July 20, 2025 • 20 mins
When 91% of companies have recognition programmes but only 31% rate them as effective, something's clearly broken. In this episode, co-CEOs Belinda and Amie from Cos share how they're revitalising their "tired" recognition programme without falling into the favouritism trap.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Apoche Production. Hello, I'm Naomi Simpson and Handpicked Season five
is here, and the entrepreneurs this time are not going
easy on me. Those questions just keep coming, whether it's
about building a brand in a taboo subject or what
(00:28):
about sales, Oh yeah, sales, sales, sales. We're all trying
to find more customers. And what about changing customer demands
or balancing high tech with high touch. These entrepreneurs and
business owners are really really asking the questions that will
help every business owner and their team just get more
(00:51):
ideas on how to cope with everything they're tackling in
the day. Now, new episodes drop every Monday, and remember
to subscribe so that here the next Lotus episode. Anyway,
join me on Handpicked on Mondays. Hello, I'm Naomi Simpson
and this is hand Picked, and I'm really excited to
(01:13):
have these two guests with me. Co CEOs of Cause
Belinda and Amy Welcome. Maybe let's start with a little
bit of background of Cause itself.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So that caused our purposes to help keep workers, students
and patients healthy, safe and productive. So we sell thousands
of products that you would use in a workplace or
a healthcare facility or a school, all the things that
you use in those buildings. Cause has a next day
delivery model for and we're a second generation co CEO,
(01:45):
So our dad started the business and Amy and I
joined we say somewhere around twenty years ago and four
years ago we took over as co CEOs.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
How fantastic. And you are throughout Australia in every corner
of the country, is that right correct?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
We have ten warehouses across the country to serve as
Australia wide with the next day delivery offer.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And aiming you've got a team of seven hundred.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Seven hundred today, yes, all across the country.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, but you've just recently made a number of acquisitions
which has also increased the size of the business. So
today let's talk about people. Belinda, you got the first question.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
As you said, we've been growing. So we've got you know,
up to seven hundred staff now. A couple of years
ago that was around five hundred, so we're continuing to grow.
We're having a lot of conversations about recognition programs and
how do we recognize people in a meaningful way in
a company this size. So we've had a peer led
program for a number of years reasonably successful with people
(02:52):
choosing people from other departments and giving shout outs. But
we've been receiving some feedback recently that perhaps it's getting
a bit tired and it's time to do something a
bit different. So we're just wondering. When you've got as
many people, a mix of white collar and blue collar staff,
you know what programs have you seen that you think
(03:12):
have been successful in recognizing employees.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So the best recognition programs are aligned to strategy, and
strategy does change over time, and so therefore recognition should
change over time as well, because you want to be
recognizing the right behaviors and the right commercial outcomes. So
the recognition programs that work the best are the ones
(03:36):
that change. So recognition is never set and forget, because
people a begin to take for granted it doesn't have
the same sense of excitement or even the storytelling that
really should sit behind a recognition program. You want people,
any one of your team members to go home and say, oh,
you won't believe what happened today. You know, to be
(03:57):
really proud of some level of achievement. So every year,
I'm sure it cause you would do a plan and
rategy and there would be key pillars in that work
of which you're trying to achieve, whether it's the growth pillar,
whether it is I don't know what's in your strategy.
I'm just making it up, but to align recognition to that.
(04:21):
And they say the best practice is to actually name
your plan. And I think Jim Collins talked about this.
I know Vern Harnish definitely talks about this. So there's
also a Harvard Business Review study which I'll put the
link in the show notes. But if you name the
strategy and you call it, and I'll give you an example.
(04:44):
Back in the day we had way back when I
actually knew your father, the founder of this business, and
he was my mentor, and I used to talk about
online and he would talk about big warehouses, which seemed
to scare the living daylights out of me. But way
back in the day, we had never sold a thousand experiences.
It's hard to believe now that was more than that.
(05:06):
No now, but back in the day, we had never
done that. And I said, imagine, if we could sell
a thousand experiences in a month, I'll tell you what
I will buy lunch for the whole company. Really seeing
I got my IT department which was one person to
design the scoreboard, and it was a tin of baked beans.
(05:28):
And for every two hundred, it was a tin of
bake beans. And the joke was I only had a
team of I think twelve people, but the joke was
that if we didn't get the thousand, then we'd have
to eat the bake beans for lunch. So and then
it worked and everybody got to have lunch together and
shared the achievement. But they got recognized individually around the table.
