it turned out, the SMART methodology for goal-setting is critical for effective performance management and a key tool for managers of all stripes. Whether the acronym itself is explicitly mentioned isn’t relevant. Employees are more motivated when the goals they are working to achieve have the following “SMART” components to them:

Specific‍

The SMART approach encourages managers to set goals with their staff that include a specific target or destination.

Measurable

‍For a goal to be SMART, it must be measurable in that it can be tracked and quantified.

‍Attainable

‍The SMART methodology also requires that the goal be realistically attainable within the timeframe given to the employee.

‍Relevant

‍Of particular interest to me (and my personal experience), is goal-relevancy. To me, this is about linking the goal to the broader mission and vision of the organization. It helps employees understand how they’re contributing to the bigger picture.

‍Time-bound

‍Finally, SMART goals always have a defined timeframe for their achievement.

No manager should be without this approach or, at least, a good understanding of it.

Empower managers to recognize their staff

Recognition done well can be the secret weapon of an all-star manager. Often, however, it is left to managers to figure out how to effectively use this incredibly powerful tool.

Recognition plays into performance management, feedback, employee development, and much more. And, I think organizations are increasingly aware of the power of recognition to improve employee morale, motivation, and performance.

According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, giving your employees feedback about their “performance improvement opportunities” is fraught with the potential for error and puts people in a negative state of mind not ideal for learning and improvement.

Instead, catching an employee doing something well and taking a moment to constructively praise their accomplishment is a much more effective alternative. Instead of shoving your opinion about what they need to improve down their throat, you’re shining the spotlight on a strength they can build on and further develop.

This helps employees better understand what they did well and to build on those strengths and repeat them in the future. In this way, recognition not only serves as a powerful tool for boosting morale, but also for employee development.

I’m a big believer in these three strategies for empowering managers, especially as it relates to attracting, motivating, and retaining talent.

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Uncover more ways your organization can benefit from a recognition process - book a demo with Qarrot today!

The holidays can be an extremely stressful time for everyone. With the stress of buying the right gifts, balancing home and office life, as well as staying focused with all the decorations, music, and events going on, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Of course, the “Holiday Bonus” is the easiest and most immediately satisfying way to reward employees over the holiday season, but for smaller companies, this can be a great, and unaffordable expense. The hard truth is that most people just want money. They want a raise or a bonus and unfortunately, a bonus is only a present if it’s not connected to performance. Thankfully, there are other ways to reward and motivate your staff, while also keeping their attention at work. Using the holidays to your advantage can really help incentivize your employees' tasks, and spike sales around this time of year.

Choose the Right Rewards

When choosing rewards, ensure the rewards allow for some flexibility to suit everyone. Gift cards and vouchers offer choice, and implementing a rewards program allows for various options and prizes. Consider the “Four Gift Rule” when choosing prizes; “something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read.”

Incentivize Achievable Goals

When planning holiday goals, they should be easy to measure, clear and specific, and just challenging enough to get done in time. Create a rewards program that carries over into the New Year to help combat the January blues. The easiest way to implement this is by creating a company rewards site where the employees can track their points, exchange them for rewards, or enter contests. Take care to communicate clearly so that the rewards program is office-wide and everyone gets a chance to participate!

‍Point vouchers: Vouchers can be varied, this way employees can choose to keep saving their points for a big item or trade them in early for several smaller prizes. Not only does it feel good to be rewarded for your efforts, but employees also have the option to give prizes as gifts and save on holiday costs, if they so choose.‍

Online scratch card codes: Once a certain level of points is attained, employees get a code to “scratch” on a company site for a chance to win prizes. Again these can be anything like gift cards, wine crates, or gadgets.

‍Trip incentive: This option allows employees to accumulate daily points throughout the holiday season to claim a holiday trip. These could range from local to international, including ski trips, spa weekends, or Christmas shopping sprees!

‍Grand prize draw: When reaching a certain level of points, employees get a code to enter a ballot into the grand prize draw. This can be “the Twelve Days of Christmas” or once a week in December. The more goals they reach, the more ballots they can enter, and the higher their chances for winning top prizes.

Reward Publicly

Beyond a rewards or point system, it’s important to thank and reward specifically high achieving employees publicly. Whether this is with an announcement in a meeting, a wall of recognition, or a luncheon, showing your gratitude in front of other employees is good for morale and gives a boost to employees who deserve a little extra recognition. In addition, say thank you to the employee’s family by sending flowers, or gift cards for a night out to a restaurant, movie night, or spa.

Flexible Work Hours

On the same note, allow for family days like a sick or vacation day. Give the option to work from home to parents who request it. A bit of flexibility helps to relieve stress in a season where there is a lot going on not only in the office, but personally as well. Some extra or flexible family time may be just what your staff needs to stay motivated and loyal into the New Year. Additionally, encourage employees to slow down, taking one task at a time. Distractions like social media, coupled with a massive to-do list and deadlines, produce unfocused work and more time away from loved ones.

Decorate the Office

With so many DIY decoration tutorials available on YouTube and Pinterest, it’s easy to get the staff involved in the process. Take an afternoon for team building and make a rewards game out of decorating. Perhaps let the winning team choose the office Christmas party location, or offer the option to split the budget by department. Remember that management leads the Holiday spirit. If you’re grouchy, then your staff will feel it and motivation will plummet. That being said, be respectful of people’s choices around the Holidays. Whether for personal or religious reasons, some people may not observe the festivities. Don’t pressure people for not taking part.

