Don’t wait for HR

I used to work in HR.  I liked working in HR. I know most of the people who dedicate their lives to HR are caring individuals trying to help their teams and organizations grow, not the policy-police overlords you read about.

That said, you SHOULD NOT wait on HR to recognize your employees and show that you care. You can do that anytime and anywhere… for FREE!!

So yes, this will be my second post in a few days that deals with employee appreciation. Why? Because literally the day after my conversation with “Shane”, I spoke to another manager (from a different company) about virtually the same topic. As we talked about how he was going to personally recognize and acknowledge his team, he said, “I’ll see what HR has in terms of scratch offs or recognition cards.”

And this is when I said, “Don’t wait for HR.”

Not because they don’t want to help. Not because they can’t help. Not because they are too busy to help.  It’s because for the kind of appreciation we’re talking about, you don’t NEED HR.

You need YOUR voice, YOUR eyes, a little of YOUR time and YOUR caring heart. That’s it.

When you see something worthy of recognition, here’s what you do:

• Go up to that person (maintaining 6 feet physical distancing if that is still required) and look them in the eye to show you care and that you’re serious. Don’t look at your phone while doing this.  That’s rude.
• Describe what you saw. “I noticed that you waved at every guest as they walked by, and many waved back. Thank you for doing that. It makes them feel welcome and that we want them here. It also makes you more approachable in case they have a question. Rock on with your great guest service!”

And look, that didn’t take very long and you didn’t need a recognition card from HR. Best of all, it was FREE and infinitely repeatable!! If you want to tie your recognition to an official HR program, fine. But you DO NOT have to wait to have that card in your hand to show your appreciation for a job well done.

A MUST READ on appreciation: Infographic “How To” Post 6: Appreciated

Back to our story… what about the caring heart?  Oh yeah. The above conversation CAN NOT be delivered nonchalantly. As I stated in that post from 2016, you have to genuinely appreciate your team so your appreciation comes across as genuine. Do you, deep down, really care about your team?  Like, for realz, I mean?

If you do, then you know that the power to recognize and appreciate your team does not come from a scratch-off card.  And, it’s not the scratch-off card that people appreciate.

When I was at Universal, we had a program called “Winning Moments”.  This was a way for team members to recognize each other. There were little cards that you would give to a deserving co-worker with a hand written note about how they had a positive impact on you. That team member would then turn that card in to Team Member Services for the chance to win a prize.

But guess what. Very few people turned in those cards. Can you guess why?  Because they were pinned up in their cubicles and lockers as reminders of how someone appreciated them. These were badges of honor, and worth a heck-of-a-lot-more than anything you could get in the drawing.

So, the Winning Moment form was changed.  A tab was added at the bottom so people could keep the part with the personal note and turn in the stub with their name on it. Brilliant.

This again should show you that you don’t NEED to wait for HR. People value the MESSAGE over the MECHANISM.  And you control the message.

After all this conversation, the manager I was talking to said, “So I just need to get out and look for it. While observing the operation and the guests, I ALSO need to be looking for the great things my employees are doing.  Maybe even make it a goal to praise a certain number of people a day.”

YES! (but with a caveat – they have to DESERVE the praise). Don’t be the manager who is praising just to praise with no specificity behind it.  That’s not genuine either.

So to sum up…

• You have to appreciate people so you can appreciate people
• Your genuineness is the KEY to great employee appreciation
• You DO NOT have to wait on HR to praise or recognize your team

I am happy to talk to anyone about how to show appreciation for your team. Call or email anytime or if you prefer, grab a spot on my calendar: https://calendly.com/matt-810/30min

Thanks for reading!

407-435-8084

matt@performanceoptimist.com

In the near future, I will be publishing new articles on the AttractionPros site and on LinkedIn. I would love to connect on LinkedIn if we aren’t already, and I encourage you to sign up for updates from the AttractionPros site to get ALL the latest updates and relevant content!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“This a problem that pizza can’t solve”

Someone actually said that. “This is a problem that pizza can’t solve.” Woah.

