Recognize employees
Recognition is another important pillar in the concepts of achieving buy-in and motivating employees. Warden places a strong emphasis on rewarding employees for input. Even if the idea isn’t something that can be implemented right away, Warden still wants to relay his appreciation for the input.
All ideas get a prompt response from management. If an idea can be implemented, Warden makes a big deal of it in order to motivate both the employee who submitted the idea and the employee’s co-workers.
“We give them a $100 gift card and a peer recognition pin,” Warden says. “We make a celebration of awarding them, and we review the suggestion every two weeks. Through that process, we’ve found so many great ideas, because they’re coming right from the people who are in the restaurants interacting with our guests. Why not ask a bartender about drinks, about how to best meet a guest’s needs?”
If an idea from the lower rungs of the company can’t be used or can’t be used at the present time, you still owe the employee some feedback on it. Don’t let the inedible fruit fall to the ground and rot, because it still contains seeds. And you have to plant those seeds somehow.
“You have to acknowledge the feedback you get, in all forms,” Warden says. “Simply put, you’re acknowledging that your employees have taken the time to care about your business. Constructive or otherwise, that feedback is important, and you have to celebrate it. If you don’t, you’ll shut it down. The minute you don’t recognize it, the minute you become dismissive, you’re sending a message. And you can’t send that message because you’ll no longer get that information from the people closest to the action.”
Ultimately, you need to take employee engagement and motivation and break it down to a granular level. You have to make the company’s mission for every person under your organizational umbrella.
“If you and your managers can keep reinforcing the message, keep rewarding the success when you see that behavior, keep doing it at all levels of the organization, then the concept is communicated on a granular level, and it’s fully communicated,” Warden says. “That has to be your commitment as an organization, for both you and everyone in a management position, to keep all levels of the organization engaged in what you’re trying to accomplish.”
How to reach: The Rose Group, (215) 579-9220 or www.therosegroup.com
