Employee Recognition Programs Pay Dividends

Writing for Forbes Magazine, Josh Bersin noted, “We just completed a comprehensive research project on employee recognition (saying “thank you”) and the results are really astounding: organizations that give regular thanks to their employees far outperform those that don’t.”¹

Pretty sure that “really astounding” comment was intended tongue-in-cheek.  After all, who would be surprised that recognizing employees for demonstrating organizational core values in the workplace is a good thing?

This issue of TurnKey features employee recognition programs from two local credit unions.  Destinations Credit Union in Baltimore recently launched their new PREFAce recognition program.  Freedom Federal Credit Union in Bel Air has been using their “Core Values Award” to honor employees since 2012.

Destinations’ program grew out of their desire to institute a cultural shift within the organization.  “We started our PREFAce program in conjunction with an effort to institute a cultural shift in our organization,” said Destinations’ Carol Szaroleta.  “We wanted to highlight employees who exemplify our core values and reward that behavior. “

Freedom’s quarterly awards have similar goals.  “Our ‘Core Values Award’ helps us highlight leadership by example,” noted Michael Dilworth, Senior Vice President, Marketing.  “Showing associates how you expect them to interact with members and our own employees is much more impactful than just telling them.”

Szaroleta and Dilworth sat with TurnKey to provide some Q&As on their recognition programs. Read their experiences on the reverse to see if your organization may benefit from a similar program.

Click to get the entire Q&A with Destinations CU’s Carol Szaroleta and Freedom FCU’s Mike Dilworth