How did this come about?  A few days ago I had a conversation with a good friend and industry colleague (GM of an FEC, we’ll call him Shane) who called me because he was having issues with staff morale.  His team had told him they felt unappreciated, but when pressed about WHY they felt unappreciated, the staff really couldn’t put their finger on it.

So Shane and his management team did what any good, loving mom or grandmother would do when others are suffering… they fed ’em. Everything is better on a full belly, right?  This may work when you fail a test or you got picked last for soccer, but its actually not as effective as we’d like to think it is when it comes to true employee appreciation. It reminds me of this meme:

Oh. The horror.

I believe it was sometime after the pizza party that a member of Shane’s management staff said, “this is problem that pizza can’t solve.”

And why not?  Because as yummy as pizza is, it can’t communicate the value someone brings to the team or organization.  It can’t quantify a team member’s impact on the company or the guests, and it can’t sincerely thank a person for their extraordinary efforts.  Only another human being can do that.

But it wasn’t like Shane’s team wasn’t trying.  He shared with me some of the things that had been going on, and we quickly identified that while well intentioned, these actions may not be creating the desired results

Let’s take as look at some of the things Shane’s team had done (and how we decided to fix them):

• They thanked people on Facebook – after creating an employee only FB group, the managers decided that each day they would go into the group and thank the team for all of their hard work.  Sounds like a good idea, until your team tells you they feel this isn’t very genuine.  Oops. It also potentially thanks or recognizes people who phoned it in that day. So their good intention was not received well. The remedy? Personal, in the moment, specific thanks and recognition to individuals to build trust and show that they genuinely care.
• They built in flexibility in scheduling, meaning that they would schedule enough people to run the operation but didn’t decide what they were actually doing until they showed up. Flexible for management? Yes. Unstructured, unnerving and unsettling for employees? ALSO YES! This left the employees feeling out of control and haphazard. During these crazy times, employees crave clarity. They actually probably need MORE structure to feel safe. The remedy?  Think through assignments and communicate them prior to employees showing up for their shifts.
• They helped out. What??? How could this go wrong? Picture if you will, a crew at a go-kart track who is busting their collective hump to keep things running smoothly.  Then, without a word, your GM shows up and starts wiping down the cars. Sounds nice, right? Helpful even?  But to that crew, they may take it as a message that they aren’t doing their jobs well enough, fast enough, or to the satisfaction of the boss, so now he’s got to come step in a take over. It could also be that the GM just took away the one position where the crew gets a little break and breather from the intensity of constant go-kart races. The remedy? The GM comes over, lets the crew know he is there to help and asks them how he can best assist them.

**Related story… Josh Liebman and I were talking about this last bullet point prior to recording an episode of the AttractionPros podcast, and he said he had a very similar situation when working for a photo concession. As the manager, he would jump in, grab the picture off the printer and hand it to the guest. Little did he know that he was taking away a special “moment” that the team really enjoyed. They had worked with this guest to pick the right photo package, etc, and they wanted the satisfaction of completing the transaction by handing the guest the final product. In trying to help, Josh was actually taking away one of the best parts of their job.

So if you are struggling with employee appreciation right now, remember that TRUE appreciation is about:

• Communicating the value someone brings to the team or organization
• Quantifying a team member’s impact on the company or the guests
• Sincerely thanking a person for their extraordinary efforts.

And these come from you, not a pizza. So the next time you are inclined to schedule a pizza party, think about Shane.  Is there a better way to deliver your appreciation message than with dough, sauce and cheese?  I’ll be there there is.

If you’d like to chat about how to do this at your facility, grab a 30 minute time slot and we’ll brainstorm! Click here to schedule your FREE 30 minute call with Matt.

RELATED: Situational Employee Engagement Webinar Replay

Thanks for reading!

In the near future, I will be publishing new articles on the AttractionPros site and on LinkedIn. I would love to connect on LinkedIn if we aren’t already, and I encourage you to sign up for updates from the AttractionPros site to get ALL the latest updates and relevant content!