(05:50):
Now that's easy to do when you've got twelve people.
But if you think about a theme and then roll
the theme through your recognition and line it up to
your strategy, and what that means is it creates a
whole level of excitement because it's effectively a campaign that
you're running with your people which reinforces what the business
(06:14):
is trying to do. And I've seen this done so effectively,
this naming of the plan and then making sure your
recognition is lined up to that strategy.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, we do have we talk about them as strategic bubbles.
So each year we do have these strategic bubbles that
we set for this is what we need to achieve
this year, for this year's result and this is what
we need to focus on to be able to double
the business in the next five years. So I'm wondering Amy,
maybe if we could link it to something like that
(06:47):
or the other thing that Naomi's just made me think
of is our b HAG, which is we want to
get to two hundred and fifty thousand Aussies in one
year and we've been tracking that and we talk to
the team about that. So I wonder if we could
connect the recognition program around there.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I think that'd be super excited. And obviously the scoreboards
that you have around in each one of your facilities
to make sure that people can see where they're up to.
The scoreboarding is really an exciting part of recognition because
people want to know that their toil had value, that
they did something worthwhile today it doesn't matter where they sit.
(07:27):
And I remember the people in our production unit, for instance,
the people who are literally printing off the vouchers, putting
them in the beautiful red envelopes, sending them out. You see,
if they didn't do their job, then everything falls apart,
all of your customer problems, all of your value, all
of the marketing in that moment, every piece of the
(07:49):
jigsaw is equally important and the role that they play,
so when they can see the impact, So we would
in our scoreboard, we'd always show a person doing an experience.
It would flick it up, so it reminded people of
what we do. So if you think about that which
you talk about in your purpose, which is the enabler
to allow health professionals to actually do their job, or
(08:12):
it allows educators to actually focus on the children and
the outcome, not oh my goodness, I haven't got the
tools I need to get the jobs to but to
remind people of the human impact. Purpose always comes from
how we make a difference. But we need to be
reminded of that over and over again because we do forget.
(08:33):
That's excellent.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
It's got me thinking a lot about because they're all
very tangible, connecting it to the strategy and an outcome.
And one of the things with our program to traditionally
has been more values based acknowledgment, so it's peer led
recognizing behavior that is connected to our values.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And one of the.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Challenges that we're facing now with the size that we
are is that that is not recognizing the quiet achievers,
the behind the scenes people in the business and at
this size can also start to create perceptions of favoritism.
So thinking about how do you create a culture of
(09:21):
recognition that helps to avoid those perceptions of favoitism and
also help you surface quiet achievers could be quite valuable.
Linking the recognition back to those strategic pillars as you mentioned,
any other suggestions or thoughts about how you could help
overcome those risks with a reward and recognition program.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
The values piece is really important, and what you've identified
is people are all different. We have introverts, we have extroverts,
and we have people who really do want to work
from home because of flexible whatever. They might be different,
but then obviously you've got your locations where you have
to have people otherwise nothing's going to get shipped. So
people have different things. The first thing is to see
(10:08):
everybody as an individual. And this was a really interesting
thing that we did way back in the day, was
when people either join us or even to do a survey,
how do you like to be recognized. Some people like
to be stood up in front of the whole team
and a morning tea and lots of cheering and congratulations,
(10:29):
and other people really do just like the quiet acknowledgment,
a handwritten card from their manager to say, you know,
thank you so much. I see the work you do
and I really appreciate it. So understanding how people want
to be recognized is the first step. Second thing is
which might be really fun and you could do maybe
(10:50):
just for a year. We did this and it was
a dream Catcher program. Now, the dream Catcher program was
also about getting to know people what was important to them.
