In the busy daily hustle-bustle of business, with the focus on acquiring new work and keeping up with the contracts you already have, it is easy to forget that it is your employees who are keeping your business afloat. Fortunately, many companies have put some form of employee recognition in place as a reward for a job well-done, and as a tool to help keep their workforce motivated, often with very good results.
At Sales-Link, Inc., we have encouraged our clients to improve employee engagement by helping them create ambassadorship programs, internal recognition initiatives, and participation rewards campaigns. All these measures improve employee morale and together strengthen company loyalty, but we have gained the greatest success with monthly employee spotlight blogs.
Our creative team has put together a winning formula for the spotlight blogs that works brilliantly as an employee recognition tool and a wonderful way for colleagues to get to know each other. In busy offices where staff members often don’t have a chance to socialize, and perhaps even more importantly in companies where the bulk of the employees work remotely, these blogs open up communications between co-workers and foster a huge amount of goodwill.
While team members can be chosen for monthly spotlights as a reward for longevity or valued contributions to the company, we highly recommend choosing employees from different departments, and a variety of backgrounds and company history. We begin the process by distributing carefully engineered questionnaires that include inquiries into favorite career accomplishments, personal hobbies, and philanthropic interests.
Our writers use answers to these questions, together with information collected from CVs/resumes and LinkedIn accounts, to piece together the skeleton of the blog, and soon the story of the individual begins to unfold. Often email or phone interviews are conducted for clarifications and to gain more insight and detail; photos are requested as visual aids and to add a more personal touch. It turns out that everyone has a fascinating story that reveal interesting sidelines and parts of their personality that co-workers never knew. The final results are extraordinary.
Employees who are spotlighted feel honored and respected, and most importantly, they feel “seen” by the company they work for. Naturally, links to the published spotlights are promoted on Yammer, internal emails, and social media. As posts are liked, shared, and commented on by co-workers, friends, and relatives, goodwill is spread into individual communities by finding larger audiences, and are often noticed by companies’ clients.
It is highly advantageous for companies to be viewed as a happy, connected family of hard-working, qualified, and interesting individuals who respect each other and work well together. The message to the industry is clear: When an organization is made up of valued team members who excel in the workplace, they will work collectively to ensure your success, as well as their own.
Sales-Link Employee Spotlight Testimonials
‘I just read the article & I’m impressed at how you did your research and put together all my disparate answers into something so well-written and cohesive!’ -Jennifer
“Thanks for the write-up and the blog. (smiley face)” -Sid
“An awesome job and the blog was very inspiring.” -Cheryl
“You are a master with words – looks great!” -Teresa
“I know it is not easy to put together a story on someone you don’t know, but I am happy you got to know me through the Spotlight process. It has been fun and I look forward to reading more of your future Spotlights.” -David
“I read the blog and it was excellent! I will be delighted to work with you to explore the possibility of a blog on me.” -Susan
“This turned out really nice! Great job with these, nice to share a piece of their life with us.” -Emma