Hire, Train, REWARD, Retain

Napoleon Bonaparte was quoted as saying,them back, sometimes taking some of the good
"People will fight long and hard for a littlepiece ofones with them, but theycontinue to grow and
colored ribbon." Recognition of a job well-done canmultiply. Pull them out so their bad influence goes
create a culture of employeeloyalty, no matteraway!
how small the tangible portion is...as long as theOnce that's completed, you now have time to
intangible portion isvery meaningful. It's not whatrecognize and reward your good performers.
you know, it's what you show!Managers tend to ignore good performers. They
Incentives and rewards are great motivators butfail to realize that if they can make
will only create meaningful results if youtrulythoseemployees 10 percent better, there's a far
care--and show it. All too often we do a salesbigger impact on sales and service--more sothan
contest and then either forget about it,are late totrying to make a below average employee 10
provide the prizes, or complain how much thepercent better.
prizes cost the P&L--all thewhile losing sightStart catching people doing things right--coming in
of the top-line benefit it created. How you presenton time and in uniform, for example.
the award speaksvolumes.Thank employees who do follow the rules by
Kentucky Fried Chicken's most coveted award ingiving them a "get out of side work free"card or
the company is a rubber chickenpresented bya free meal. You'll send a loud, clear message to
CEO David Novak. A chicken! The real value isthose who are late or out ofuniform. If they
being recognized in front ofyour peers for yourwon't change, change them. Be fair and let them
outstanding efforts and results--that's what driveswork somewhere else.
loyalty. You cancreate that culture by showing theTaking this approach will change the culture,
top (and improving) performers how much youquickly, into a positive, upbeat one wherepeople
valuetheir input. Think you don't have time tolike to come to work. Funny thing is, the guests
work with the good performers? Get rid ofwill feel the improvement and feedoff it as well.
thebelow average ones!As Bill Cosby once said, "I don't know the key to
Why do "bad" people stay? Because we let them!success, but the key tofailure is trying to please
Get rid of them. They are like weeds--we can cuteveryone.