Human Resources 101

March 7, 2008 is “officially” Employee Appreciation Day. I can’t seem to find any information on what makes this day official, but there are scores of places where you can buy gifts and cards to celebrate the day. I suspect the “day” has been concocted to sell employee recognition merchandise.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with a day for appreciating employees, as long as it is part of a bigger—and ongoing—strategy to reward employees.

Eric Mosely, CEO of Globoforce—a provider of employee recognition solutions—offers advice on how to make employee appreciation a year-round effort designed to reward, motivate and engage employees. He offers these five keys to employee engagement:

1. Build a “Culture of Appreciation” Year Round: Use Employee Appreciation Day to kickoff a new, year-round employee recognition effort or energize your existing one. By recognizing and rewarding employees throughout the year, it creates a culture of appreciation and a highly motivated and satisfied workforce within your organization.
2. Create a “Recognition Moment” through Meaningful Rewards: Giving employees the generic company watch or one-size-fits-all “gift” is an uninspiring way to say thank you. Rather, award your employees by giving them a choice of meaningful, self-selected rewards such as gift cards, quality merchandise or travel vouchers. When employees redeem their award, it will create an important “recognition moment”—with impact.
3. Empower Everyone in the Process—From the Board Room to the Mail Room: Employee recognition should not reside solely on the shoulders of management. Every person in the organization should be empowered to acknowledge their peers and co-workers for a job well done. This enables frequent recognition and engages the entire staff—not just the top 10 percent—in the process.
4. Tie Rewards to the Bigger Picture for Bigger Results: Employee recognition should be directly linked to the company’s vision/mission. This aligns the entire workforce toward achieving critical company milestones.
5. Communicate, Again and Again: Frequent program communication raises awareness, increases participation, boosts performance, and most importantly, helps develop that important culture of appreciation.

What do you think? Is he offering useful advice, or is it just a sales pitch to sell his product? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.