The Best $73 I Ever Spent

Close your eyes for a moment and consider the collection of bosses you've had since you joined the workforce. I remember my first boss, Mac, when I suffered through six week at the fries and shake work station of McDonald's. He helped me understand that "boss" was a four-letter word and spelled backward it's what I felt like doing when I came home from work each day (SOB also defines how I described Mac to my friends). But, I also remember Larry Keating, who mentored me with great patience and wisdom in my summer internship between college and business school. Larry helped me realize I had more ability than I thought I did so I could accomplish more than I thought I would. He helped me realize I could jump much higher than I ever imagined.

My hotel company, Joie de Vivre, has a more than ten-year tradition of celebrating "employee recognition week" just as we're going into our busy summer season. We started this tradition as a means of helping our maids, bellmen, bartenders, and managers realize that we truly appreciated how much life they gave to our enterprise. While we initially were thrifty with our expenditures during this week by just having a companywide BBQ, with time our generosity grew such that we were offering employees the opportunity for their families to go to local theme parks or for cruises on the San Francisco Bay or tickets to see the SF Giants or Oakland A's. More recently, we spent nearly $100,000 on these various recognition week activities which may sound lavish, but when you realize that this is only about $35 per employee (or about $1 per hour that each of our employees worked that week), you come to realize that the good feelings about our company culture that are generated from these activities are probably worth it. Heck, you could spend $100k in legal fees in California just settling one wrongful termination suit of an employee who didn't feel properly recognized.

While employee recognition week may be a wise investment, this year we don't have the cash to invest so we've had to make substantial cutbacks in some of the more expensive activities. Sound familiar? Does that mean we can't recognize our people? Why don't we go back to the roots of what recognition means? Compensation is a right, but recognition is a gift. What gift could I give my staff that would be as meaningful as what Larry Keating gave me that summer 27 years ago? Yesterday, I decided to write each of the 80 people who work in our headquarters a handwritten, heart-felt thank you card. For less than a dollar per card and about six hours of my time, I could give the ultimate gift that we all are looking for. Cancel your round of golf this weekend and plant your self in your favorite chair watching the NBA finals and pen some thankful prose to those who work for you. As William James once wrote, "The deepest hunger in humans is the desire to be appreciated." I don't know about you, but I've saved cards that old high school flames wrote me as well as those that employees have written me over the years. The power of genuine, customized appreciation will never lose its value, even in a gloomy economy....in fact, it's probably what we're all thirsty for in this desert of a depression.

The Gallup organization found that the single most important variable in employee productivity and loyalty is not the pay, the perks, or the benefits. It's the quality of the relationship between employees and their supervisors. Isn't it ironic that pay, perks, and benefits all cost your company at the bottom line, but authentic recognition, especially when it's most unexpected, costs very little and gives the most impressive return on investment. I believe the $73 I spent on those cards was the best investment I'll make in 2009!

Chip Conley is the Founder and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and the author of PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow.

Comments

[CindyVentrice]

It is nice to see a CEO would understands what employees value.
As the author of Make Their Day Employee Recognition That Works, I've spent a lot of time trying to understand what employees want in terms of recognition and reward. I have conducted hundreds of interviews looking for the common principles of meaningful employee recognition. Two years ago I conducted a survey asking employees to answer questions about the most meaningful recognition they have ever received. Only 22 percent said it cost the organization over $100. Another 22 percent put the dollar value between a dollar and $99. What surprises most people is that 57 percent said that the most meaningful recognition they had ever received was absolutely free.
What matters most, as one previous post alluded to, is the respectful relationship that already exists between management and employees, between supervisor and individual. When respect is strong recognition satisfaction runs high, regardless of the dollars spent.
Notes of appreciation and praise rate very high overall. I receive lots of email from people who still have the notes they received years ago. They tell me how they posted them for others to see or filed them away to look at when they need a boost.
A message of appreciation - definitely worth more than the dollar spent on the card.

[ptgkc]

This only works if it is a validation of an enviroment that employees already have some positive feelings about. If the gesture is in any way contrived, the act will be mocked.

You can't underappreciate, ignore, berate, or even abuse the staff the rest of the year and expect a card to make it better.

[schatsie]

Chip, just a quick question, are you using the Gallup Strengths for your employees or for yourself?

I loved the book Know Your Strengths or Discover them or whatever and the informatio about the WhiteHall longitudinal study was fascinatin­g...

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

Personally I'd rather have an extra $1 hr. instead of some stupid card telling me how grateful you are that I'm cleaning your toilets and I have a feeling most of your employess feel the same way.
Happy talk and grinning in my face doesn't get much mileage from me.

[DamaskinosLives]

It is true.

The type of people you work with has a huge effect upon job satisfaction and performance.

Smart managers realize that some of the most appreciated benefits cost the company nothing.
.

[fairplaystacy]

In what universe?

management is increasingly adopting the "Plantation Model" as their relationship between themselves and labor.

http://illegalindianlabor.host56.com/

As far as recognition goes, I'd like to see the Dept of Homeland Security and their ICE folks "recognize" the jobs being siphoned out of the Information Technology arena by the IT Hotel sweat shops that have popped up all over the place. Can someone lend some investigative resources to shine some light on this illicit activity. The Indian consulting companies' euphemism for it is "In-sourcing" and there is very little information about it on the internet. The insidious practice goes on unchecked by our enforcement authorities.