Are Your Employees Orange?

We have spoken earlier about the great research done by Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick in The Carrot Principle, a book about employee engagement and the effects of recognition in the workplace. The authors have done it again, this time in The Orange Revolution, which discusses teamwork. The book encompasses what makes a great team, and how an "orange" team, or one with a high sense of unity in a common goal, achieves breakthrough, positive results.

Teams exist in almost every organization, in every arena. The elder care industry is no exception, especially when you consider geriatric care management, and the team it takes to care for an elder in their home. Elton and Gostick found that once an initial level of basic competence is met, there are 5 key factors every team needs in order to achieve "orange" status and be effective:

• Goal Setting (knowing where the team is going)
• Communication (wise use of your voice and ears)
• Trust (believing in others and being trustworthy)
• Accountability (doing what you say you will do)
• Recognition (appreciating others' strengths and contributions)

A geriatric care manager and an organization that employs caregivers to the elderly has a key responsibility to ensure their employees are humming the same tune when it comes to those five factors. Supervisors who set clear goals, encourage and provide detailed communication, build trust, hold team members accountable, and recognize great work will undoubtedly have an engaged team environment built around the client.

Since October brings us lots of orange in pumpkins, Halloween, and harvest colors, I encourage you to survey your employees and client care teams to see if they are engaged and orange, too.

We Love Carrots!

I recently attended the 62nd Annual SHRM Conference, the largest HR Conference in the world with over 11,000 attendees from 140 countries. As you can imagine, the general and breakout sessions were packed with valuable information on managing, supervising, and engaging employees. However, one session that stood out above the rest was "The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent and Accelerate Results," presented by Chester Elton.

Elton is a dynamic and insightful speaker, who engaged the audience by encouraging participation, using multiple types of visual aides, and even throwing stuffed carrots into the audience. His message, backed by years of research, was simple: recognize your employees for a job well done frequently, specifically, and immediately, and they will feel valued and appreciated. As mentioned before on this blog, valued and appreciated employees stick around. The metaphor of the carrot as it relates to business is "something used to inspire and motivate the employee." In Elton and Adrian Gostick's book, it states:

"When employees know that their strengths and potential will be praised and recognized, they are significantly more likely to produce value."

So how does this relate to employees that care for elders for a living? The demographic that makes up the majority of caregivers, are those that live paycheck to paycheck. Don't those employees just want more money? Nope. At least, that's not what Elton and Gostick reported. One-third of people you give a cash award to will use that money to pay bills, and one in five won't remember in a few months how much they received or where they spent the money. But they will remember receiving a hand-written note from their direct supervisor, or better yet, the President of the company, thanking them specifically and timely for something they did that was above and beyond. If those appreciative notes and phone calls keep coming, employees will keep going above and beyond, because rewarded behavior gets repeated.

I highly recommend Elton and Gostick's book and website. Read them, study them, and implement a recognition program. Your employees will appreciate it, and become motivated to do better and be more committed, which directly translates to your companies mission, goals, and values.