Changing Your Appreciation Progams? Be Careful!

Over the years, I've worked for many companies who put on great employee appreciation events, and many more who offered referral bonuses when they were hiring.

Few, however tied these programs together to clearly communicate and reinforce their Employment Brand. If you're going to put in place an incentive for your employees to speak with their friends and family about working for your company, you should ensure that your core values and unique programs are top of mind, and clearly understood by all. Again, as I have written several times, your values must be in line with the reality of your environment to ensure brand integrity, and ultimately brand loyalty.

When we consider changing recognition or appreciation programs in our company, we always closely examine how it will affect our ability to hire great people. As an extension of that, we explore how it will affect the retention of our current staff, and what potential word of mouth "advertising" they will bring to their communities.

Aside from offering the highest compensation in the land, a company's REPUTATION is the most important element to attracting applicants. Our company has built a reputation for fast growth, casual atmosphere, engaged employees at every level, and flexibility to generate, develop, and execute new initiatives. Our perks are very much in line with this reputation, and serve to reinforce our employer brand. Some of our special perks include Bring A Dog to Work Fridays, employee driven All Star Awards with photos on the wall, and company outings the local Triple-A baseball game, or a harbor cruise.

Even when times are tight, as they certainly are now for most companies, we understand that any changes we would make to these unique and special perks would impact our ability to retain and attract great employees in the future.

What special perks does your company offer, and how well do you connect them to your Employment Brand both internally and externally?