<p>Callie and Lori talk employee recognition: ROI, analytics as the future and fatal flaws. They dig in on the four ways to succeed at employee recognition, starting with having the right stakeholders at the table in the beginning and ending with campaigns to keep the momentum going. </p>
Callie and Lori talk employee recognition: ROI, analytics as the future and fatal flaws. They dig in on the four ways to succeed at employee recognition, starting with having the right stakeholders at the table in the beginning and ending with campaigns to keep the momentum going.
Callie Zipple:
Hey everybody and welcome back to Honest HR. I am your host, Callie Zipple, field service director with SHRM. And I just want to thank you all for being here. If you've listened before, we're glad you're back. If you're listening for the first time, we're happy you found us. Each of our episodes obviously have a new topic so we're interested in hearing something if you are interested in hearing something specific on an upcoming episode. Please reach out and let us know. That's pretty much how all of our topics and guests have come to be, so I'll share some contact information at the end of the episode. So please stick around. And again, if you're interested in sharing some ideas for upcoming episodes, we'd love to hear from you. But today's guest is Lori McKnight out of Canada, and we are going to be talking about some employee recognition programs and ideas around that space.
So Lori actually reached out to me on LinkedIn to offer some very nice words of support after the podcast aired and after she listened for the first time. And I actually took that opportunity to reel her in even more by asking her if she wanted to share her expertise on an upcoming episode. And so, that's how we've come to be here today. But I'm specifically excited about Lori being here today because her approach to employee recognition is new and fresh, and too often, employee recognition can feel forced. And so, I'm excited for her to help us spice up these programs in our organizations so that employees actually like participating in them. So with that, Lori, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to Honest HR. Tell us a little bit about yourself so that our listeners know how you got where you are today.
Lori McKnight:
Okay. Thanks, Callie, so much for reaching out to me. I really appreciate the opportunity. And as I mentioned we talked earlier, I have an MBA with a minor in HR and marketing from McMaster University. And I actually started my first job right out of MBA school was working for the Chief Human Resource Officer at Mercer HR Consulting. It was a great job. One of the first things that I was tasked with doing was analyzing their employee engagement survey and preparing our roadshow presentation for the president, which is kind of cool now because I've come full circle and I'm back working in the employee engagement and recognition space. And then after that, I was given the challenging role as being the first HR manager for the global IT group, which is an interesting group of IT architects, software, architects, that sort of thing.
And I was so super keen. I was armed with all this knowledge and ideas from school, and I started in that department. And some of the managers were really grateful for the support, and others, not so much. A number of the managers felt my position as an HR manager, new person on the floor was better suited to organizing social events and handling office administration than being a strategic partner at the table. And some of the listeners might have experienced that same thing or be in that same situation now. And to be honest, I actually really hated the HR position. I hated that role. I learned a lot, but HR in practice was so much different than in the books. And what I learned from that first job was that just because you like people, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to love a life in HR.
The first time I had to terminate someone, I was in the stairwell crying. I just found HR really draining. Many of the problems were things I couldn't really solve myself. And if the manager didn't value their people, it was really hard for me as a young, green HR professional right out of school to coach them. But thankfully, the CHRO really liked me and he moved me into a communications role within the same company. I stayed there for a few years, and then I took a real diversion and left Mercer and went to work for a startup. And it was Canada's first youth market research consultancy. And I was one of the founding members there. And the company was actually focused on studying millennials when today's millennials were actually teenagers and in university. So we led focus groups. We did research, we did panels. And what we did was we helped government and companies better understand that large demographic and the impact that they were going to have on society and business.
And it was such an amazing opportunity for me. Great people, an awesome experience, and really great example of a strong company culture and a company that grew exponentially over a very short period of time. But then, I left after my third child was born. I just was having trouble juggling the hours with the busy family life. And so, I left and I started up my own communications and consulting business from home, which has been, I have to say, really awesome. From a work-life balance perspective, that's been great. And then, within the last couple years, I was introduced to the president of CSI STARS through a friend. And at the time. I didn't even know there was a recognition and rewards industry. I thought promo companies, you know, handled all kinds of recognition programs.
