I once worked at a company that gave every employee a gift basket for Christmas. Sure, the company could have spent the same amount on giving us all a small cash bonus—but somehow, receiving a physical Christmas present felt far more meaningful. As I unpacked a bottle of sparkling wine, a jumbo box of chocolates, deli meats, and delicious cheeses, I felt nothing but fondness for my employer. This was many years ago now, but I’ll never forget the feeling when my first gift basket arrived out of the blue.  And that’s the secret of tangible rewards. If done right, they can be deeply meaningf ..read more

Employee engagement drives everything from year-over-year growth to operational efficiency. Engaged employees outperform their disengaged peers across the board, from customer satisfaction measures to productivity.  But what drives employee engagement?  As an HR professional, you might find yourself wondering if you can even make a difference to engagement rates. After all, perhaps engagement comes down to factors beyond your control, like business performance, market turbulence, or even the employees’ home lives. As an HR team, can you actually increase employee engagement? And if s ..read more

Marketing isn’t just about making sales—it’s also the deep, long-term work of building a brand that customers connect with. But getting your brand to a place where it grows easily and continuously attracts the right customers can be a difficult journey—one that is simpler and faster to navigate with brand champions on your team. In this article, we’ll discuss what exactly brand champions are, some of their most common characteristics, and strategies you can use to find and uplift these amazing people. What is a brand champion? A brand champion is a person who loves your brand and isn’t afraid ..read more

Companies use employee recognition as a strategy to improve morale, increase retention, and reward employees for their hard work. There are a number of employee recognition best practices that may improve the efficacy of your employee recognition strategies. Let’s dive into an exploration of the benefits of employee recognition, and how you can best use your resources to show your employees how much you care. What is employee recognition? Employee recognition is any activity or strategy employers use to show appreciation for their employees. Employers devote time and resources to employee reco ..read more

Scott is a truck driver who hits the road at 3am every morning and drives for roughly 11 hours. He spends the majority of his day alone and typically calls his family during his lunch break or at the end of the evening. Heidi is a nurse who works in the cardiac critical care unit. She works three 13-hour shifts per week and is on her feet all day checking on patients, facilitating bedside procedures, and managing cardiac emergencies.  Danny is a fulfillment warehouse worker who lifts and moves inventory and assists with packing needs. For heavy loads, he uses a forklift to transport cargo ..read more

You know the old saying, “The sales team may sell the first machine, but it’s the service team that sells the second one.” Today, with new equipment sales in decline, that’s truer than ever. Great service technicians are a key profit driver for manufacturers. As a result, they’re in high demand, and the service they provide is crucial to customer satisfaction.  But what about their own satisfaction?  Field customer service can be a thankless and unrewarding job: long hours, a lot of time on the road, and little motivation. Without extra incentives, service techs may see little benefi ..read more

If you are invested in your organization’s growth, it may be worth committing resources to making sure employees have opportunities to share feedback and engage with that growth. Engaged employees do better work and contribute to a positive, supportive work culture. Employee engagement committees are one way employers can take meaningful action in this area. What is an employee engagement committee? An employee engagement committee is a group of company employees who spend a portion of their work time improving their employer’s connection with its employees. Employees volunteer their time to t ..read more

Hourly employees make up the majority of the US workforce. Yet it seems that most companies are neglecting them. A Gallup survey of job satisfaction found that hourly workers were unhappier than their salaried co-workers about just about everything, from their benefits to their pay to their job security.   This isn’t just unfair, it’s short-sighted. Hourly employees are the heart of many organizations. They are the retail workers, the customer service reps, the servers, nurses, programmers, and the front-line staff who are at the core of whether your business survives or fails.  ..read more

When Walter Orthmann joined ReneauxView as a shipping assistant, Snow White was showing in cinemas, Roosevelt was the US President and Superman made his first comic book appearance. Today, 84 years later, Mr. Orthmann is still working for ReneauxView, having worked his way up to a sales management position. Asked for the secret of his  record-breaking tenure, Orthmann, now over 100, shared his top career advice: “All I care about is that tomorrow will be another day in which I will wake up, get up, exercise and go to work; you need to get busy with the present, not the past or the future ..read more

An organization’s ability to rise to challenges depends on the strength of its culture. Workplace culture, while difficult to measure or quantify, has an enormous impact on a company’s success. A high-performance culture brings benefits beyond simply resilience to difficult times. It is the model every organization, no matter its industry or size, should strive for. Let’s explore what makes a high-performance culture and steps individuals can take to create positive change in their workplace. What is a High-Performance Culture? High-performance culture is a workplace culture where employees op ..read more