Practice Giving

After all, this is the season! Your employees also want to know they’re a part of something bigger; that the company is actually making positive changes in the world. This doesn’t have to be a grandiose gesture, but even looking up some local charitable activities like a food bank or clothing drive can get the office giving.

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Motivate improved performance with objective-driven campaigns - book your free demo with Qarrot today!

Sources

• ‍Medium - How to motivate your employees during the holidays
• ‍WhenIWork.com - Employee Incentive Ideas

It cannot be denied that a lack of employee engagement causes many areas of financial downfall. The latest 2017 Gallup report showed that employee engagement has only gone up by 3% since 2016, and unfortunately these disengaged employees are causing losses in the U.S. alone of between 450$ and 550$ billion annually.

The recent Gallup report also shows that managers are a key factor in employee engagement and the main reason 50% of employees will quit their jobs, but yet nearly the same percentage of managers are as disengaged as their employees. Only 35% of managers are engaged at work, causing only 30% of their employees to be engaged. Good leaders promote engagement -- the best leaders get to know their employees personally, recognize their strengths, and remember that they are people first. They relate to their issues and make business decisions that suit company needs, while also considering the employee’s needs. After all, what is a company without its employees? The less engaged or incentivized a worker is, the less they will be invested in doing any more than just the bare minimum, eating into profit margins.

This bad management is causing people to walk, and the real killer that disengagement provokes is turnover. Unfortunately, the higher paid and more specialized the job, the greater the cost of turnover. Depending on position, salary, and specialization, employee turnover can range anywhere from 40-400% of an employee’s annual salary to replace.

The losses companies incur from turnover result from a variety of factors, including a dip in employee productivity after giving notice, investing in recruiting, onboarding and training costs, a decrease in revenue while transitioning, or experiencing a gap in replacement. But the worst nightmare is when an expert employee leaves unexpectedly. Not only are there “hard” financial losses like administrative and replacement costs, but there are many “soft” costs that are often overlooked when turnover is involved.

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The Specialist

Lost expertise can be especially difficult to replace. Some positions require a highly skilled specialty, which not only takes years of training but also specified hands-on skills within the position itself. Bringing someone up to par with a long-term employee could take years, additional training, all the while costing the company.

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The Ripple effect

Disruption of workflow and missed deadlines are only natural until the replacement employee is comfortably settled. Duties fall by the wayside, are forgotten, or are handed-off to other employees. Employees taking on additional responsibilities may feel stressed, causing higher absenteeism or even shine a light on the idea of leaving too.

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The Aftermath

Decreased office morale is the ultimate result. Once the employees feel it, the customers suffer. Employees naturally exude how they feel about a company or product, it is very easy to see they’re faking it. Employees are more likely to slack off and make errors, resulting in customer complaints. If these complaints occur too often, you’ve got yourself a real problem. Too many customer complaints will lead to a loss of reputation, forcing the company to spend on PR and rebuild its reputation.

It is possible to calculate the approximate cost of turnover for your company. Create a spreadsheet with employee replacement costs. A major factor, of course, is the employee salary. A Zen Workplace study showed that an average income takes 40% the salary to replace, whereas a higher paid income can take up to 150% to replace, on average. This can be difficult to calculate exactly, as many turnover costs are qualitative, but the quantitative ones are often enough to show the impact on your company’s finances.

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‍Check out these resources and comprehensive examples of turnover calculators to help you get started:

• Canada Human Resources Centre Turnover Calculator
• Drake International Turnover Calculator
• ERE Recruiting Intelligence Turnover Calculations

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Sometimes, turnover can be a positive thing. Recognizing the value in “good” turnover allows you an opportunity to work with it, rather than letting it catch you by surprise. A disengaged employee can often affect your business equally to that of turnover loss. Assess where the money is better spent by using an employee disengagement calculator.

Slacking employees with outdated skills, too much seniority with no fresh ideas, and long-term employees accumulating benefits and bonuses may actually cost less if offered an exit package. This also requires strategic decision making, as it is a delicate subject and a fine balance to create and maintain a company with mixed skills and experience levels. For example, Zappos tried implementing exit incentives and it backfired. Instead of choosing specifically where they wanted a change, they offered a severance package to all their employees. As a result, 14% of their most skilled employees took the deal and left the company spending even more money trying to replace them. The key to strategic turnover is to truly assess who stays and who leaves: too much turnover results in considerable financial loss.

To resolve these issues, view employee engagement as a business strategy. Start by conducting an assessment of your employees’ level of engagement. And consider investing in employee recognition, with platforms like Qarrot. Through your recognition program, you can foster a stronger culture and improve employee morale. For example, with peer-to-peer recognition, your staff build stronger relationships and are motivated to improve performance. With goal-based motivation and awards campaigns, goals can be incrementally achieved, while promoting employee drive. Not only will your employees feel recognized, celebrated, and rewarded, but your investment will pay off in lower turnover costs.

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Employee engagement is an investment, not an expense - learn more by booking your free demo with Qarrot!