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Rewards and Recognition

Why Digital Employee Recognition is critical for Quick Service Restaurants

Quick Service Restaurants or QSRs, plainly referred to as fast food chains, is a massive and competitive industry. Along with standardized product quality, it is the quick and friendly customer service they provide that attracts a heavy footfall to their stores.

The employees in these restaurants work in a fast-paced, high stress environment where the company’s reputation and customer retention rate rests on their shoulders. They need to be alert, responsible and creative when it comes to customer service.

QSR giants have understood this and have adopted Rewards and Recognition (R&R) practices for keeping their employees motivated; these can range from awarding titles and badges to monetary incentives. However, given the scale of operations and the need to engage culture-sensitive Millennials and Generation Z, R&R needs to be more systematized and built into the heart of day-to-day operations.

In today’s era, youngsters are quite habituated to using online apps for all kinds of things- including connecting socially. This provides a great opportunity for restaurant managers and senior management at QSRs to setup an online Reward and Recognition ecosystem. Not only will this provide a unified platform for employee engagement, but also facilitate instant, seamless communication org-wide.

Platforms like Gratifi offer analytics for tracking employee recognition and workforce sentiment so the Human Resources department is able to identify data-driven solutions for increased engagement.

Before opting for a digital engagement solution, however, a number of things need to be considered. Most importantly, the digitization process needs to reflect the organization’s culture and policies. For example, having recognition categories for being well-dressed or working late-hour shifts, or even being the star performer of the shift- these must be integrated into the digital system.

Another concern when it comes to digital R&R for QSRs can be its usability. While digital solutions are effective in smoothly facilitating manager-to-reportee recognition, they may not be successful in getting peers to recognize each other-that is- unless the digital product is user-friendly and has accessible touchpoints. One can’t expect employees to navigate complicated apps to say thank you to a colleague during hectic shifts.

Another aspect of product customization is the Rewards system. Apart from being data-driven and unbiased, it should be designed keeping in mind the company culture and what employees want. There is a lot of scope for creativity in the digital reward space. The Rewards catalogue, in this case, can be youth oriented. Young employees enjoy shopping for clothes, electronics or beauty products on a budget, and the online reward point system should allow them to purchase the same. This would be more exciting than waiting for points to redeem an expensive dinner set or a wall hanging (yawn!).

All in all, the summary is this: it is critical for QSRs to adopt digital R&R solutions for employee engagement to maintain a competitive edge. However, technology needs to adapt to human processes, rather than making them impersonal and restrictive. Therefore it is equally important to ensure that the R&R product is customizable, user-friendly and relevant.

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Employee Engagement

Inculcating the core values in your workplace

Organizations that follow their core values and principles build a strong team foundation and an even stronger organizational culture. However, the moral value of an organization can be easily lost in the hustle of a busy workday.

Imbibe core values by converting them into a specific, behavioral example. In addition to this, create a model of values for the organization and rewarding behaviors that demonstrate each value. Thus, constantly reminding employees about the core values of the organization and how to work towards those principles. It helps employers to observe behaviors and manage the organization’s brand and standards.

Let’s discuss ways to imbibe the core values of an organization: Organizations easily lose the sight of their core values when their focus is more towards the current tasks. By building a model for their values they have a guideline for all aspects of business, right from the decisions they make to the talent they source to the way they interact with customers.

Organizations can achieve this by respecting the moral values of employees and keeping it at the forefront. In addition to featuring it on the organization’s website and in the employee handbook, they can also post them where employees often gather, at places such as conference rooms, canteen, etc. Along with this, the top management should also regularly communicate with the teams.

Firms can also build a workforce that diligently obeys the organization’s values, making it a part of the hiring process. The HR department can create a questionnaire based on organization’s values and use it as a key strategy in assessing the candidate as a potential fit.

Candidates are often predisposed of sharing the organization beliefs. By using the questionnaire during the interview process you can identify candidates with similar principles that are crucial in building a team and can successfully dwell into the organization’s ethics.