But when I learned more about what CSI STARS was really all about, it was really intriguing to me because I've always been that person in a company that buys the baby shower gifts and going-away gifts and gets the cards for the team to sign. So it really was well-aligned with my own beliefs. And now, important recognition and the idea of working with a company that encourages everyone to recognize others and makes it easier to do so really, really appealed to me. So now, I spend a good part of my time focused on recognition with CSI STARS. I'm a certified recognition professional and I write a weekly blog on recognition. I'm on the GOSHRM blog squad. And just recently, I'm a Forbes Council contributing member. So that's a little bit about myself.
Callie Zipple:
Yeah. So if our listeners were questioning at all your credibility, I am here to say she knows her stuff around employee recognition. And part of your story, I think, that resonated with me so much when we were talking about this topic and how this episode was going to go was that you are so honest and transparent in the fact that you found yourself in a career and in an industry... Not an industry, in an organization where HR just wasn't for you. And I think it's so important for our listeners to understand that if you feel yourself not loving what you wanted to love when you started, it's time to make a shift. And I think it's so great that you were able to make that shift and eventually find yourself in a industry in this recognition and reward space that is still HR focused.
Lori McKnight:
[inaudible 00:06:45]
Callie Zipple:
Exactly. Exactly. So as much as you can say you hated that role, it wasn't that you hated HR. And I want to make sure our listeners know, I didn't bring-
Lori McKnight:
[inaudible 00:06:53].
Callie Zipple:
... HR's the worst, but that it just wasn't the right role and that you're now in this place where you always wanted to be, right?
Lori McKnight:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, I have so much respect for HR. I just wasn't prepared as a young person for the... I guess I just found it difficult to make a difference when I was young and wasn't getting necessarily the respect that I thought that I would get when I had all these great ideas and structure and processes that I wanted to bring to the workplace. And getting leadership to buy into that wasn't as easy as I anticipated it would be.
Callie Zipple:
Yeah. We actually did an episode on building credibility as a young person. So I think it's so important... That is a feeling that a lot of people entering the work the workforce have. How can I make a difference when people are looking at me and thinking I can't even drink a beer, right? So I just wanted to say that I think that is a part of your story that really resonated with me. And I just want to, again, reiterate for our listeners, if you feel yourself in that spot, find a way to do what you love some other way. And that's really, Lori, why you're here. So I want to let's shift back to employee recognition and what that really means in organizations in HR. So how would you define employee recognition? And do you think that companies have to be able to define what that means to them in order for any sort of program that they put behind this idea of recognition to be successful?
Lori McKnight:
Okay. Yeah. Great question. I'm going to start off by just saying that I think recognition is more important now than ever with unemployment so low right now. And there's such demand for talent that it's a candidate-driven labor market out there. And with so many crowdsourcing sites like Glassdoor, that recognition really impacts your talent acquisition as well as your retention strategies because people can go online and get a real sense of your culture just by reading what other people have said about the organization. So recognition's important externally for your reputation as well as internally to retain your people. So I just wanted to put some context around that. In terms of defining recognition, for me, I feel recognition is it involves specific feedback that promotes the really positive behaviors that you want to see practiced in your workplace. It's easy to confuse recognition and praise. Praise is easier to give and it portrays the person in a flattered light, but it ends up being a little less personal, more generic, less meaningful, whereas recognition really links those actions and behaviors to your company's core values, both informally and formally.
And then, the other part of your question was, do companies have to define recognition to be successful? I don't think it's so much of that important to define recognition, but I do think it's important to define your values because every good recognition program is built around your company values that you want to recognize and reinforce regularly. And so, I think that part is probably more important than actually defining what recognition means to you. You want to reflect your values in some way, be it recognition, be it thank you card, public recognition, the monetary/non-monetary award. Those are all types of recognition, but you want that recognition to be reinforcing the values that you want to see your employees displaying in the workplace. Does that answer your question?