We asked them to write just three things. If they
could have three experiences that they've always wanted to do,
what would they be. You know, some people wrote world piece,
(11:11):
and I go, oh, I might not be able to
do that. One another fellow wrote he wanted a six pack,
so I went and bought him. Some beers probably got them,
you know. But another one wanted to be an extra
and we happened to get her as an extra on
the first episode of Packed Your Rafters. So now you
(11:32):
know how long ago it was. But just knowing that
and being able to have this project, but of course
it created incredible storytelling. And you know, some people wanted
to learn to serf. Well that's easy. I've got a
rebellion voucher to help you to learn to surf. You know,
that's really great, But that personal touch made the world
of difference. And I think when everybody gets really busy,
(11:53):
we're all so online, what makes us different as employers
is that human element and their immediate supervisor or manager
really knowing them, and that will change everything. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I think it's a really good thought bubble around how
to make it not feel transactional, right, because you're kind
of like, Okay, how are we going to give out
this month's voucher? And we're just kind of vouchering out,
which is great, But to your point, perhaps that's not
what the individual feels is appreciation, or that's not the
(12:26):
type of recognition that they want. So I wonder how
we do kind of have that authentic peace to it
without feeling like, oh crap, we forgot to do this
month's correct Appreciation of the Month award quickly?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Who should? And just even having that insight into individuals,
it's we do care, we do want to know, having
them make some suggestions about the program, whether you listen
or don't listen, it's not that it's about that they
were included in the conversation, because of course they not
necessarily know how to design a recognition program. But another
(13:02):
client that I worked with years ago, which was in
pharmacy uticals, but every time they did give out a
rebelon voucher, they would get people to come and literally
they would print out a photo of what they did
so that it was up on the board. So we're
spending so much time online. Anything that we can do
that's visceral, that's different, that's posters, that's it's just really important.
(13:25):
And I do know that you have different sorts of
team members blue color as you called them, so therefore
they're not in front of screens in the same sort
of way. So how is it that we bring everybody
to the same one. I do remember one program that
we ran. It was in a warehouse and the first
thing we actually had to do was put a computer
(13:45):
in their lunch room so that they could access program
and so forth and be available to it. So, you know,
understanding that difference is really important, and introverts versus extroverts
is just a different way to think because remember, lots
of cultural diversity in your organization as well lots of
demographic differences, so we can't view from our point of
view we've got to sit in the view in this
(14:07):
point of our customer, which is in fact our team member.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, I think the idea of connecting. I'm thinking about this,
you know, service experience, which is one of our values,
and each member across the organization does connect to that
service experience. We talk about the delight of you know,
even though we don't sell the most exciting products. You know,
we sell hand towels and coffee and biscuits and office supplies,
(14:33):
but when you get your delivery and you open the box,
it's a nice moment for customers because it's either a
product that they've been waiting for or it's saying that's
going to help them within.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
The country delivered they didn't actually have to schlep to
the shop to get it to me. Is the benefit
you know at the poor office manager, guys, I have
to go to the supermarket. You know, it's not more anyway.
The other big trend that's going on in recognition is
what we call micro gifting. For instance, you know, here's
a coffee, here's it, and how we're using either open
(15:05):
loof gift cards for that or obviously a red balloon
gift card because then people can collect them, add them,
they put them on their account, and then they're saving
towards something. So it doesn't always have to be a
big thing. In fact, regular small amounts might be quite
useful as a tool inside your organization. We're calling it
this micro gifting, same mechanism. Don't necessarily have to design
(15:27):
a big program, but you can give them something that
they can work towards. One of the clients that we
worked with, they sold trucks, but they wanted this to
get service contracts for these trucks, and so they started
handing out reballoon vouchers and we were watching the redemptions
of what people were choosing, and they were sort of
massage days and all sorts. We said, oh, that's interesting,
(15:48):
we didn't know that's what the service department. Well, they
were taking them home to their partners and they said, oh,
could you get another one of those. They're quite good.
We like those. So the family kind of got included
in the conversation of the recognition that was going on
at work, and I think that that's really important, especially
knowing the family ethos of your business is to include
(16:09):
the ecosystem and the family and friends that sit around
your team members and how you include them will be
equally important in the success of any recognition platforms.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, we pride ourselves on our team, you know, being
at the friends barbecue on the weekend and when they say, oh,
you know, we're working these days to be able to,
you know, proudly say I work for a cause and
cause values family community.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
So I really like that point. I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
We were recently certified as a great place to work
and very proudly have very strong engagement. But with the
size that we are, one of the things that has
come through from the survey is that personalization connected to
reward and recognition. So I like the approach of thinking
more individually, but have programs available for leaders to utilize
(17:04):
because every leader leads differently. One of the interesting things
that comes up for us is we have programs around
celebrate community coming together for all things like birthdays, anniversaries, marriages,
graduating university, whatever it might be. We like to get
together and eat food, and different leaders take different approaches.