The best way to bring your organizational values to life is to use them in the right way. Don’t just let your core values sit on the wall as a brand, imbibe it into your daily life at work. Breathe, play and work by them daily.

Some other ways to actively imbibe organizational values is by aligning them with the organization’s culture activities, such as volunteering together in social events. You can show your employees how it’s done by using character of the organization to guide business decisions and empower employees to do the same.

Employers should promote organizational values by rewarding employees for displaying behaviors that are in line with the organization’s principles. Feature your employees in the “employee of the month,” category in the organization’s newsletter, blog, or website or just give them a simple pat on their back, just be sure that the behavior doesn’t go unnoticed. After all, there’s no better way to promote great behavior than to reward it.

Building a core value model and following it will help your organization establish and propagate core values that are more than an office space punchline. The values you inculcate now, in turn, will provide the groundwork for a strong organizational culture into the future.

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Channel Partner Rewards and Recognition

Digital Implementation for the Channel Partner Program

Today we live in a world that has increasingly become tech-dependent and it is a constant challenge for marketers and channel partners to understand the ever-evolving customers, predict the consumer behavior and attempt to influence it. In this digital era, the technologies such as mobile, web, email, social media are evolving and with that are presenting new challenges and opportunities for business. The digital revolution is giving an opportunity for any business to develop effective engagement models that provide a modernize engagement with channel partners, agencies and customers. For any business to expand and provide a delightful experience to the end customer you need to vigilantly take care of your extended business arms.

Organizations face challenges when it comes to modernizing channel partner engagement. Using digital experience solutions can enable organizations to create marketing assets that can be used for multi-channel programs.

Each business industry has their own channel partner engagement model that is best suited for their business, thus the need for a digital platform can virtually connect and create a stronger rewarding portfolio between them.

Here, are some pointers that can help an organization build a robust digital platform for their channel partners:

A right solution allows you to access real-time financial data synchronized from time-sheets and a general ledger in a project dashboard to manage metrics. With the right integrated digital solution—which brings data together in one place—you can quickly assess which channel partners will be the right fit, while at the same time build loyalty and provide individualized motivation with healthy competition. Integrated management tools allow you to spot gaps in this data and act accordingly.

Bringing in the digital technology for channel partners you can swiftly access brand-approved, compliant marketing solutions to craft personalized marketing programs on the fly for uniform local needs.

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Organizational Culture

How digital platforms are innovating the workforce engagement space

Technology has completely transformed the recognition space today and the traditional way of appreciation has taken a backseat. Organizations increasingly want to make agile, informed, and data-backed decisions when it comes to rewarding their workforce. To facilitate this change, digital recognition platforms have come up and these platforms have given an edge of objectivity to the whole R&R process. This, in turn, has helped businesses to grow and perform at an optimal level because engaged and happy employees go that extra mile to achieve their organizations’ business objectives.

How are organizations keeping employee motivated?

A recent study by a leading training institute stated that organizations with an engaged workforce outperform those without it by 202%. This reinforces the fact that recognition, when done right, can help organizations reap dividends in the form of employee loyalty.

So, when is the right time to reward good work? Instantly, says a recent leading nonprofit professional association report. The findings of this report state that when employers offer “spot awards” to their resources, employee engagement and motivation improve by 54% and 48%, respectively.

Benefits of digital platforms

The major benefits of using a digital platform for reward and recognition are:

  • Enhanced HR efficiency: HR has transformed into a portal with all functionalities to take on increasingly diverse business demands. Choosing the right recognition platform saves a lot of time for the HR, time that can be utilized on strategic business decision making.
  • Heightened objectivity: Have you heard a colleague saying that few individuals are always rewarded because of their equations with their managers? This is where digital recognition comes in. Digital recognition platforms help you measure employee performance using data, eliminating even the slightest possibility of favoritism. Moreover, gifting no longer remains an in-silo process, because the management gains complete visibility into reward distribution from bottom-up in the organizational hierarchy.
  • Easy tracking of recognition program: Harnessing the power of data, decision makers can easily track the success of the recognition program on various parameters, such as team bonding, reward frequency, and employee reactions.
  • Improved R&R: When recognition becomes memorable than momentary and monetary, employees feel that they have established lasting bonds with their employers. The use of technology for rewarding ensures that recognition is more impactful. For instance, when employees get to choose the time and type of their gifts, over the usual quarterly, half-yearly, or annual recognitions, the experience is more likely to touch a chord with the workforce. Also, Digital recognition platforms enable the HR to easily segment information gleaned from employee analytics and tailor its recognition programs around employee trends and preferences, driving productivity.
Digital is the future

In today’s competitive scenario, organizations can’t afford to have a disengaged workforce. Flexible and interactive R&R solutions are thus the need of the hour.

Categories
Channel Partner

Build a mutually rewarding relationship with your channel partners

Did you know, 63.5% of companies credit their channel partners as major contributors to their annual revenue? Most companies rely on their channel partners to reach their valued customer base. As the above study suggests, both channel partners and organizations are important to each other considering the multiple avenues of growth and success that their synergy opens up. Channel partners thus play a very crucial role in an organization’s growth charter.

So, if your business model comprises channel partner sales, then you must prioritize structuring a channel partner engagement plan. Finding ways to improve your partner engagement may seem like a daunting task, but it does not have to be. With the right strategies in place and the platforms to support them, you can enhance partner engagement and increase productivity.

Managing partners: While your partners help you increase revenue and meet your growth targets, it is extremely important for you to ensure that the relationship is not just transactional. It’s no surprise that a thoughtful rewards and recognition program is the foundation of successful partner and employee relationships. But how do you implement a digital rewards and recognition program that engages your target audience on a real time basis, while also accelerating your channel partner growth?

Choose automation: If you are still following the traditional way of keeping track of channel partners sales information and rewards program, it’s time to adopt for automation. Leveraging a digital channel partner program can take off much of that burden from your business.

Using an interactive platform addresses every aspect of the rewards program—recognition, rewards calculation, growth, data management, engagement, real-time rewarding, and so on. It will not only strengthen and secure partner loyalty, but also give a clearer view of the system to both business owners and channel partners.

Using an automated channel partner engagement platform enables you to:

Meaningfully engaged and motivated channel partners thus become your brand advocates. Successful collaboration and engagement with your partners will help you reach your target audience effectively and attain a competitive advantage in the industry.

A sound engagement strategy for channel partners thus becomes a business mandate.

Categories
Rewards and Recognition

A pat on the back returns with amplified output

Positive emotions invigorate human beings. Building a vibrant and successful workplace requires positive employees bestowed with trust, respect, and honest recognition. Recognizing the hard work of your team does have a significant impact on your ROI.

A recent study conducted by a leading consulting firm concurs. The study has revealed that about 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success.

When employees are recognized for their efforts, they feel valued. The feeling encourages them to put in more efforts and work passionately. Therefore, the major task for business leaders is to keep the morale of their workforce up, at all times. This also eventually translates into higher productivity. Here are a few quick tips:

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Employee Engagement Rewards and Recognition

Going the extra mile at work—is it worth it?

Every individual is rare. Every milestone is unique. Employee engagement is a clichéd management attribute, yet all organizations want engaged employees. Undoubtedly, employees who stay engaged are proven to be more hard-working, productive, and focused. So what is it that drives organizations towards attaining high levels of engagement? Let’s find out.

When employees receive recognition for their efforts, they feel valued. It helps them feel more human and less like cogs in the wheel. But what happens if their efforts go unacknowledged? You’re right—you eventually meet them at the exit interview.

Unfortunately, an employee leaving an organization comes at a cost. When you calculate the total expenditure on recruitment, training, and loss of productivity, it is a major financial hit. This is the cumulative sum of only a single resource. Think about the losses after multiple employees quit in a year. This is where motivation and employee recognition can really help.