Callie Zipple:
It's so funny that you say that. Absolutely it does. And it's so great that you bring values into the conversation because I've worked in many organizations where their recognition program, whether it's formal or informal, which we'll get to in a moment, is tied directly back to values. So somebody has to emulate a value in order to be officially part of that recognition program. So whether you exerted this value in this way and this is how I'm recognizing you, without that tie back to values and tie back to the culture of the organization, that person isn't recognized at all. So it's very interesting that you bring that up. And it's funny thinking back to the organizations that I've worked at and how the recognition program is almost an arm of our values.
So I mentioned formal versus informal employee recognition programs. So my question for you... And I've worked in organizations that have formal employee recognition programs, as well as organizations that don't. So when you're talking to companies and giving advice about recognition programs, do you tell companies that it's important for them to have a formal program or can they have a informal approach to recognizing their employees?
Lori McKnight:
You know what? I say both. Both are really important. I truly believe 70% of recognition should be day to day in informal recognition. The day to day stuff, it's the glue that sets the foundation for the informal and inform programs. So things like daily thanks, thank you to someone every day, giving positive feedback regularly, recognizing hard work, those things affect the majority of your workforce and the yield, the biggest payback without actually spending anything. So that's really important. And the informal is really important too because things like celebrating the end of a project with a pizza lunch or doing impromptu coffee breaks or posting public thank yous on your internet, they're all types of things to thank employees and promote the great things that they're doing. But the formal recognition is very important because it links those company values to the in individual and team goals.
So for recognition, it's especially important for large and global companies, I would say, for ensuring consistency across your locations as well. Nomination programs, performance programs, service reward programs are all great examples of formal recognition. And formal recognition really provides that structure and is the pillar of your recognition strategy, but they're both formal and formal important. And so, I would say recommend maybe spending the majority of your time encouraging the day to day and informal recognition than let the formal recognition be the backbone. So if you're using a recognition platform, that's sort of the backbone of your recognition strategy and programs. And then, the pinnacle event is it's a service award, formal service award program. And that service, the work presentation at the end is that pinnacle formal event that is used. So a combination of both, I think, is really important.
Actually, today it's Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend. And so, our own company, we're doing a big Turkey lunch in a couple hours so everyone looks for that. We do it at Christmas time and Thanksgiving, and it's just a nice way for people to get together and talk about work, but also just get to know each other on a personal level too. So it all builds teamwork and a nice feeling of being part of something. I actually have an example of a formal recognition program that one of our global clients has and they do a little twist in their Canadian office.
So they created a retirement program banner. It's similar to a hockey jersey with the retirees last name and years of service on it. And then the jersey's presented during the formal service award presentation honoring the retiree. And then, during the retirement presentation, the jersey's presented, then it's formally hung in the rafters of the production facility. And I just think that is so awesome, a great way of showing lifetime contributions to a company. And employees have really come to appreciate their service award program, their formal program, even more with that kind of informal little twist on the program.
Callie Zipple:
And it's so perfect for Canada, right, because hockey-
Lori McKnight:
Yes.
Callie Zipple:
... is so big for you guys. One, I love that example, first of all, that you shared the formal presenting of a jersey. And just the excitement that lends to employees, I think, is great. One thing that I've noticed when companies have formal recognition programs, it almost seems that managers have a more difficult time with the informal side of recognition. So they feel maybe that saying thank you isn't enough because they have this formal recognition program that they should be utilizing instead, or they don't say thank you because they're thinking that the formal recognition program is enough for their employee base. So do you have any tips for managers that are thinking that way or feeling that way where they're letting the formal recognition program speak for itself and not necessarily honing in on that informal approach to their employees?
