December 4, 2024 • 47 mins
What if recognizing employees was as easy and personalized as shopping on Amazon? Join us for an insightful conversation with Steve Sonnenberg, the visionary co-founder and CEO of AwardCo, as he shares his journey to revolutionize employee recognition. Inspired by the traditional methods from his father's career, Steve has crafted a modern recognition system that caters to individual preferences and resonates with today's diverse workforce. Transforming the outdated one-size-fits-all approach, AwardCo offers customizable options that ensure every employee feels appreciated in a way that truly matters to them. Discover how this innovative approach aligns with the expectations of newer generations and prevents anyone from feeling overlooked.
In the quest for nurturing purpose-driven cultures, we examine how companies like Patagonia and Starbucks seamlessly integrate strong values into their operations, attracting and retaining talent even amid the Great Resignation. Steve emphasizes the critical role of authenticity in fostering a vibrant culture, as he illustrates how AwardCo uses social recognition platforms and tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams to highlight value-driven behaviors effortlessly. By incorporating discretionary monetary points, managers can fortify the connection between employee efforts and the organization's mission. This episode promises to provide valuable insights into creating an environment that not only appreciates employees but also imbues their work with meaning and purpose.
Rebel HR is a podcast for HR professionals and leaders of people who are ready to make some disruption in the world of work. Please connect to continue the conversation!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Recognition happens from the day we were just born
and we're kids and we just seekit from our parents and
naturally we give it all thetime at work.
But if it's not tracked and youdon't know how to measure it,
there's no way you can helppeople that are falling through
the cracks.
Of course, there are certainpeople that get recognized all
the time because that's just whothey are and they're front and
center, but I'm more concernedabout those that aren't so front
(00:20):
and center, that are doingamazing work, and so it's all
about measuring it.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the Rebel HR podcast, the podcast where we
talk to HR innovators about allthings people, leadership.
If you're looking for places tofind, about new ways to think
about the world of work, this isthe podcast for you.
Please subscribe from yourfavorite podcast listening
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Rebel on HR.
(00:44):
Rebels All right, rebel HRlisteners.
Super excited for theconversation.
Today we have Steve Sonnenberg.
Steve is the co-founder and CEOof AwardCo.
He learned a great dealwatching his father's career in
employee recognition withcompanies like McDonald's, but
something was missing.
In 2011, he began workingmissing.
(01:06):
So in 2011, he began working onplans to use new innovative
technology to solve the pitfallsof traditional employee
recognition programs.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Thank you, appreciate it.
It's great to be with you.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, I'm super excited about it and I'll be
honest with you, this is alittle bit self-serving, because
I'm in the midst of an RFP,trying to figure out what in the
world to do with employeerecognition.
And so, before we get into itand I ask all of my selfish
questions, what led you into theworld of recognizing others?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, kyle, great question.
It does start with my father.
He is an employee recognitionconsultant, independent from any
specific company.
He works for companies likeJostens and ring manufacturers
and he got into the lapel pins,the rings, the plaques for
(01:59):
corporations.
So I grew up in the Chicagolandarea.
He had incredible customerslike McDonald's and Motorola and
John Deere out of Chicago.
But my love probably startedwhen he did the six Chicago
Bulls championship rings.
He got involved with thechampionship sports side and I
(02:21):
as a junior high at the time Iwas able to go to those ring
ceremonies, those after parties,meet the players and we're
talking this is the nineties,you know, era of the Chicago
bulls.
So that's where I was like Iwant to do what my dad does.
But there was a problem.
I didn't care for rings andplaques.
I love the part of.
(02:42):
Well, you know what he wasdoing, what it was about, about
rewarding and recognizingachievements, but I always knew
there was a better way.
But that was my introduction.
It was my own father, who stillis an independent contractor
and still out there workingtoday.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Okay, man, now you're speaking my language.
So I'm a Midwest kid and, yeah,my formative years was watching
the Bulls win all thosechampionships.
I didn't have a rookie card,but I had a couple of Michael
Jordan basketball cards, scottyPippen, bj Armstrong I had a BJ
Armstrong autograph, yeah, so,yeah, we could talk about that,
(03:17):
I'm sure, but yeah, I could seethat being impactful for someone
in their youth, totally,totally, but okay, so no ring.
So I, I get that, like I got a,I got a class ring somewhere.
Actually, my wife and I werejust laughing about this.
We were, we were cleaning out acloset or something we're like
oh.
Hey look, I found my class ringand it's been there for the last
(03:39):
10 years.
Oh well, I guess put it back inthere.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
There's a time and a place.
I think it's great, right, butit's nowadays.
