I am listening to Jack Welch’s book Winning, for the second time this month, on my commutes to and from work.
For those who are not familiar with Jack Welch, he was the CEO of GE for twenty years, and during his time at GE he was considered one of the best CEO’s in the world. In the book Jack asks, “Do you celebrate enough?” and then he continues on to ask if you’ve done anything in the past year, big or small to celebrate your teams achievements.
This really stuck out to me because I think too often as employers, we fail to recognize and appreciate our employees enough. In the past twenty years I have worked in numerous jobs and industries from washing dishes at a restaurant, to being a sales representative at huge International Corporation, to running my own company. One common theme I have learned is no matter what the job, if the employer recognizes and shows appreciation for their employees, the employees will continue to work hard and do the best job they can. However, if the employer fails to recognize his or her employees and takes their efforts for granted, then employee morale suffers and those employees fail to produce the type of results and efforts the employer is looking for.
One of the fundamental principles of business or management that I believe to be essential is to keep your employees happy and they will keep your members happy.
So this brings us back to Jack Welch’s question, “Do you celebrate enough?” If you want your staff to continually work hard and exceed expectations, then you need to celebrate often.
Tips for a good rewards program:
- Decide what goals you want to reward. Did you exceed retention goals for January? Did the gym bring in 15 new members in February? Did you go on a vacation while your staff held down the fort???
- Have a written plan in place. You don’t have to share this with your staff, but it should ensure you consistently recognize your staff. This is something that easily gets over looked when things get busy.
- Speaking of consistency – I think it would be hard to over-recognize your staff’s achievements. Even a simple thank you, or recognition in front of peers goes a long way.
- Surprise them. Be spontaneous. Do something fun.
“Celebrating makes people feel like winners and creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy.” – Jack Welch
This article was written by Justin Bacon, of CrossFit DoneRight. He is the owner of a successful affiliate and also loves to help others reach their goals, both in their fitness and life.