Lori McKnight:
I guess my advice would be, think about yourself, how you like to be recognized. How do you feel when your own boss says you've done a great job? And I would say your employees feel the same way. So thinking, try and be sincere and authentic and just recognize how great it does feel to be thanked. And I know some people are more comfortable giving thanks and recognition than others, but I think if you can try and internalize it a little bit, I think it would probably be good coaching for that manager to make that concerted effort to say thank you. And be sincere.
In terms of a service award presentation, doing your homework too. So it's praised if you're just saying thanks, but it's recognition if you actually take the time to, you know, acknowledge the person's strengths, acknowledge their contributions, acknowledge the hard work that they've put in with examples. All those things help make you look great as a presenter, but also really make the person feel great and sets a nice tone for the presentation and something that gives the program a lot more legs. We actually have a white paper on our website that talks about some tips and when you're preparing for a service award presentation that some managers might find helpful.
Callie Zipple:
Yeah, absolutely. And at the end when we talk about contact information and how to reach out, I'd love for you to share the website address that people can go and take a look at that. But my next question, so HR is trying to be a better business partner. We want to be able to talk numbers and facts and figures and things with our leaders. So one of the things that I think HR practitioners and maybe managers, in general, struggle with is putting recognition into numbers. So in that vein, how can we measure the success of a recognition program, either formal or informal once we've implemented it so that we can share how important it is and impactful to our organizations.
Lori McKnight:
Okay. I'm going to answer that in two ways. First, I'm going to talk about the importance of recognition as a strategic partner, importance of HR as being a strategic partner at the leadership table. Then I'll address some of the ways you can tell if your program's actually working. But first off, as you know, Callie, and then most listeners and others, truckloads of data and studies that show the correlation between recognition and better bottom line results. But it is really hard to get that message through to some managers and even to some leaders. It's probably one of HR's hardest jobs. Gallup, if you look at the Gallup results, they look at the top quartile and bottom quartile departments and productivity of those departments could have compared to how well employees feel recognized. And what they're finding is that the top performing units have have managers that recognize others and are recognized themselves more than the underperforming managers and business units.
And the beauty of today's recognition platform and tools is that it creates your very own data so you don't have to look at Gallup. You can look at your own data as an HR leader and show the correlation between the people and your organization who recognize and are recognized with their individual and units performance. And this really sends a strong message to leaders and to managers within the organization and can be very telling and inspire or demand a little bit more concerted effort to recognize. I do feel that employee analytics is the future of the recognition industry. It provides so much incredible intelligence to the HR team, CEOs, and managers that they can use and refer to. And it's not even just for performance. If you can look at some of the data, if you get people using your social recognition tools, you can actually see someone who might be starting to look for another job by looking at them redeeming all of their points or starting to recognize a lot more people that's out of character for them.
So I do feel that there's a lot of data and numbers that you as an organization can pull to quantify a return on your investment and to actually help lead some of your retention strategies. So that's one part of the question. And then, how to know if your programs are actually working. I think that was the second part of your question. And I'd say contrary to popular opinion, you actually don't really need employee engagement surveys to find out if your recognition programs are working. If you have an employee who's willing to send their friend's resume to you, then that shows that they think they're working in a very positive place if they're going to refer their friend to work in the organization as well. Sharing company social media posts shows that they're proud to work for your organization. Providing ideas on how processes can be improved shows that they care. Even things like participating in company events and putting the time in for additional training and supporting charitable causes that your organization supports, all those things show engagement and show that the programs that you have launched are working.
So the first part of the question, I guess, was showing the importance of recognition and quantifying it, and then to actually give you feedback on how well those programs are working. Obviously if there's high participation in your programs, then you know that it's going over well and people are utilizing the tools and there's more recognition, moments, and activities happening, that those are just some other ways that you could actually measure whether the programs are working or not.
