Even amidst the onslaught of negativity and hardship that was faced during the onset and now with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, if there was one common theme that resonated with our customers was that their teams stepped up.
They stepped up to support their co-workers, their leadership, their communities, and their families. Despite what each may have been facing personally, with some in more dire circumstances than others, at almost every turn, someone chipped in to help someone else, even in the smallest of ways.And what we are hearing is that our customers would like to keep that momentum going.
As we spoke with our clients throughout the course of the year, they’ve noted that although shifts in their programs were important to support their teams with what they needed most during this time, they also realized that any program that celebrates their employees grew in significance as a staple for their culture. While the focus on tangible deliverables flexed, the end result was the same: to make their teams feel valued with a renewed sense of empathy and compassion for their well-being.
Today as we envision the road to recovery, and we begin to reintroduce traditional operational procedures back into our organizations, intermixed with work approaches as part of the ‘new work normal’, we also have the opportunity to adopt new courses of action in our R&R programs, focused on work, life and balance for our employees. In a sense, facing what we did this year, has a resounding effect of not taking anything for granted, whether that be in our professional and personal lives. As leaders who are in the business of encouraging and sharing positivity by the very nature of a what a rewards and recognition program is intended to do, we have the chance to explore more, expand more and offer more choice that can make our R&R programs more wildly successful than we ever dreamed!
How do we do it?
Ask your employees what they want and what they would like to see in the program
Initiate and support recognition of community service.
We are not out of the woods yet in terms of the pandemic and there are still plenty of people around us who need help. If your business is returning to a good place, that’s all the more motivation for stakeholders and employees to continue to help those around them. It’s almost like the flight instructions we are given to put on our oxygen mask first in order to better help the person next to us; your company may now have more stability to be able to continually support the surrounding community. Engage your employees to help, making the mindset of empathy and compassion a natural consequence by recognizing something important to them based on life, not just work.
As we continue to feel the effects of the pandemic, stakeholders realize that expanding the rewards options given to their employees to work for the greater good is an instrumental component to an R&R program’s success and longevity.
Related Read: Bridging CSR and R&R during a crisis
Continue to emphasize the recognition of Remote Workers and Independent Contractors
Companies within the last decade were seeing a double-digit rise in remote working, as well as a 22% increase in freelance professionals over last year. The onset of COVID-19 is projected to increase that growth even more. With these changes in workforce make-up, we are seeing a trend of decentralizing the home-base of a company. Traditionally, a central location has been essential to executing many functions of an employee rewards and recognition program – sometimes it’s easier to recognize and reward someone when they are down the hall from you. But things change, and have been changing, and thankfully stakeholders in the rewards and recognition space continue to anticipate those changes with innovative solutions – all to ensure that employees still feel valued no matter where they sit.
Build a program that is not one-size fits all
In the latest White Swan podcast, Judd Weisgal summarized creating a rewards and recognition program that is inclusive to all by simply “allowing employees to bring their real selves to work and finding ways to reward that.” It’s a simple idea, but there are a multitude of ways to carry it out.
Repetition Forms Habits: Keep Doing What Was Working and Tweak to Improve
As stakeholders, continue to actively ask your team how they are feeling; seek out personal moments that you worked hard to acknowledge at the onset of the pandemic; legitimize programs that were drawn up to meet emergencies and make them official, like peer check-ins, health and wellness procedures, and dedicated celebration times. All of these actions may have been something that organizations put in place to manage the crisis in the moment. But they can also help to keep the emotions of empathy and compassion alive moving forward.
While It’s hard to demand empathy or compassion from anyone, if we lead by example, it can catch on quickly. After a challenging time, many people will evaluate their own circumstances to create more balance, in work and in life. An R&R program that is built to value this work-life balance for their teams by offering choice, recognizing their contributions to society beyond work, and being flexible with their working circumstances, especially in a remote environment, is bound for success.
At Madison, it’s not business as usual, but instead, we are focused on support. Supporting our invaluable customers by maintaining business continuity, sharing advice about new working models and providing an opportunity to connect with others.
While you adjust to your new working routine – whether it be at home or part of an essential service - please join the conversation. Ask Madison is an opportunity to share ideas, ask questions and help create our ‘new normal’, together. We believe that employee recognition is an essential business function and that, now more than ever, it is our responsibility to celebrate each other, recognize every milestone and collaborate together—even though we may be sitting apart.
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