CRO POV: Corporate Responsibility’s New Frontier—Employee Recognition

By Jay Whitehead

In 2005, The Corporate Executive Board executed the largest-ever comprehensive study of something called “employee engagement.”   Long the holy grail of corporate HR leaders, a heavily-engaged workforce has been thought to be the ultimate competitive advantage.  There are countless stories of an underdog army or sports team or company whose peoples’ highly-energized attitudes have resulted in victory over a superior rival.  The fact is, in business, sports and war, engagement separates winners from losers.

In the 2005 study, workplaces whose workers were highly-engaged had better growth, lower costs, more customer loyalty, higher stock prices, and lower workforce turnover than those with low “engagement” scores.  

This leads us to CR.  Of all the four major stakeholder groups in the Corporate Responsibility market—shareholders, employees, customers and community—the majority of Russell 1000 CEOs say that employees hold more sway than any of the others.  It’s not that employees are more “important.”  It’s that employees, more than any other stakeholder group, when they are properly motivated and engaged, can predictably move the dial on corporate performance metrics.  

Witness the success of Southwest Airlines, Goldman Sachs, Google, Apple, Dell, Intel, all companies with admirably-high engagement indices.  

So the question for CR leaders is simple:  What solutions help me to move the needle in employee engagement?  The 2005 study pointed out that more than any other single factor including pay or working conditions or employee discounts, one thing separated highly-engaged workforces from the others:  a systematic employee recognition program.  

Recognition.org is the site-of-record for the players in the emerging employee-recognition business.  And a short cruise through that site will reveal that employee recognition is no longer about logo-wear and a gold watch on your 25th anniversary.  Recognition is about web-based points programs and services that help managers reward their people for all sorts of productivity-improving behaviors and achievements.  

Of all the providers in the space, Rideau Recognition emerged as a leader when it won the Boeing recognition program back in late 2005.  Since then, with wins at H&R Block and several others, Rideau has built a per-employee-per-month service model that is takes it beyond dependence on jewelry or logo-wear sales.  Its sponsorship of this year’s gatefold presentation of CRO Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens has extended Rideau’s brand into the Corporate Responsibility market.  

Linking employee recognition and corporate responsibility creates a direct connection between behaviors and results.  It’s a simple carrot-and-stick equation.  As it turns out, raising a responsible workforce is a lot like raising responsible kids.  
Tomorrow in CRO POV:  Corporate Survey Fatigue?