(17:27):
You know, some leaders do the basics, some leaders go
above and beyond, and so you start to see those
differences culturally within the business. So it's very important to
design programs that are recognizing people in the right way,
and the right way being the way that they receive recognition.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, like a love language. It's so true. We used
to have this thing which was the manager's toolkit, and
inside it there was you know, these micro gifting cards
or there was gift cards that people could write them.
I actually think that's a product that we could develop
with cause that you could have back shipped to your
(18:11):
designing new product. Now, have you got one quick last question,
Amy or Blenda?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I guess connected to where we've started to go already.
There's so many different recognition tools available. You know, we've
got digital shout outs, vouchers. It can really be hard
to make sure as the business grows and we create
these frameworks that we're talking about that it doesn't feel transactional.
What have you found that could work best and make
(18:42):
it more meaningful rather than just being box ticking. And
I guess we've talked about a few of those ideas already,
but is there anything else that would stand out to
you that could help the meaningfulness of recognition.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
So I also think that surprise and delight is.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
One thing, and less structured, less structured but also just
in terms of a handwritten note from either of you
for a particular activity, it's that notion of wow, I
didn't even know it was coming.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So yes, there's a recognition framework. You've got to support
your managers and supervisors so they know what's available to them,
but then also having some flexibility and some creativity to
make sure it's really personal. It is the personal recognition
that always makes the difference. Whilst I don't particularly work
inside the businesses, I'm a non executive director. However I
(19:41):
do notice when I see, let's say our tech team
have delivered something and I just send a little note,
they really get it loud and clear. So never forget
the power of you too as leaders, and of course
that incredible heritage. And I cannot acknowledge enough what a
great Australian success story Cause is. And you are an
Australian business and I think that gives you a beautiful
(20:04):
uniqueness that you can run and lead the way you
want to, and that is absolutely terrific. But in saying that,
we have to bring this conversation to an end, I
will find that HBr article about naming your strategy and
then aligning recognition to it. It really works. But thank
you both so much and so terrific to see the
(20:27):
next generation. And as I said, I was a great
fan of your father dom and congratulations on where you
have taken the business to the next level. Thank you both,
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Thank you so much, Naram. You've given us a lot
to think about and I'm feeling optimistic that we're going
to create something amazing.
Apoche Production. Hello, I'm Naomi Simpson and Handpicked Season five
is here, and the entrepreneurs this time are not going
easy on me. Those questions just keep coming, whether it's
about building a brand in a taboo subject or what
(00:28):
about sales, Oh yeah, sales, sales, sales. We're all trying
to find more customers. And what about changing customer demands
or balancing high tech with high touch. These entrepreneurs and
business owners are really really asking the questions that will
help every business owner and their team just get more
(00:51):
ideas on how to cope with everything they're tackling in
the day. Now, new episodes drop every Monday, and remember
to subscribe so that here the next Lotus episode. Anyway,
join me on Handpicked on Mondays. Hello, I'm Naomi Simpson
and this is hand Picked, and I'm really excited to
(01:13):
have these two guests with me. Co CEOs of Cause
Belinda and Amy Welcome. Maybe let's start with a little
bit of background of Cause itself.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
So that caused our purposes to help keep workers, students
and patients healthy, safe and productive. So we sell thousands
of products that you would use in a workplace or
a healthcare facility or a school, all the things that
you use in those buildings. Cause has a next day
delivery model for and we're a second generation co CEO,
(01:45):
So our dad started the business and Amy and I
joined we say somewhere around twenty years ago and four
years ago we took over as co CEOs.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
How fantastic. And you are throughout Australia in every corner
of the country, is that right correct?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
We have ten warehouses across the country to serve as
Australia wide with the next day delivery offer.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
And aiming you've got a team of seven hundred.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Seven hundred today, yes, all across the country.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, but you've just recently made a number of acquisitions
which has also increased the size of the business. So
today let's talk about people. Belinda, you got the first question.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
As you said, we've been growing. So we've got you know,
up to seven hundred staff now. A couple of years
ago that was around five hundred, so we're continuing to grow.