People want choice, they wantmore options, and that's where I
saw the opportunity in thisspace.
I viewed it as decades, acentury long, of people doing
the same thing over and over,and I was shocked, as I learned,
watching my dad do the certainthings he was doing for his
(04:04):
whole career, and I just knewthere was a.
This younger generation iscoming up.
There's just a better way tolook at it.
And but that but the seed wasplanted with my father and I
told him he says Look, I wantyou to take over my accounts.
And I and I said Look, thatsounds great, I love it.
You've built an unbelievablebusiness for our family and
(04:28):
you've been very successful.
But if I'm gonna get into thisspace, I wanna reinvent it.
There's a better way to do itand I wanted to create that
Amazon-like experience.
You know where there's choiceand it's fast and it's you know
just.
You know the era that we livein today.
So that's why I got into it andhe kind of led me into a newer
(04:48):
path in the field.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's really interesting, you know, and
you're you're hitting onsomething that I think is it's
it's one of the it's reallycritical, and I'm sure everybody
listening to this is can pullout a scenario where this was
was very, very relevant.
But, um, you know, everythingyou read about recognition and
and and celebrating employeespoints to the fact that people
(05:14):
like to be recognizeddifferently.
You know, and what, what worksfor someone doesn't work for
someone else, and so I thinkyou're hitting on a really
critical point here, uh, whichis, you know, kind of that
optionality of recognition.
But you know my context.
There is like, ok, instead ofgiving somebody you know
Mountain Dew, give them DietCoke because that's their
(05:35):
favorite pop, right, and I kidyou not, my first job out of
college, we literally had abinder and you were supposed to
fill out the binder and haveyour employees fill out what is
your favorite pop, what is yourfavorite snack.
And then the idea was okay, I'mgoing to pull this binder out,
I'll pull out this piece ofpaper, and then when they do
something good, I'm going toreward them with whatever they
(05:57):
wrote down on that paper.
It was super high tech, so I'msure AwardCo is kind of similar.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, it is true, we all wantto be rewarded in different
ways.
People have different personas.
Sometimes people want to be outfront, in the whole
organization, at all hands onmeeting, and you come up and
everyone claps.
And other times people are moreshy and they don't.
They don't want that and theywant to make it more private.
(06:26):
But they but.
But really we want to beacknowledged that we're on the
right path.
And so, when it comes torecognition, there is that
social element that is soimportant, that feeling that you
receive it's not all monetary.
Uh, you know it has to cometimely, it has to come.
Um, you receive, it's not allmonetary, you know it has to
come timely.
It has to come.
You know from a close peer thatyou know and they saw the work
(06:50):
that you did.
And then it has to come in theway that you like to be
recognized, because if you'reuncomfortable and you don't want
to be shot out in front of thewhole company people got to know
that the managers are soimportant to understand their
employees.
But then, when it does come tothe monetary side, it's just,
it's all about choice.
You know, get something that isimpactful to you and that will
(07:14):
be meaningful, rather than youknow something that is a cool
gift, like there was a companyhere in the Valley, here in
Silicon Slopes area in Utah,where everyone got an Oculus
Awesome, you know what I mean.
It's such a cool gift, but it'sjust not everyone wanted that,
you know what I mean.
So it was very expensive forhalf the employees that didn't
(07:34):
care for it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, yeah, I'd be the one I'd be like, oh, that's
cool.
What do I do with this?
Like it looks cool, it looksexpensive.
Can I hawk it on eBay?
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Thanks for listening.
So I wanted to hit on somethingwith with the word code.
I think it's it's important.
I want to understand it alittle bitCo.
(09:06):
And I think it's important.
I want to understand it alittle bit more because I have a
feeling it was very intentional.
But AwardCo is the employeerewards and recognition company
that builds culture throughvalue-driven recognition.
So, as you look at value-drivenrecognition, how do you look at
that, how do you define thatand how do you provide a look at
that?
How do you define that and howdo you provide a solution for
(09:26):
that?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, well, I think people with the great
resignation out there I meanthat's been used a lot now they
want to work for an organizationthat has a great purpose, a
great place.
They're going, something whythey exist.
And there's great companies outthere something why they exist.
And there's great companies outthere, like the Patagonia's and
(09:48):
the Starbucks, that haveincredible purposes of why they
exist, that employees want toattach themselves, they believe
in and it's something biggerthan themselves.
And then you have these valuesof an organization that are
intended to support that overallpurpose of an organization,
organization that are intendedto support that overall purpose
of an organization, and thosevalues should support that
(10:10):
purpose.
