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Want Your Stars to Stay? Say Thank You

Aron says thank youIt may come as a surprise to you that Friday, March 6th is the 20th anniversary of Employee Appreciation Day.  It was created in 1995 by Bob Nelson, a board member of Recognition Professionals International, as a way of focusing  employers on employee recognition.  It’s probably not surprising to you that lots of employees don’t feel particularly appreciated at work.

In an online survey conducted in February, we asked workers in the US how appreciated they felt at work, and what employer practices made them feel appreciated.  Our respondents’ level of engagement at work is in line with other recent studies suggesting that a majority of employees are ready to change employers if the right offer comes along.

Overall, 61 percent of our respondents have thought about searching for a new job in the past year, and more than a quarter of employees (26 percent) thought about looking for a new job in the past week.  It appears that the more appreciated they feel at work, the less likely employees are to seek a new opportunity. Of the employees who thought about searching for a new job in the past year, 59 percent either do not feel appreciated or feel somewhat appreciated at their place of work compared with 11 percent who feel very appreciated.

The most interesting results of this survey are those concerning what it takes to make employees feel appreciated.  It’s not just about the Benjamins.  When asked what gives them a high sense of satisfaction at work, employees say receiving a “Thank you” from their direct manager (55 percent) is important to them.   For employees who feel somewhat or not at all appreciated, not being recognized for the work they do was the top reason cited by nearly half (48 percent) as something that makes them not feel appreciated at work.

The picture above  is of our CEO, Aron Ain.  Aron provides regular updates to all of our employees via his video blog, Aron@Work.  In these posts, he never fails to thank all of us, and our families, for our contributions.  Our global employee engagement scores are way above the threshold for “best in class”.  Maybe that commitment to “thank you” has something to do with it.

You can read the full results of our survey here.

For more information on this topic, check out the following links:

Washington Post - After Getting a Raise, the Glow Fades Fast

Sue Meisinger HR Executive Column - Leveraging the Power of Thank You

 

RIP Mr. Spock

mr spockI was really sad to hear that Leonard Nimoy died today.  He was one of my childhood heroes.  I didn’t know if Vulcans were real, but I absolutely believed that traveling beyond the stars was in my future.  I was 9 years old when Star Trek started, and it aired later than my 4th grade bed time permitted.  However my parents knew I was a space nut, and so they let me stay up late to watch the adventures of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Ohura, Sulu and all the other characters who lived in that future place.  I was inspired by the vision of a future so far beyond Rockport, Massachusetts.  I was inspired all the way to major in science in college, and have never lost my passion for new discoveries about the universe around us.

I wasn’t the only one seeing my future in Star Trek.  Martin Cooper, inventor of the cell phone, cited James T. Kirk’s communicator as his inspiration.  Many contemporary scientific advances bear a startling resemblance to those magical ideas we saw on the Starship Enterprise.  It was just a TV show, but it was also a story of thinking boldly and acting bravely.  It challenged not only our notions of the boundaries of our world, but also our culture.  The first interracial kiss on TV happened on Star Trek.  (Cheesy scene, but it was a great risk to take at a time when many states still had anti-miscegenation laws on the books.)

Manned space flight has been on hiatus for decades, but the universe has opened before us as unmanned space exploration has continued to expand our understanding of the universe.   We haven’t put a person there yet, but we did  put a robot on Mars.  Perhaps fittingly, @SarcasticRover joined the millions around the planet today eulogizing Mr. Spock.

mars rover on nimoy

Missed Single Tasking Day Due to Multi-tasking

EPSON scanner imageToday’s guest post is from our board member John Hollon, VP of Editorial at TLNT.com.  If I hadn’t been multi-tasking yesterday, I might have posted this on time.  Read on for some advice on slowing down to get more done.

You know what I like most about February? The President’s Day holiday.

I used to like it even more when I was a kid and we used to get off for both Washington AND Lincoln’s Birthdays, but someone decided at some point that that was one holiday too many.

But, February isn’t just about President’s Day.

It has a lot of those “made up” holidays you are always reading about, like National Wear Red Day and Public Sleeping Day, which I’m sure are simply marketing hooks for some industry segment somewhere.

There is one “made up” holiday this month that does make sense, though – Single Tasking Day.

It’s officially observed this year on Feb. 24, and according to a web page for Single Tasking Day, it’s “the day to do just one thing at a time. In today’s world many multi-task, (and) many have to multi-task in order to accomplish what is needed in a day. Take this day to concentrate and complete one task at a time and don’t feel guilty about it.”

OK, I generally laugh at all the silly “made up” holidays, but this is one I can get behind because although everybody thinks they can multi-task, everyone is pretty terrible at it. In addition, it can damage your health.

I am not making this up. Back in 2014, Forbes.com reported on a Stanford University study  that “found that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers also found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.”

To put this in layman’s terms, this explains why my order at drive-thru restaurants always seems to get screwed up. It’s because the person taking my order over the squawk box is also trying to deal with customers at the walk-in counter at the same time they’re helping me, and that means they’re juggling two tasks at the same time.

As the Stanford study points out, when that happens, something has to give — and it’s usually my lunch.

As Forbes noted, “While more research is needed to determine if multi-tasking is physically damaging the brain (versus existing brain damage that predisposes people to multi-task), it’s clear that multi-tasking has negative effects. Neuroscientist Kep Kee Loh, the study’s lead author, explained the implications: “I feel that it is important to create an awareness that the way we are interacting with the devices might be changing the way we think and these changes might be occurring at the level of brain structure.”

The article adds:If you’re prone to multitasking, this is not a habit you’ll want to indulge — it clearly slows you down and decreases the quality of your work. Even if it doesn’t cause brain damage, allowing yourself to multi-task will fuel any existing difficulties you have with concentration, organization, and attention to detail.”

This explains a lot, like why I feel so confused when I’m trying to juggle multiple tasks, and why I come close to running over so many people in parking lots who are busy doing something on their smart phone while trying to walk somewhere.

By trying to do both, they end up doing both, but very badly.

So, I advise you to embrace Single Tasking Day and know that sometimes, one of those “made up” holidays actually makes some sense. And, if you are going to take Single Tasking Day to heart, do it soon, please, before I run over you doing something on your cell phone in the mall parking lot.