We're having a lot of conversations about recognition programs and
how do we recognize people in a meaningful way in
a company this size. So we've had a peer led
program for a number of years reasonably successful with people
(02:52):
choosing people from other departments and giving shout outs. But
we've been receiving some feedback recently that perhaps it's getting
a bit tired and it's time to do something a
bit different. So we're just wondering. When you've got as
many people, a mix of white collar and blue collar staff,
you know what programs have you seen that you think
(03:12):
have been successful in recognizing employees.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So the best recognition programs are aligned to strategy, and
strategy does change over time, and so therefore recognition should
change over time as well, because you want to be
recognizing the right behaviors and the right commercial outcomes. So
the recognition programs that work the best are the ones
(03:36):
that change. So recognition is never set and forget, because
people a begin to take for granted it doesn't have
the same sense of excitement or even the storytelling that
really should sit behind a recognition program. You want people,
any one of your team members to go home and say, oh,
you won't believe what happened today. You know, to be
(03:57):
really proud of some level of achievement. So every year,
I'm sure it cause you would do a plan and
rategy and there would be key pillars in that work
of which you're trying to achieve, whether it's the growth pillar,
whether it is I don't know what's in your strategy.
I'm just making it up, but to align recognition to that.
(04:21):
And they say the best practice is to actually name
your plan. And I think Jim Collins talked about this.
I know Vern Harnish definitely talks about this. So there's
also a Harvard Business Review study which I'll put the
link in the show notes. But if you name the
strategy and you call it, and I'll give you an example.
(04:44):
Back in the day we had way back when I
actually knew your father, the founder of this business, and
he was my mentor, and I used to talk about
online and he would talk about big warehouses, which seemed
to scare the living daylights out of me. But way
back in the day, we had never sold a thousand experiences.
It's hard to believe now that was more than that.
(05:06):
No now, but back in the day, we had never
done that. And I said, imagine, if we could sell
a thousand experiences in a month, I'll tell you what
I will buy lunch for the whole company. Really seeing
I got my IT department which was one person to
design the scoreboard, and it was a tin of baked beans.
(05:28):
And for every two hundred, it was a tin of
bake beans. And the joke was I only had a
team of I think twelve people, but the joke was
that if we didn't get the thousand, then we'd have
to eat the bake beans for lunch. So and then
it worked and everybody got to have lunch together and
shared the achievement. But they got recognized individually around the table.
(05:50):
Now that's easy to do when you've got twelve people.
But if you think about a theme and then roll
the theme through your recognition and line it up to
your strategy, and what that means is it creates a
whole level of excitement because it's effectively a campaign that
you're running with your people which reinforces what the business
(06:14):
is trying to do. And I've seen this done so effectively,
this naming of the plan and then making sure your
recognition is lined up to that strategy.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, we do have we talk about them as strategic bubbles.
So each year we do have these strategic bubbles that
we set for this is what we need to achieve
this year, for this year's result and this is what
we need to focus on to be able to double
the business in the next five years. So I'm wondering Amy,
maybe if we could link it to something like that
(06:47):
or the other thing that Naomi's just made me think
of is our b HAG, which is we want to
get to two hundred and fifty thousand Aussies in one
year and we've been tracking that and we talk to
the team about that. So I wonder if we could
connect the recognition program around there.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I think that'd be super excited. And obviously the scoreboards
that you have around in each one of your facilities
to make sure that people can see where they're up to.
The scoreboarding is really an exciting part of recognition because
people want to know that their toil had value, that
they did something worthwhile today it doesn't matter where they sit.
(07:27):
And I remember the people in our production unit, for instance,
the people who are literally printing off the vouchers, putting
them in the beautiful red envelopes, sending them out. You see,
if they didn't do their job, then everything falls apart,
all of your customer problems, all of your value, all
of the marketing in that moment, every piece of the
(07:49):
jigsaw is equally important and the role that they play,
so when they can see the impact, So we would
in our scoreboard, we'd always show a person doing an experience.
It would flick it up, so it reminded people of
what we do. So if you think about that which
you talk about in your purpose, which is the enabler
to allow health professionals to actually do their job, or
(08:12):
it allows educators to actually focus on the children and
the outcome, not oh my goodness, I haven't got the
tools I need to get the jobs to but to
remind people of the human impact. Purpose always comes from
how we make a difference. But we need to be
reminded of that over and over again because we do forget.
(08:33):
That's excellent.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
It's got me thinking a lot about because they're all
very tangible, connecting it to the strategy and an outcome.