Callie Zipple:
And I love that because it goes very well with my next question and the direction that I want to take the conversation. And it's about participation, but not necessarily from the employee perspective, but more the manager's perspective. So I think sometimes the successes of our recognition program hinges on the buy-in or the participation from our managers. And I can speak from personal experience with recognition programs that have bombed because one manager uses it and their employees are on top of the world and they have the highest number of referrals to the organization. But then another manager and another department doesn't use it at all and their employees aren't engaged. They don't do any referrals and they're feeling just generally bummed. So how can we as HR practitioners make sure that we're implementing a program that everybody can and will participate in?
Lori McKnight:
Well, I do feel like it goes into that last question too. If you can show the bottom line results by the impact that recognition has on performance, then hopefully that will incent some managers to recognize more often because they'll see what's in it for them. But I actually did a blog post that talked about management fatal flaws, and one of the biggest fatal flaws, career debilitating flaws, involves a lack of recognition, that one in three managers actually have fatal flaw that they're not even aware of. And seven of those nine fatal flaws involves the lack of recognition. So making managers conscious of the fact that they're not great at recognizing can actually be a first step in coaching them on why and how recognition can help them get ahead in the organization as well as help their organization be a top producer and perform better.
Just that blog, it talked... Then it was summarized in their Harvard Business Review and it talked about how 63% of the people polled felt that their managers didn't recognize their achievements. Worse, that managers were taking credit for their ideas. They felt that managers weren't giving constructive feedback and they weren't recognizing them as them as both people and performers. And those are fatal flaws that will hold a manager back from higher level positions where relationship building and leadership skills become even more and more important. So I think if you can try and provide a business case to managers to recognize, then that certainly helps. And if you can get a formal program in place that makes it easy for managers to recognize, because they're busy people. They have a lot on the go. So the more tools that you can give them to make it easier for them to recognize their staff, the more participation you'll see.
Callie Zipple:
And one thing that just struck me as you were talking about managers with these fatal flaws, I'm wondering if it is easier for managers who have been thanked throughout their career to do the thanking of their own employees. Right? So if we start in organizations when we're first starting out that has a recognition program and we see how valuable that is and how that makes us feel, we're more likely as managers to recognize others.
Lori McKnight:
Absolutely.
Callie Zipple:
So I think... Right? For the sheer point of emulating the way that recognition has made us feel throughout our career, that's why recognition is such an important thing. We need to be doing it in every organization and at every level so that as people grow and move up within the organizations, they're already understanding how important that is, I guess.
Lori McKnight:
Absolutely. And it comes down to designing a good program too, because you there's certain things that we've learned as we've been designing programs that really makes the difference and gets everyone off on the right start, on a good start and keeps the momentum going and makes people want to participate. There's four things that I was thinking about that really make a difference and really set your program up for success. And the one would be having the right stakeholders at the table, governing the project from the beginning. So having a senior HR person, having a senior communications person, having an IT person... because that adds visibility to your program and it gives you some program support as well.
The second piece that's really important is educating employees. So you can't just put a program out there and expect people to understand how to use it. There is some training and education that's required in order for everyone to understand how it works and what recognition criteria are being used. And then, tweaking because you're not always going to get it just right the first time. So tweaking and then measuring the activity that's happening on the program and reporting on the participation to your CEO and the leadership team regularly. That really gets people's attention. When leadership can see all of the different interactions and recognition moments that are happening, that really makes them feel great.
And actually, on that note, I heard an example of an HR leader who actually prints out the top five expressions of recognition from their platform every Friday and she gives it to her CEO to read over the weekend. And after a long week of problem solving and a lot of stuff that isn't always positive that CEOs have to deal with, the CEO just loves... He looks forward to Friday afternoons when he can read through all of the great things that his employees are saying about each other. And he's really bought into the program because of that. So making sure to include the leadership team and sharing all the positive things that are happening on your recognition platform or the recognition program that you have going on.