And so one of the things thatwe do at AwardCo is we want to
create a system within anorganization.
Part of their culture is wherewe take those values, whether
it's customer obsession orall-in or whatever that makes up
the organization that supportsyour overall purpose.
And we want to make it easy andnatural for the organization to
(10:33):
recognize on those values everyday.
So when somebody is exemplifyinga value, um, you know, at your,
at your, at your company.
And I'll just do one of ourexamples.
You know, one of ours is um, um, just grit Right and um, and I
(10:54):
love when, when people tag thatvalue and share a story of
something that they did, thatrepresents what that is.
And and then, um, it getsposted on, posted on our
recognition feed and it's socialfor everyone to look at it and
like it and comment.
And also, I think it's soimportant for that recognition
(11:15):
to flow into your communicationchannels as well.
So that same recognition thathappened went to Slack, or went
to Microsoft Teams, to hisdesignated channel, and so when
we're constantly going about ourday, working, solving complex
problems, the recognition isfront and center.
It's in the applications thatI'm using.
(11:36):
And so I think, when it comesback to your question of like,
what are we doing?
And it's allowing organizationsto recognize those values on a
daily basis and having thosevalues flow into the
communication channels that theyneed to.
And then, if your manager has amonetary budget of points, they
(11:57):
can give monetary points aswell to put an exclamation on
that, and it's discretionary,it's up to them, uh, but that's
one way we do it is weconstantly, uh, help
organizations recognize on theirvalues, meaningful recognitions
on a daily basis that thatreally support that overall
(12:17):
purpose.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, I love that and you know it's, it's.
I think it just comes down tobeing authentic, right?
Yeah, Um, yeah, exactly.
Right, it needs you know it's,it's.
I think it just comes down tobeing authentic right, yeah,
yeah, exactly Right.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
It needs to be an authentic recognition, not just
like hey, you know you were, youwere amazing working with that,
that, that that customershashtag, customer obsession,
general, not authentic.
There's nothing there Like.
There needs to be details,there needs to be explanation,
share the story.
And now one of the things thatwe do, just so you know, to help
(12:48):
encourage the authentic to be,for employees to be authentic we
do contests, we have fun withit, we gamify it, we say the top
five recognitions that are themost authentic, creative, fun.
We're going to recognize themon our all hands-on meeting and
you're going to get 100 pointsor 100 bucks and what it does?
(13:10):
It gets people that just wantto win.
And so then, all of a sudden,it's this contagious culture
where everyone's trying to beclever and funny and it adds to
the quality of the recognitionbecause we're actually talking
about it, um and and it, and.
When you talk about it and youput an incentive there, usually
(13:30):
get what you want.
That's what I've seen.
We use our platform Right.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Right, I love that.
I'm just.
I'm just sitting here and I'mthinking, you know, man, I could
really have some fun with that.
Oh, you see what people come upwith, yeah, could be dangerous.
So yeah, I'm sitting here, youknow, I put my compliance hat on
.
I'm like, ooh, that could getugly, it could be fun.
(13:55):
But that's the other thing Iwanted to touch on, and that's
one of the things you know thatI saw in your recent press
release is it's talking aboutHR's role in culture and
recognition and the fact that isthis an HR function or not?
So what is your perspective onHR's role in culture and
(14:19):
recognition?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah Well, you know one of the things I said in our
last series round funding.
I truly believe this that awork is becoming not just an HR
tool, a business operationaltool or the head of culture to
be responsible for it.
We are all responsible for it.
(14:51):
And so, when it comes to thesales organization, what tools
are they using to make sure thatthey're recognized and
appreciated, down to the HR team, to the marketing team, to
everyone across the organization?
Everyone has the torch and theyneed to carry it on to the next
generation that's coming on.
(15:12):
At AwardCo, we're scaling veryfast, and so I think about this
all the time.
How do we continue to keep ourculture as we continue to double
in employee size, and so weconstantly give to double in
employee size, and so weconstantly give education to our
managers in every departmentand we encourage them to
recognize, often, everydepartment, and we hold the
(15:36):
managers responsible for it.
We want to give them tools andanalytics so they can see their
department of who's beingrecognized and who's not, and
those that are quieter that aremaybe doing incredible work, but
people aren't noticing it.
It's up to the managers toraise the hand and say this
individual, let's rally aroundthem and they're going to give
the recognition of somethingthat they maybe did and they're
(15:57):
going to spotlight it and itbecomes contagious.
So that's what I mean itactually is.
It's up to the managers tocontinue the culture all across
the organization, and it's notjust up to the HR team to say,
oh, we don't have a greatculture, it's HR fault, it's the
head of culture.