And one of the things with our program to traditionally
has been more values based acknowledgment, so it's peer led
recognizing behavior that is connected to our values.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And one of the.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
Challenges that we're facing now with the size that we
are is that that is not recognizing the quiet achievers,
the behind the scenes people in the business and at
this size can also start to create perceptions of favoritism.
So thinking about how do you create a culture of
(09:21):
recognition that helps to avoid those perceptions of favoitism and
also help you surface quiet achievers could be quite valuable.
Linking the recognition back to those strategic pillars as you mentioned,
any other suggestions or thoughts about how you could help
overcome those risks with a reward and recognition program.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
The values piece is really important, and what you've identified
is people are all different. We have introverts, we have extroverts,
and we have people who really do want to work
from home because of flexible whatever. They might be different,
but then obviously you've got your locations where you have
to have people otherwise nothing's going to get shipped. So
people have different things. The first thing is to see
(10:08):
everybody as an individual. And this was a really interesting
thing that we did way back in the day, was
when people either join us or even to do a survey,
how do you like to be recognized. Some people like
to be stood up in front of the whole team
and a morning tea and lots of cheering and congratulations,
(10:29):
and other people really do just like the quiet acknowledgment,
a handwritten card from their manager to say, you know,
thank you so much. I see the work you do
and I really appreciate it. So understanding how people want
to be recognized is the first step. Second thing is
which might be really fun and you could do maybe
(10:50):
just for a year. We did this and it was
a dream Catcher program. Now, the dream Catcher program was
also about getting to know people what was important to them.
We asked them to write just three things. If they
could have three experiences that they've always wanted to do,
what would they be. You know, some people wrote world piece,
(11:11):
and I go, oh, I might not be able to
do that. One another fellow wrote he wanted a six pack,
so I went and bought him. Some beers probably got them,
you know. But another one wanted to be an extra
and we happened to get her as an extra on
the first episode of Packed Your Rafters. So now you
(11:32):
know how long ago it was. But just knowing that
and being able to have this project, but of course
it created incredible storytelling. And you know, some people wanted
to learn to serf. Well that's easy. I've got a
rebellion voucher to help you to learn to surf. You know,
that's really great, But that personal touch made the world
of difference. And I think when everybody gets really busy,
(11:53):
we're all so online, what makes us different as employers
is that human element and their immediate supervisor or manager
really knowing them, and that will change everything. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I think it's a really good thought bubble around how
to make it not feel transactional, right, because you're kind
of like, Okay, how are we going to give out
this month's voucher? And we're just kind of vouchering out,
which is great, But to your point, perhaps that's not
what the individual feels is appreciation, or that's not the
(12:26):
type of recognition that they want. So I wonder how
we do kind of have that authentic peace to it
without feeling like, oh crap, we forgot to do this
month's correct Appreciation of the Month award quickly?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Who should? And just even having that insight into individuals,
it's we do care, we do want to know, having
them make some suggestions about the program, whether you listen
or don't listen, it's not that it's about that they
were included in the conversation, because of course they not
necessarily know how to design a recognition program. But another
(13:02):
client that I worked with years ago, which was in
pharmacy uticals, but every time they did give out a
rebelon voucher, they would get people to come and literally
they would print out a photo of what they did
so that it was up on the board. So we're
spending so much time online. Anything that we can do
that's visceral, that's different, that's posters, that's it's just really important.
(13:25):
And I do know that you have different sorts of
team members blue color as you called them, so therefore
they're not in front of screens in the same sort
of way. So how is it that we bring everybody
to the same one. I do remember one program that
we ran. It was in a warehouse and the first
thing we actually had to do was put a computer
(13:45):
in their lunch room so that they could access program
and so forth and be available to it. So, you know,
understanding that difference is really important, and introverts versus extroverts
is just a different way to think because remember, lots
of cultural diversity in your organization as well lots of
demographic differences, so we can't view from our point of
view we've got to sit in the view in this
(14:07):
point of our customer, which is in fact our team member.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Yeah, I think the idea of connecting. I'm thinking about this,
you know, service experience, which is one of our values,
and each member across the organization does connect to that
service experience. We talk about the delight of you know,
even though we don't sell the most exciting products. You know,
we sell hand towels and coffee and biscuits and office supplies,
(14:33):
but when you get your delivery and you open the box,
it's a nice moment for customers because it's either a
product that they've been waiting for or it's saying that's
going to help them within.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
The country delivered they didn't actually have to schlep to
the shop to get it to me. Is the benefit
you know at the poor office manager, guys, I have
to go to the supermarket. You know, it's not more anyway.
