Recognise This! – ‘Tis the season for giving – and the easiest gift to give is our appreciation to those we interact with every day.

Check out my most recent posts on Compensation Cafe for the business impact of recognition done right.

Why Retail Should Embrace “Employees First” Approach to Success (12th Dec 2013)

Because of commonly thin margins, employees in the retail industry are too-often viewed as “a cost that needs to be minimised.” In this post, I look at research from Zeynep Ton, adjunct associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, in which she shows retail companies that put their employees first actually perform better in terms of productivity, growth, and return to investors. Also, I’ve added to my Christmas Wish List her upcoming book on this research, The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits.

What Motivates More? (3rd Dec 2013)

In this post, I compare the results of recent Glassdoor survey on employee motivation with 2009 results from a Gallup Survey. Glassdoor found 81% of employees say they will work harder when a boss shows appreciation vs. 38% who will work harder when a boss is demanding. Similarly, Gallup found far more employees (61%) are engaged when their supervisor focusses on their strengths than employees (2%) who are ignored. Both studies point to the employee need for simply being noticed by others, especially through appreciation, for the work they do.

What motivates you more? Are “employees first” in your organisation?