No, it's everyone, and everyoneneeds to understand that.
And so you need to give themtools.
(16:18):
And so that's where I go back tothat one report I just talked
about.
Great for a manager to log intoa recognition system to see
who's being recognized and who'snot, and we even have like a
score on them.
And when it comes down topeople leaving an organization,
they leave because they don'tfeel appreciated.
How many times have we readthat?
(16:39):
But have we ever measured it?
I think we recognize all thetime, you know, through email or
just on Slack, but there's noformalized way of recognition
and nothing's tracking it.
And that's what we're trying todo at AwardCo is we're trying
to take all this great data andtrack it and then report back to
the managers to let them knowhow they're doing.
So that's why everyone isimportant.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Gotcha, gotcha.
Well, there's a lot of greatstuff in there and I'm furiously
taking notes here.
So, um, because I got, I gotsome just maybe some tactical
questions.
So so you, you hit on somethingthat I think is a really,
really, really critical pointright now, something I'm feeling
.
My organization is growing veryquickly and you know we have
(17:20):
that concern about how do weretain the culture that got us
here.
How do we make sure peopledon't feel like we're growing so
quickly or they're not feelingappreciated for the growth, or
they're being left behind, or aquiet employee that maybe is
just killing it every single daybut doesn't ask for the
(17:43):
spotlight or doesn't get thespotlight but doesn't ask for
the spotlight or doesn't get thespotlight, and that's been one
of the challenges that I reallyhaven't been able to solve yet.
So, when you talk about givingmanagers a tool and then holding
them responsible, what doesthis look like?
How do you approach this?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah Well, you can't measure something if you're not
tracking it, and so that's thefirst thing to do is understand
okay, here are all the peoplethat I'm responsible for, and as
a manager, I can then look downand see how many times did they
recognize someone.
That's one area of viewpointthat the manager has and then
(18:21):
you can also see how many timeshas that person received a
recognition.
And we're actually creating arecognition score for the
company and on the individualuser.
And if you're not measuring it,you have no idea.
And I've worked at someorganizations in the past, prior
to Awardco, and you just neverknow.
(18:41):
I mean, recognition happens fromthe day we were, you know, just
born and we're kids and we justseek it from our parents and
naturally we give it all thetime at work.
But if it's not tracked and youdon't know how to measure it,
there's no way you can helppeople that are falling through
the cracks.
Of course, there are certainpeople that get recognized all
the time because that's just whothey are and they're front and
(19:03):
center, but I'm more concernedabout those that aren't so front
and center, that are doingamazing work, and so it's all
about measuring it, and so youknow that's one of the things
that we focus on with ourapplication is measuring that
and giving those tools to themanagers so they can be smart
and so they can create a cultureof recognition within their
group.
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Speaker 2 (20:09):
Got it, got it, got it, got it.
Yeah, I um I'm just thinkingthrough geez, what would this
look like?
My organization might be kindof interesting.
Yeah, um, I gotta believe thatyou get.
You get mixed reactions from amanager when you tell them hey,
I'm measure this yeah, well, Imean that's.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I mean it's just the tools that you have behind the
scenes.
You know that you can help.
You know, and the point is forthe manager to have visibility
into the recognition side oftheir department and then to
identify the gaps and then forthem to have solved the problems
.
And I truly believe when youhave a high recognition score,
(20:51):
that that impacts your ENPS andyour NPS scores.
It's just a number we haven'tbeen tracking.
We just kind of say, hey, areyou happy?
Would you refer someone tosomeone at your company, zero to
10.
And then they give a scorethere.
Then you can generate ENPS.
That's fine.
But I'm taking this stufffurther.
I'm saying we have so much datanow at work and it's truly, if
(21:14):
that person's being recognizedand is recognizing a lot of
people, then I have a betterscore that I can create.
And if that score is higher,then I know that you know our
customers are being taken careof because our employees are
being taken care of.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely, it's really.
You know that's, it's reallyinteresting.
And you know, when you when youmentioned that I was just
having flashbacks to you knowyou mentioned net.
You know NPS or net promoterscore.
If you're not familiar, and Ican't tell you I've, I've done
dozens of employee surveys in mymy career and I I think, yeah,
(21:53):
with in in every single survey,one of the bottom three um
scores was was recognition.
Usually pay is in there.
And then you know communicationrecognition.
You know it's, it's, it's allkind of the same bucket.
And then, and then you look atyour, your net promoter score
and you're like, oh well, we'rekind of mediocre and it's so
(22:17):
frustrating to go through thatand do all this work.