And then, the fourth thing would be keep the momentum going. And you need to constantly communicate, which is why it's good to have a senior communications person on your stakeholder board, fun campaigns and games and contests, all kinds of ways to encourage people to participate and to keep the program top of mind. And it doesn't always have to be money either. It can be just fun things like set up your profile and... Well, you set up your profile, you get points. That's typically how we do it. But you could do other things that involve non-monetary recognition like maybe having your boss clean your desk if you get five thank yous in a week period. Or if you've given out five thank yous, you get to come into work late or work from home. There's a lot of monetary and non-monetary and fun little ways that you can get people talking and wanting to participate in your program because they want to, not because they have to.
Callie Zipple:
I love that idea because the other thing that I'll add to your list there is that talk to managers too. Talk to managers and understand what works for them and what they have time to do, because sometimes managers say they just don't have time to do recognition. So if you are looking to create a program, talk to them first before you implement anything to make sure that what you're putting in place will be utilized by them.
Lori McKnight:
Yeah, yeah, no, that is important. Yeah. Get feedback from all the participants is great. And you can design a program that works for your culture and is addressing the things that are most important to your management team.
Callie Zipple:
So one of the other things that we've lent to the conversation a little bit is that employee recognition programs don't necessarily have to feel forced or unnatural, although sometimes they do. And sometimes that's because we don't put enough thought into the program and we don't ask those stakeholders, like you said, what they want or what works for them. So do you have any tips to avoid this feeling for HR practitioners who are putting together a program that it has to be forced, that it has to be unnatural, and how we can build a program that's just going to be easy for people to pick up and use day to day?
Lori McKnight:
I think as I go back to these new social recognition tools... because they are so easy to use and it's the way the majority of the demographic in the workplace are using these tools to communicate. So I feel like it's not inauthentic. It's not awkward because it's the way that they're communicating in their personal lives. A lot of these tools where you can go in and like, share, and comment on successes that you've seen posted of colleagues or teams that people can... Birthdays, you can like, comment, and share when it's someone's birthday or their first anniversary at the company. It's a very all-inclusive platform that really does make it easy for everyone, not just managers but peer to peer thanks so you can really showcase the great work that people are doing to make you look good and to make your job easier. So I feel like recognition programs have come along a long way. So they should feel less forced because it's using the communication tools that we're all using in our daily lives.
Callie Zipple:
That's such a great thought. If we're already comfortable using social media platforms and these recognition programs and platforms look just like that, how easy is it for us to just pick it up and run with it? Right? I think I can attest to some of these platforms having things like newsfeeds. So I was working at an organization where we were thinking about installing or utilizing one of these platforms. And the coolest part about this platform we were talking to was that they had a newsfeed. And it looked just like the newsfeeds that we're so accustomed to on our social media platforms. So if you're already used to getting your information from these news feeds, it should be easy for you to pick up this platform and want to see what your coworkers are saying about each other and looking at this platform as a newsfeed and having that program be a lot easier to digest because we've already been doing that day to day.
Lori McKnight:
Yeah. We believe in it so much that we actually offer social recognition tools for free with our formal service award program. So the service award program is great, but it only really recognizes the 5% to 10% of people that are celebrating a milestone, whereas these social recognition tools is the news feed, the nomination programs, workplace polls, birthday, welcoming new hires, all of the different tools that come as part of the social recognition feed. That includes everyone, so everyone can participate and everyone can share. And it's the future of where recognition is going and it's not cost prohibitive to companies. Ours is very affordable. I'm sure there are others that are affordable and it's a great way of really promoting and reinforcing your company values that can be used on any device in any location. And then, once you get people using the social recognition tools, there's just a mindful of amazing data that can help you, as a company, manage, inspire and retain your people.
Callie Zipple:
And I love the idea of peer to peer recognition. I have to say that's sort of a new concept for me. And it was a new concept when I mentioned that organization that I was working for wanting to implement a new recognition program. This idea of peer to peer and having it be so accessible so that they can use it with, basically, not even thinking about it was just mind-blowing for me because it you're right. It brings everybody into the same space. And instead of waiting for your 5 year, 10 year anniversary to get your little plaque in whatever gift it is that organizations offer for those milestones, you're being recognized every day, every month, every year, depending on what your peers have to say about you.
