— CW Observer

In this blog post on the Compensation Cafe, Derek Irvine looks at the Incentive Research Foundation’s 2012 Trends in Rewards and Recognition report. Irvine highlights seven key trends from the report including how economic stress affects employee rewards and recognition and the increasing need to incorporate mobile strategies in employee recognition programs. Gamification is another tool cited by the report that is becoming increasingly popular. According to Irvine, however, gamification must be used carefully to ensure that you are not rewarding the wrong behaviors. Irvine notes, “You never want to ‘game’ a system to encourage more recognition for the sake of recognition alone as that weakens the purpose and intent of the program.”

Read the whole report and Irvine’s other top employee reward and recognition trends here.

As organizations grow more complex, with increasing cross-department collaboration, reporting lines are blurring. Leaders can’t just rely on a position of authority to motivate people. Jesse Lyn Stoner tackles this issue in a recent blog post, How to influence without authority. She lists eight ways to influence without falling back on outdated hierarchical systems:

1. Character
2. Expertise
3. Information
4. Connectedness
5. Social intelligence
6. Network
7. Collaboration
8. Funding

Just as leaders can’t rely on authority for influence, Stoner contends that they can’t rely on any one of the above either. Different people respond to different appeals, which means leaders must develop skills in several methods of influence. Stoner also provides guidance for how to influence without authority:

• Put it out there.
• Be transparent.
• Do your best and be willing to let go.

Her biggest piece of advice: “accept that [you]…are not always in control.”

According to a new research report from the Society for Human Resources (SHRM) and Globoforce, recognition programs have a growing impact on performance management. The research is based on a survey that includes 770 responses from organizations with 500 or more employees. According to the report 64 percent of participating companies with recognition programs observe a higher level of employee engagement, retention and productivity, versus 36 percent for those which don’t have a recognition program.  

The research also indicates that employee recognition delivers a return on investment (ROI) and shows the percentage increase reported on key metrics as a result of having a recognition program:·        

• Employee productivity – 63 percent      
• Employee engagement – 61 percent      
• Return on profit margin – 58 percent      
• Customer retention – 52 percent
• Employee retention – 51 percent
• Return on equity – 50 percent

A blog post from Recognise This with Derek Irvine highlights five most critical findings from the report:

1. Employee engagement tops the list of HR challenges.
2. Performance management remains stuck in neutral.
3. Recognition programs fill the feedback and appreciation gap.
4. Recognition programs have an observed positive impact on business results.
5. Recognition aligned with core values leads to more effective managers.

A survey of executives by Pulse Point and the Economist Intelligence Unit, highlighed in this eMarketer article, showed that some members of the C-suite are seeing the benefits of social media. In the survey of 329 executives in North America, 84 percent of respondents said that a robust social media presence had helped their marketing and sales efforts, and 81 percent said it increased their company’s market share. The executives said that a key benefit of social media was giving customers a space to interact with each other, and with employees, about the company; 69 percent agreed with the statement that customers speaking out about their company increases sales.

Social media and content strategist Jay Baer says that if your executive doesn’t “get” social media, it’s your fault as the social media manager, marketing director, etc. In the blog post, How to Fight for More Social Media Resources in Your Company, Baer offers advice to the overworked human beings behind the social media and content marketing campaigns that have become so common. First, he recommends that those who work on social media take the responsibility to educate the executive team about the company’s social media campaigns. Perhaps slightly less jarring than his contention that it’s your fault if they don’t get it is Baer’s advice to “argue for people by ignoring the people.” Instead of focusing on how much time it takes for social media and content marketing, or even showing how many people have liked your Facebook page or commented on a blog post, show them the math. Demonstrate how the company is making or saving money because of your efforts.

Businesses are increasingly using Klout scores—a public ranking from 0 to 100 of a user’s overall social influence, as well as their influence in a particular subject —to determine who to hire, and which customers to shower with promotional giveaways. Klout has received a lot of buzz since its 2008 launch, and as a recent Wired article notes, some like Mark Schaefer, author of Return on Influence, have praised the site for its ability to democratize influence. However, many question the importance that businesses are attaching to the scoring system.
 

Author Seth Stevenson is one skeptic, who, in the Wired article mentioned above, chronicles his attempt to achieve an impressive Klout score. Throughout his Klout-obsessed days, Stevenson noticed that following someone with a high score didn’t guarantee they shared interesting, quality content. Rather, those considered to be influential largely shared stories that were being shared by everyone else, while those with low scores and the “un-Kloutiest’s thoughts, jokes, and bubbles of honest emotion felt rawer, more authentic, and blissfully oblivious to the herd.”

An additional flaw is Klout’s ability to identify influencers by subject. A recent BBC article points out that some users are considered to be influential in subjects that they lack expertise in, with one user, Claire, considered an authority on parenting even though she doesn’t have any kids.
 

Do you think Klout scores will become an essential marketing tool in the future? How much importance do you place on your score?

According to this Time article, telecommuting in the U.S. is on the rise with studies showing 45 percent of workers now have jobs that are suitable for telecommuting full or part time. The increase in telecommuting is due to a variety of reasons. New technology such as video conferencing and social media make it easier for employees to communicate, no matter their location. The workplace is also experiencing the emergence of a new generation of employees who value workplace flexibility. A study conducted by Cisco found that one in four college students and young professionals said the absence of remote access would influence their job decisions.

A new study by EPiServer reveals that only 10 percent of U.K. businesses measure their social media ROI. At the same time, more than half of these businesses indicated they have increased their investment in social media over the past year. And even without effective measurement strategies in place, the majority of organizations indicated that they have seen tangible benefits from their social media efforts.

In a quick poll last month, IABC asked for communication professionals to offer one piece of advice to Goldman Sachs following Greg Smith’s high-profile resignation from the firm in a New York Times op-ed. Below are some of their responses. Do you agree with the comments? Do you have other advice to offer?

In a recent blog post on Fast Company, curation wizard and author of Curation Nation, Steven Rosenbaum, tells us that humans are the new superpower when it comes to curation. “Curation is the act of individuals with a passion for a content area to find, contextualize, and organize information” says Rosenbaum. He goes on to share some interesting tid-bits about what we must do — like give attribution,  and add our own context and voice. He also mentions some no no’s like, using protected images, and cutting and pasting massive amounts of text (that’s stealing),

Adding to these ideas, Anne Egros, Global Executive Coach at Zest and Zen International offers a blog post on why humans are critical to this process. ”So “content curation” requires analytic skills, critical thinking and a scientific approach on how to search and check article’s references you publish. It is not about collecting links and sharing as much as possible. When well done, “content curation” provides a lot of value by helping people learn about the current state of the art in a particular topic.” She and some of her commenters also offer some ideas about tools that can help companies get started with curation, like Scoop. it!

So, if you are considering launching content curation as past of your communication efforts, consider what the experts are saying. In addition to a computer, and some tools to help you get started, you’ll need real live people to do the job right.