I’m going to start this post about talent engagement with a story about the power company, so bear with me. I know, electric utilities aren’t known for customer experience. So I didn’t expect much more than a widget in the mail when I signed up to try out our power company’s program for real-time energy monitoring – I was just looking for something to tinker with. When DTE Energy, unprovoked, sent me an Amazon gift card as a thank-you for trying out the service, I was confronted by a strange feeling: I felt gratitude? For the power company?!
Marketers know a good “surprise and delight” campaign, and as consumers, we do too, even if we don’t know it by its name. Every time T-Mobile sends someone an iPhone in response to a tweet, or a United Airlines rep goes out of their way to publicly recognize a frequent flyer at the airport, you’re seeing S&D in action.
Why does it work? Well, I’m not a marketer by trade, but I think it has to do with three things:
- Spontaneity – The art of the unexpected is key. S&D initiatives are most impactful when they are one-time expressions. The “Second Annual” anything is automatically less interesting, so it’s important to avoid the temptation to repeat even the most well-received gestures.
- Non-Reciprocity – The gesture shouldn’t be given in response to doing or achieving something, since that starts to feel like compensation. Even more importantly, it shouldn’t ask the recipient to take some action in response to the gift, like post about it on social media or use it in a way that benefits the giver. That sense that there’s something in it for the giver can quickly erode that feeling of appreciation.
- Elevation – the most effective S&D campaigns give someone (like a single customer) a feeling of being individually appreciated and elevated by a company or leader in a way that might even feel a little disproportional – this is why the most effective ones require actual investment of time and energy.
Let’s look at those two examples above. Sending a tweet is not hard. We aren’t used to being given a $1,000 product in exchange for that act. As just an individual customer, it feels amazing to know that someone with enough clout at T-Mobile to give away an iPhone chose you to receive it, and somebody, somewhere put it in a box and shipped it to your door with a handwritten note.
United didn’t even need to spend money on their effort. That individual, one of probably hundreds of thousands of elite frequent flyers on the airline, happened to be traveling on an anniversary. They probably didn’t even know it. It really wasn’t that hard to hand-deliver a membership card — they even saved money on the postage. It wasn’t a huge deal to let the passenger board first, but it made them feel like a Million Miler, creating a lasting positive memory and association with the brand.
Those are the kind of moments that really build loyalty. Too often, I think employers get dangerously close to achieving these kind of moments, but fall short in a few key ways:
- They build rewards and recognition (R&R) programs that are too programmatic and repetitive, so after the first round are given, there’s no novelty – and it doesn’t take long before not being recognized for an accomplishment then becomes a disappointment.
- They try to turn recognition into a win-win, by begging employees to post their gifts, awards and branded merchandise on social media, creating the feeling of a transaction; or worse, giving something that feels like it’s intended to be used to create brand value for the employer.
- They outsource recognition to mid-level managers and trust they’ll get it right, or do forced executive shout-outs that lack a sense of real investment of effort in appreciating the employee.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) estimates that it costs 6 to 9 months of salary to replace a departing employee, and that estimate was compiled before the tight labor market we’ve found ourselves in. It has never been more important to make employees feel good about being a part of your organization.
Let’s get to the punch line: you should invest in surprising and delighting your employees. And yes, I’m sorry to say that the key word is invest: employees can tell when you’re trying to be cheap.
Here are some ideas:
- Reward employees with unexpected spot bonuses, and don’t do it as part of a program or big initiative. Just add it to the paycheck and pair it with a personal, short thank you note from the leader of their division or org.
- Think about what challenges your employees the most in the pandemic workplace. Is your team working from home? Maybe noise-cancelling headphones would help them find some peace and quiet in the middle of the chaos.
- Is your team geographically concentrated? Send everybody a season pass to nearby state parks or other escapes from the workplace that promote something other than sitting behind a screen.
- Give an employee or a department a mental health day after a particularly grueling time. Don’t hide it or deliver it under the table; it should be real. And resist the urge to ask people to post about what they’re doing with their day off on social media. It’s not for you.
The specifics of what you do aren’t as important as the thought behind it. How can you show you understand your workforce, your culture, and their challenges and contributions? How can you do it in a way that, frankly, doesn’t look – and isn’t – self-serving?
In this current talent crunch, employers need to think like marketers and can’t afford to miss the opportunity to embrace Surprise & Delight principles and create those lasting impressions that remind employees why they’ve invested their careers with you.
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