And I think that was just such a aha moment for me as I was thinking about recognition programs and how meaningful that can be, because it comes back to that question that I had about the one manager who utilizes the program and the other manager that doesn't. This eliminates that, right, because now it's peer to peer and it doesn't have to be your manager recognizing you and saying thank you. It can be anybody within the organization.
Lori McKnight:
Yeah. And how good does that feel? There's so much currency in that, just having some way... Just makes your day. You get a little boost or a little thumbs up and thanks. And everyone sees it too. So I mean... it can be private, but a lot of the times it's public. So everyone sees that you've done a great job and that really gives you confidence and just makes your job that much more pleasant to do. And I love the quote, "Small acts of recognition multiplied by many enhanced cultures drives success." And I do so believe that if everyone recognizes someone, everyone says thanks, if everyone's making concerted effort to be pleasant and friendly and recognize, appreciate others, then that spreads through your culture. And that changes things. What you see gets repeated. And it is a very powerful tool recognition. I think it's the most affordable and underutilized tool in a business playbook is recognition. It doesn't have to cost you.
Callie Zipple:
Yeah, I would agree.
Lori McKnight:
But it just takes some leadership and investment in your people.
Callie Zipple:
I love that. And I think we have enough listeners on our podcast who would be very interested in hearing from you a couple of examples of companies that you feel are doing this whole employee recognition thing right. And I would love to hear, to bring it home for all of our listeners, right, examples at large companies, and then maybe examples at smaller companies that don't necessarily have a huge budget to do this big, huge grandiose program. So any examples you could share with us would be great.
Lori McKnight:
Okay. Well, we do a lot of work with small, medium sized organizations. So we do work with large organizations as well, but we do have some smaller ones. And one program that's done really, really well is our safety program. So our clients can recognize and reward employees for reporting near misses. So near misses are those things that are reported that prevents the accident from happening. So when you notice that there's a spill on the floor, for instance, and government of laws require you to fill out an incident report to prevent this from happening, we fixed the hole in the roof or... There's so many different examples of it. But these near misses are really important because those actually help prevent accents from really happening.
So what we've been doing with a lot of our clients, a lot in the manufacturing and chemical industry, actually are automating the previously manual incident reports. So now, they can go online and their employees can log the near miss really quickly. And they can also provide process improvement suggestions to prevent those incidents from happening again, or just things that they've seen on the floor that they think would improve the way the organization is operating. And so, our clients have seen a lot fewer accidents and injuries as a result, but they've also seen a boost in engagement as employees feel like the company's listening, wants to hear from them and that they care about them as people and performers. And the other thing that's coming out of these programs is that the organization is sharing... People and employees are making suggestions, and these are becoming best practices that are being shared across locations, improving communication and teamwork, and the way things are done in various locations across one organization.
So the safety program's been really well-received by a lot of our clients. We also have automated nomination process for a number of clients that are using our social tools. And so, that's resulted in more participation and better consistency across locations and a lot less bias. People are saying thank you more and they understand the values that we want to reinforce. And so, the nomination process is a bit easier to understand and they're getting more people being nominated and more public recognition and visibility around the program, which improves morale. The social tools, again, are really great for these global organizations that have employees spread all over the world because they're a great connector and a really nice way of sharing great things that are happening through at the organization. When you're in a small remote office, you don't get that same sense of teamwork. So being able to see and be a part of a larger team is really, really great.
And obviously, a lot of our programs, they are tied to rewards. So for global organizations, it's nice to have a supplier that you can streamline the process and offer culturally appropriate rewards that you don't pay duty on and that kind of thing. So that's great. But I think we have a lot of really successful great programs, but for me, the gold standard for a recognition program is Southwest Airlines Kick Tail program. They are a client of ours. I think they actually do the programs internally themselves, but I'm just in awe and have so much respect for how they've executed and how the whole companies embrace their recognition program. Southwest is an awesome organization. They have a super culture and they really do care about their employees and it shows in the way that they've run this program.