On a daily basis, employees have to continually choose between going the extra mile or not and the impact of their actions on the organization’s success. These are vital decisions because, when employees transcend their formal key responsibilities and help out their co-workers, proactively take on new assignments, introduce new practices and ideas, attend non-mandatory trainings, and pitch in extra hours to meet deadlines, companies tend to become more successful in the long term.

As a result, a vital task for leaders is to motivate their workforce to engage in behaviors that require extra efforts to keep the organization working at an optimal level.

Building recognition into your culture

Recognition doesn’t always have to descend from the senior management. Fact of the matter is, no one likes their efforts being ignored—be it a sales pitch for a potential client or a tree plantation initiative for the team. The easiest way to make everyday recognition personal, shared, and viral is to start with your peers. Here are a few ways to do so:

The bigger picture: Motivate employees by giving them a purpose, and something to look forward to every day. It could be holding monthly meetings allowing them to discuss the challenges they face or hear about the company’s progress on reaching strategic goals. It should be more than just a pep talk; it should be a forum for honest conversation.

Broadcast appreciation: Some of the best thank you’s in life are free. An employee appreciation solution does not always have to be expensive to be effective. Make celebrating irresistible by signing up for a solution that makes rewards and recognition a memorable experience.

Win-win situation: Nothing starts the morning on a better note than by sharing wins from the previous day. It’s a great way for co-workers to publicly tell the team about a job well done by other team members. Encourage daily efforts by talking about little victories, which leads to big results.

The secret to motivation

Motivation is not a one-size-fits-all approach. What pushes one to work harder, may not necessarily work for the other. Employees should be honest about communicating to their leaders and peers the type of activities they choose to do at work to stay engaged. Recognizing and valuing resources is not rocket science; all it takes is just some time, effort, and awareness.

It’s time to rethink the way we actually engage with our employees. Recognition isn’t a fluffy idea meant to boost employee egos. Meaningful recognition can do wonders for the workplace, enhancing the work-life balance of employees and balance sheets of organizations.

Categories
Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement Struggle Decoded

“To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace.”

Engaged employees translates into happy customers. But ironically, most organizations struggle with employee engagement. Let’s take a closer look at this phenomenon. A recent research by Deloitte revealed that 78% employees do not feel recognized at work. Another study by Dale Carnegie highlights that organizations with engaged employees outperform those lacking employee engagement by up to 202%. Employee engagement has now assumed critical proportions for organizations. The key to resolve this issue is in understanding what employee engagement actually means.

Employee engagement: What it isn’t

Employee engagement is not just a state of being happy at work. Various recreational activities planned by the HR team for entertainment aren’t enough to motivate your employees. Also, engagement isn’t synonymous with satisfaction. One might be happy and satisfied in a 9-to-5 job and might be participating in such activities, but it doesn’t guarantee that one is putting in extra efforts.

Employee engagement: What it is?

Engagement happens when your workforce imbibes the culture and values of your organization and these values are reflected in every aspect of their work. Engaged employees have a deeper emotional commitment with the organization and its goals. If your employees feel connected with your organization, they feel motivated to come to work, inspired to work harder, and proud to be associated with it.

How to engage employees effectively?

Your employees represent your organization, and unhappy employees don’t translate into happy customers. Improve your organization’s happiness quotient by celebrating and inspiring great work.

Treat your people well: When you treat your employees like they make a difference, then they surely will. It’s simple, when your employees feel valued, they show commitment and passion towards work.

Make work irresistible: Rethink your organization’s engagement program. Initiatives have to be planned around employees’ performance. Transparency, trust, and timely appreciation are vital elements of an effective program. On certain occasions, they might go the extra mile and deliver during difficult times. And when they do, recognize your employees for their initiative. Recognition will make good work contagious.

Work on feedback: The impact of engagement is enhanced when it is linked with growth. Highlighting employees’ strengths and providing timely feedback to help them overcome their weaknesses also has a significant impact on their morale.