The other big trend that's going on in recognition is
what we call micro gifting. For instance, you know, here's
a coffee, here's it, and how we're using either open
(15:05):
loof gift cards for that or obviously a red balloon
gift card because then people can collect them, add them,
they put them on their account, and then they're saving
towards something. So it doesn't always have to be a
big thing. In fact, regular small amounts might be quite
useful as a tool inside your organization. We're calling it
this micro gifting, same mechanism. Don't necessarily have to design
(15:27):
a big program, but you can give them something that
they can work towards. One of the clients that we
worked with, they sold trucks, but they wanted this to
get service contracts for these trucks, and so they started
handing out reballoon vouchers and we were watching the redemptions
of what people were choosing, and they were sort of
massage days and all sorts. We said, oh, that's interesting,
(15:48):
we didn't know that's what the service department. Well, they
were taking them home to their partners and they said, oh,
could you get another one of those. They're quite good.
We like those. So the family kind of got included
in the conversation of the recognition that was going on
at work, and I think that that's really important, especially
knowing the family ethos of your business is to include
(16:09):
the ecosystem and the family and friends that sit around
your team members and how you include them will be
equally important in the success of any recognition platforms.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, we pride ourselves on our team, you know, being
at the friends barbecue on the weekend and when they say, oh,
you know, we're working these days to be able to,
you know, proudly say I work for a cause and
cause values family community.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
So I really like that point. I think it's really interesting.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
We were recently certified as a great place to work
and very proudly have very strong engagement. But with the
size that we are, one of the things that has
come through from the survey is that personalization connected to
reward and recognition. So I like the approach of thinking
more individually, but have programs available for leaders to utilize
(17:04):
because every leader leads differently. One of the interesting things
that comes up for us is we have programs around
celebrate community coming together for all things like birthdays, anniversaries, marriages,
graduating university, whatever it might be. We like to get
together and eat food, and different leaders take different approaches.
(17:27):
You know, some leaders do the basics, some leaders go
above and beyond, and so you start to see those
differences culturally within the business. So it's very important to
design programs that are recognizing people in the right way,
and the right way being the way that they receive recognition.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Yeah, like a love language. It's so true. We used
to have this thing which was the manager's toolkit, and
inside it there was you know, these micro gifting cards
or there was gift cards that people could write them.
I actually think that's a product that we could develop
with cause that you could have back shipped to your
(18:11):
designing new product. Now, have you got one quick last question,
Amy or Blenda?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I guess connected to where we've started to go already.
There's so many different recognition tools available. You know, we've
got digital shout outs, vouchers. It can really be hard
to make sure as the business grows and we create
these frameworks that we're talking about that it doesn't feel transactional.
What have you found that could work best and make
(18:42):
it more meaningful rather than just being box ticking. And
I guess we've talked about a few of those ideas already,
but is there anything else that would stand out to
you that could help the meaningfulness of recognition.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
So I also think that surprise and delight is.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
One thing, and less structured, less structured but also just
in terms of a handwritten note from either of you
for a particular activity, it's that notion of wow, I
didn't even know it was coming.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
So yes, there's a recognition framework. You've got to support
your managers and supervisors so they know what's available to them,
but then also having some flexibility and some creativity to
make sure it's really personal. It is the personal recognition
that always makes the difference. Whilst I don't particularly work
inside the businesses, I'm a non executive director. However I
(19:41):
do notice when I see, let's say our tech team
have delivered something and I just send a little note,
they really get it loud and clear. So never forget
the power of you too as leaders, and of course
that incredible heritage. And I cannot acknowledge enough what a
great Australian success story Cause is. And you are an
Australian business and I think that gives you a beautiful
(20:04):
uniqueness that you can run and lead the way you
want to, and that is absolutely terrific. But in saying that,
we have to bring this conversation to an end, I
will find that HBr article about naming your strategy and
then aligning recognition to it. It really works. But thank
you both so much and so terrific to see the
(20:27):
next generation. And as I said, I was a great
fan of your father dom and congratulations on where you
have taken the business to the next level. Thank you both,
Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
Thank you so much, Naram. You've given us a lot
to think about and I'm feeling optimistic that we're going
to create something amazing.
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