March 7 is National Employee Recognition Day. It is a day for companies to say "Thank you" to their employees. It's time to self promoting yourself on Linkedin for a day, turn yourself inward, and help YOUR employees who get paid 1/5th many of the "market rate" Executives get paid. Many of us who walked out of the meeting today were longing for the old days under Flynn and Moran. The last few years, our HR Dept has taken the HUMAN out of Resources. Whether it the job cuts, benefit, job title cuts, or job architecture with pay bands many of us still fell under with the change, the bottom line is we don't feel like HR is an advocate for us. HR's job is to hire, fire, and protect the firm. The CHRO and Benefits and Comp Director has done little to add benefits or advocate for us. On March 7, we want to see the Executive Leadership Team set aside their $500K a year salaries and make out bound calls to our employees to just say "Thank you" and to ask is there anything that they can do for us. I can't remember the last time my Executive VP came up to me and asked how I am doing and to see what I needed help with. For over a year, nothing from many of the Executive Teams that work with me. It's sad but true. HR has let us down.
Here are a few suggestions from Achievers.com
- Start a recognition program
There’s no better day to announce a recognition program than Employee Appreciation Day. A fully comprehensive recognition and rewards platform reminds people to recognize their peers frequently and genuinely. Your platform’s user interface should be straightforward and integrate with other software your employees already use. In addition, employees should be able to recognize each other anywhere, anytime. A mobile-friendly platform is crucial for companies whose teams are on the ground.
- Find out how employees want to be appreciated
Have you ever asked your employees how they’d like to be recognized? Give your employees a voice by gathering their feedback through pulse surveys, together with always-on feedback channels employees can take advantage of whenever they have something to say. Surveying employees about the forms of recognition they find most meaningful will ensure that your appreciation efforts hit the mark.
- Implement employee feedback
Collecting employee feedback isn’t enough, though — your organization needs to act on it! Making changes employees want to see will give them the confidence that their opinions matter and that your company is willing to adjust. Eventually, this will motivate more employees to participate in your company’s feedback and recognition initiatives.