Personal Employee Recognition
for Engagement, Enthusiasm and Retention
By Kurt Jensen,
Communications Director
Most administrators in all industries would admit that employee
retention is a key issue in improving their bottom lines, especially when an increase in employee retention as small as five
percent can generate a 25-85
percent increase in profitability.
In the highly knowledgeintensive healthcare industry, the cost of
replacement is particularly high, and high
levels of staff turnover can be crippling to a
hospital’s profitability.
But focusing solely on bottom-line retention
can lead to skewed investments or programs
that aren’t aimed at the problem’s core factors – employee engagement and enthusiasm for the work they do.1
This can be an especially thorny problem
when dealing with the rapidly growing millennial population in the workforce—a
group that will comprise 75 percent of the
workforce by the year
It’s not
2025.2
Employee recognition must continue to
evolve and be tailored to your employees
in order to “remain meaningful and effective,” according to Gary Beckstrand of employee recognition solutions provider O.C.
Tanner.4
In an interview with Business News Daily,
Beckstrand spoke about making recognition
“as personal as possible to that specific
employee” by tailoring efforts “to the individual and where they are in their career
and potentially, in their life.”5
Forbes’s Meghan M. Biro, in an article entitled “5 Ways Leaders
too late to use Rock Employee
CVP Week as an op- Recognition,” recomMany administrators are
mends being
facing the same quesportunity to develop “authentic, not autotion: how do we motimatic,” speaking to
vate millennials? Surveys and improve your employee the “human touch so
have shown that millenimportant to effecrecognition efforts.
nials are particularly
tive recognition.”6
concerned with working
Good recognition, according to Biro, should
for innovative organizations that foster
also be “tied to the employee’s perception
thinking and provide opportunities for them
of value.”7 Knowing what your employees
to develop their skills. 3
value will make it easier to make them feel
valued.
We at the Alliance of Cardiovascular Professionals have talked at length about our exWhile it’s important to be personal, it’s also
cellent, cost-effective educational programs
important to be professional—Biro recomthat offer healthcare professionals opportumends keeping recognition efforts
nities to develop their knowledge and skills
“appropriate in volume/scale” and keeping
and nurture leadership skills by hosting.
them in context of the organization’s
goals.8 Giving timely, specific feedback,
But developing your organization’s pathways
especially when it relates to meeting organfor employee recognition could also be a key
izational goals, makes employees feel more
investment in reducing employee turnover.
valued as well as improving the sense of
community and teamwork.
Are you doing enough to recognize your
employees?
Employee recognition can also be used as
“
an avenue to provide opportunities for leadership and innovative thinking—an issue
critical to millennials—as leading recognition
efforts can be accessible to anyone at any
level of your organization, and recognition
efforts can include offering opportunities to
share ideas.
Take advantage of CV Professionals Week.
It’s not too late to use CVP Week as an opportunity to develop and improve your employee recognition efforts.
ACVP is offering several resources with sample ideas on how you might celebrate or
reward your employees in specific and personal ways on our website: http://acponline.org/front-page/cv-professionalsweek/
Use these resources as a jumping off point
and let your employees in on the conversation. Let their voices be heard, or even let
them lead recognition efforts.
The results will be worth it.
References
1. http://dupres 2