So I was at a Recognition Professionals conference a couple years ago and there were some representatives from Southwest there and they talked about their program. And it just stuck with me because it just seems like the gold standard for how to run a program. So they have a platform. It's called The Swag Platform. And it has all of the recognition programs and employees, the leaders, and customers can all access this program. And then they use these digital and as well as on the spot kick tails to recognize others. And there's unlimited kick tails available. So there's no point values. The currencies is really in the good feeling that you get from giving and receiving these kick tails.
And then, each kick tail is entered into a pool when you notice someone doing something great, to go up above and beyond for a client. That reflects the Southwest core values. These kick tails are entered into a pool and they're active for a whole year. And then each month, Southwest randomly draws 150 of these kick tails from the pool and awards those employees with points. So they can use their points right away to redeem for merchandise or they can save them. They could use them for airline seats for themselves or for others. There's a point value associated with them. And then, every year, Southwest actually draws 10 names from that remaining pool and the winners receive $5,000, which is awesome. But what's even better is that the CEO or a VP flies to where that employee's working. So flies to the airport, for instance, where that person's working and surprises them by personally presenting them with the check and the public announcement of why they were selected or why they were given the kick tail in the first place.
And they film it. They put on social media. They make it a big deal. They communicate it in their magazine on their internet, through internal communications. And it is a program that everyone in the organization knows about. I think they've got something like 98% participation. They give out something like 80,000 kick tails a month, which is huge. There's about 1800 winners a year. So it just shows that a really well thought out recognition program that's supported by leadership can make a huge difference in an organization and in how that organization serves their customers too.
Callie Zipple:
I love all of those examples, but I think the thing that really brings it home for me is the executive and leadership participation. I can't even imagine having an executive stand there and give me a $5,000 check and have it be recorded and shared and all of that stuff.
Lori McKnight:
It's huge.
Callie Zipple:
And so, to have huge is that buy-in... It's huge. And to have that buy-in, I think, is just so integral to the success of these programs. So I just want to thank you again for being here and for sharing your expertise. And that is all the questions that we had prepared for. So it's been a great conversation. And I know you mentioned your website and this PDF that managers can access, but would you mind sharing some information about how people can continue the conversation with you or connect with you if they'd like to talk a little bit more about recognition?
Lori McKnight:
Yeah. I'd love to talk to them. I'm on LinkedIn. So Lori McKnight with CSI STARS, I'm on Twitter. My Twitter handle's @LoriMcKnight2. I'm just starting on Twitter. So I would love if you'd follow me on Twitter because I don't have a lot of people following it. I'm not following a lot of people yet, so I need to get better at that. And then, you can email me at lori@csistars.com. And you could even sign up... I do a weekly blog. If you're interested in getting that blog, you can sign up for it at www.csistarsdot.com. So thank you, Callie, so much for having me. I really hope the more people thank you more often, it just makes for a less stressful, a more pleasant, and a really just a more productive and happier place to work. So I really am a big believer in recognition and I know a lot of your listeners probably are too. So I appreciate them taking the time to listen to the podcast.
Callie Zipple:
I agree. And in the spirit of saying thank you, thank you again for coming out and being a guest on the podcast. I think it was a great conversation. I think it's a great topic. I think everybody can say thank you a little bit more, right? So again, I just appreciate your feedback. And I did just follow you on Twitter so you'll see me coming through as a follower for you on Twitter. But as a reminder, if our listeners want to connect with me directly, I am on LinkedIn. I'm also on Twitter and Instagram at @SHRMCallieZ. Feel free to subscribe to updates about our podcast, including new episodes, at shrm.org/HonestHR, or find us an iTunes, Spotify, wherever else you're listening to your podcast. And if you like what you hear, consider giving us a rating. It will really help us, on those platforms, become a little bit more well known. So thanks again for coming out, everybody. And we will see you next time for a new Honest HR episode.