An Employee Program to Regain Trust, Part II
In the last post I talked about how the company for which I worked had found itself in the same position as many of its corporate peers. Facing financial difficulties throughout the year they had needed to layoff many good employees. Those of us who remained were called upon to handle a greater workload at the same – if not less – pay. It has been a tremendous strain for all of us. Now, while we were doing a little bit better and things were essentially stable we found that morale was at an all time low. Employees were nervous and mistrustful; they worried about their jobs, their families, and the fate of the company itself. After much discussion we decided that the modest investment in an employee program would be well worth our time and effort in order to raise morale.
We worked with a professional company with solid expertise in implementing incentive programs in industries across the board. They helped us put a rewards program in place that – while not extravagant financially speaking – was enough to really motivate our employees. We found that our employee recognition program did several things including:
• Increased morale. We had just come off of many months of stress and anxiety. For employees who were unsure if they were even going to have a job in the weeks and months to follow, the implementation of an employee program gave them newfound confidence that the company was doing okay and that, in turn, their jobs were secure.
• More connection with management. When employees fear for their jobs they tend to go out of their way to avoid management and ownership. We had always been a company that operated without boundaries but the last several months had seen a real separation in the workplace. The employee program united us once again in a common goal.
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