Employee Recognition

Building employee morale is arguably the most important task for a company. High employee morale can boost productivity, participation, retention and opportunities.  Employee recognition is a conduit for employee morale and if done effectively can change the entire culture of a company.

Be thoughtful. Sometimes it is better to give an employee a small token of appreciation that doesn’t involve a company t- shirt or coffee mug.  Putting in that extra thought will not go unnoticed by the employee.

Be intentional. While it is great to recognize all your employees for their hard work, when recognizing individuals or a specific team, make sure you recognize the specific accomplishments that led to recognition. Employees like to know their hard work isn’t going unnoticed. By bringing their accomplishments to the limelight, you are demonstrating that you pay attention to their work.

Be inclusive. When recognizing a team, recognize each team member’s contribution as well as the accomplishments of the team as a unit. As a member of a team, it is easy to feel lost in the group. By recognizing each team member, you are affirming their value to the team.

Be a culture of encouragement.  A great tool to achieve this is to develop a colleague recognition program. Allowing employees to recognize what their coworkers are doing creates camaraderie among employees.

People like to be praised; it’s human nature. By taking the time to recognize employees, you are reaffirming their efforts, thus encouraging them to keep up the hard work.  Encouraging employees significantly build employee morale.

 

What we can learn from St. Patrick

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and in America the festivities have been in full swing since the weekend. When people think of St. Patrick’s Day, most think of a sea of people decked out in green, packed pubs, and festive parades.  While the festivities are fun, there is much more to St. Patrick than these fun traditions.

St. Patrick was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a teenager. For six years he worked tirelessly, never losing hope that one day he would be free and get a chance to pursue his dreams. One night, St. Patrick fled and found a ship. He asked the captain for passage, but was denied. After telling his story to the crew, the crew convinced the captain to grant him passage. When St. Patrick got back to his homeland of England, he spent the next seven years studying to become a priest. After becoming a priest, St. Patrick traveled back to Ireland, where he was a slave, and realized his dream of bringing Christianity to Ireland.

St. Patrick’s story can serve as a model for reaching your dreams. We may live in a different time and have different goals but there are a few lessons that everyone can learn from St. Patrick.

1.       Persevere. When you have a dream, you will undoubtedly have challenges you must overcome to achieve your dreams. When you face adversity (and you will), you must persevere and not give up just because you were told no by one person. St. Patrick was denied passage by the captain, yet he ended up on that boat due to his persistence.

2.       Be prepared. St. Patrick was prepared for the day that he would find the right time to make his escape. You must be prepared to seize opportunities when they are presented to you. No one ever reached their goals without preparation.

3.       Reach out to people. Relationships with people can be your greatest asset to have. You never know when someone will be inspired by your dream and eager to assist you.  

Have a desire to reach new career heights? At Paladin, we strive to partner with you in finding your dream job. Contact us today to find out more about opportunities available with Paladin.

 

There's No Time like the Present

One mistake many people make today is failing to save and invest early in their career.  The typical excuse these people have is that they don’t make enough money to save early in their working lives.  Individuals just starting their career should set aside the maximum contribution they are able to make.  To give an example of just how valuable time is let’s look at two scenarios: Person A starts investing at 25 and is planning on working for 40 years before retirement. She starts investing $250 per month at a 12% rate of return. By the time she enters retirement she will have approximately $2.9 million. Now let’s imagine a second scenario where Person B delays investing until he turns 30. At age 30 he starts investing $300 per month and plans on retiring in 35 years. When he enters retirement, he will have approximately $1.9 million in investment income. As demonstrated, even if you invest more monthly than someone who started five years earlier, you will be worse off in the long run. If Person B had invested even a fraction of that $300 earlier and then increased his contributions in five years, it would have had a profound difference in his funds available at retirement.  Investing early has more benefits than the obvious time value benefit.

Investing early in your career when there is less disposable cash available, you learn to be more disciplined in your finances. When you include investment spending in your budget, you have to trim your spending in other areas, forcing you to be more frugal when spending.

Learn from your mistakes; a young investor may make a bad decision when investing. The good news is that young investors have a lot more room to take risks, hoping the payoff is high but able to absorb the loss if it is not. The added benefit of making a mistake early in your career is that you will have plenty of time to recover. If someone made the mistake later on when they had much more money in the game, the loss could be devastating.

Build a comfortable cushion. When you begin to invest early, you can have a peace of mind that your savings will be of good use in the event of an emergency. Having that cushion adds greater security and quality of life which will help you achieve your financial goals for the long run.

Contributing to a 401K plan is a great start to securing your financial future. At Paladin, we recognize the importance of investing for the future. That is why we offer competitive 401K plans for all of our employees and match contributions of our employees. To go beyond 401K plans, you may want to consider contributing to an IRA, where your money grows tax free. A traditional IRA is a tax deferred retirement account. You pay taxes when you start making withdrawals from it at retirement. A Roth IRA is a retirement savings account that is funded with after tax dollars. This means at retirement, you pay no taxes. Like anything else in life, starting a behavior early will help to build a lasting habit. When you invest early, you also get the added benefit of time value; allowing your savings to grow. There’s no time like the present to begin building a strong financial future. 

Boosting Retention Rates

The average employee stays at his or her job for 4.4 years according to the BLS. That means an average working individual will work for approximately 10 different employers over the course of their career.  These statistics were based on the current work force; the next generation of workers is expected to stay at their job for less than three years. This downward trend is not expected to go up any time soon. So what’s the significance of this data and what difference does it make? From an employer perspective, it is quite troublesome because employers invest on talent acquisition and training and development, only to lose an employee before there is any significant return on investment. For an employee, job hopping can be caused by a variety of reasons, but according to a survey by Net impact, these younger workers are seeking a job that brings happiness and fulfillment in their career.

How do employers fight the job hopping statistic released by the BLS?

Establish a connection

The first thing employers can do is make their new employee’s feel welcomed from day one. When an employee feels connected to other employees, it makes their time at work more enjoyable.  Making that first impression goes a long way to establishing a connection to the employee.  A well connected employee that feels like part of the company is less likely to actively seek out new employment.

Reiterate Company’s Mission statement and values

Present the company’s mission and values to each employee and reiterate the values whenever possible. When employees are reminded of their company’s mission and values, it provides them with the bigger picture of “why they do what they do”.  In a recent survey, researchers found that 58 percent of respondents said they desire to work with a company whose values are like their own and would be willing to take a 15 percent pay cut in order to work for such companies.  A company should first make sure they have clearly defined their values and then communicate these values to candidates during the recruiting process. Values will help the candidate and the employer determine if they are a good match for each other. 

Keep lines of communication open

Employers can survey their employees to measure morale, see areas where they’re succeeding in and areas where they can improve. A company committed to their employees makes for a happier, more productive workplace.  Happy employees and employee retention rates are heavily correlated.  On the other hand, employees must speak up and communicate with their employer. According to this same research study done by Net Impact, Gen Y workers ultimately desire to contribute creatively and have their ideas heard in the workplace. Employees must speak up in order to be heard. It sounds like such a simple concept, but one would be surprised at just how often employees are silent when it comes time to discuss these ideas with their employer. 

At Paladin, we value our employees and have expanded our employee relationship initiatives to deliver uplifting satisfaction to our employees.  We welcome employee input and listen to every comment given to us.  Looking to contribute your talent at a company that values your contribution? Contact us today.