Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/522141
palletcentral.com PalletCentral • May-June 2015 35 • Provide gift certificates to all employees at Thanksgiving to help with their grocery expense as well as a free turkey for all. • Randomly distribute company t-shirts or sweatshirts. • Simply provide a lot of pats on the back. • Use a daily, weekly or monthly blog post to highlight employee efforts. • Recognize cost saving ideas within lean efforts with personal certificates and gift cards. • Heighten the focus on managers having authentic dialogue with teammates to express their appreciation; whether this is for work well done, certain skill levels achieved, or for going above the norm in professional dedication. • Service anniversaries: set the interval at which you will recognize employees, and at each milestone, give the employee a personal note, a gift card, other gifts or money. > An interesting insight as noted by Globoforce.com: 82% of us would feel good if people noticed and congratulated us for a first work anniversary. Employee Retention: No Micromanagement "One sure way to run employees away from your company is to 'micromanage' them," according to Louise Dickmeyer. So what exactly does it mean to micromanage employees? Merriam- Webster's Online Dictionary defines micromanagement as "manage[ment] or control with excessive attention to minor details." Micromanagement restricts the ability of micromanaged people to develop and grow, and it also limits what a team can achieve. Here is another observation offered by Howe Wallace, PalletOne: People love jobs where they get to do what they do best, and have more control over what they do. Sometimes you get stuck doing things that don't fit your particular skill set. Sometimes you get stuck doing things the way you are told when your experience but "Make [employee recognition] a discipline and an expectation, and in no time engagement levels in your company will star t to climb." – Louise Dickmeyer, PDP Solutions