And you feel like, yeah, thisis going to change that NPS,
we're going to be good,recognition looks great.
And it's like you barelyscratched the surface.
And so have you seen anyresults or any kind of stories
(22:38):
where you've seen anorganization that's really
trying to solve this problem?
You know, find the solution orfind something that works for
them?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, good question.
Yes, I mean, we see it all thetime.
I mean we're takingorganizations that are coming
from a culture of recognizing,just for service anniversaries,
you know, which is very common 5, 10, 15 years.
It's just that's how they'vedone it for decades and taking
(23:06):
those organizations andimplementing a value-based
recognition program, recognizingtheir values on a daily basis.
Now, you know recognition, youknow I do go back to the
Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
I mean that's important to usand that's something that's been
around for a while.
(23:26):
But I truly believe thatorganizations that have taken
this approach where they arerecognizing there's like three
levels here I want to kind oftalk about.
The first level is thisbelonging level, where
organizations just want tobelong somewhere and you should,
(23:47):
as an organization, take thoseopportunities to recognize them
at least three times that firstyear for belonging.
And what I mean by that is anonboarding program.
Everyone gets onboarded.
So you recognize them, youappreciate them, maybe you give
them some points that could beused just in the onboarding
store of swag.
(24:08):
And then you go to the secondthing.
Everyone has a birthday.
You know.
For the most part some peopledon't celebrate birthdays and
there's other ways you can lookat that but a lot of people will
do like a birthday program andagain they're just celebrating
the employee for belonging.
And third is their workanniversary.
So you want to create a cultureof recognition and build that
(24:29):
foundation of a sense ofbelonging.
And so many people miss theboat there.
Because those are three greatexamples of things that you can
do the first year of recognizingto create a culture of
recognition.
You want to create a culturewhere they have to earn that
(24:50):
recognition and that's wherethey have to do something
amazing.
Where they're doing exemplifyingthe values of your organization
, they have to put forth theeffort and then you allow people
to recognize those employeesbased on that and that's that
second level.
And then you got the top level,which is more like your
employee of the month typeprogram, your president's club,
your A-team, and that's like anomination program.
(25:11):
So what we do is we helporganizations kind of create a
well-balanced solution to theirrecognition solutions, a
strategic reason of how yourecognize.
And when we see organizationsdevelop that balanced solution
of recognition, then theirrecognition scores go up because
automatically they'rerecognizing someone at least
four or five, six times throughtheir organization every year
(25:35):
and that is so much higher thanthe norm.
There's a lot of data out therethat shows that companies are
not recognizing their employeesall but once every two years or
three years formally, and so youknow, we've seen a lot of
incredible results from ourorganizations that we've worked
with, that have implemented thatbalanced structure of
recognizing.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah, you know what you just said just really kind
of struck me.
Could you imagine not gettingrecognized for two or three
years?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
And busting your hump every day.
I mean that'd be absolutelydemoralizing, but I know it
happens.
It happens a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
It happens a lot and that's why it's important to
actually have a strategicapproach to recognition and it's
a three to one approach.
Three belonging recognitionprograms onboarding, birthdays,
anniversaries two of the nextlevel, which you have to earn it
, which is spot recognition, andalso maybe health and wellness
and things like that that Ididn't elaborate on.
(26:43):
We can go on for a long time onthis.
And then that last level is onethat nomination program.
Now, with the nominationprogram, we have fun with it, we
actually we call it the A-teamand it has to be nominated.
Everyone gets one nominationonce a month, so it's a
glorified employee of the month,employee of the month is cheesy
, a-team is cooler, and you knowyou gotta get fun with the
branding of it, right?
But then what we do is weselect a winner and then we go
(27:06):
over to Cameo.
You know the celebrity, youknow we get a celebrity to say
something about an employee, andso we actually nominate who the
winner is.
We go find out who they like.
We've used Lindsay Lohan, we'veused, you know, whatever the
employee likes.
We find out and then we take itto our all hands-on meeting and
(27:27):
then we announce the A-teamwinner and then we have the
celebrity announce it.
We have people from the officedo it, we have.
You know what I mean, and it'sjust, it makes it a little bit
more special.
So, again, you have to go aboutit in a strategic way.
If you don't, you don't have anorganization, a culture of
recognizing that does sound fun.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
I mean that that that sounds cool.
I want to do that.
I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Well, you should see, and one of these days and we
get enough of them, we'veprobably done about eight or
nine now We'll probably havethem put them all on our website
and then people can rate them,the celebrities, because some
show up and that areunbelievable, that do such a
good job, that capture thespirit of recognition, and then
some are like I don't even wantto be on Cameo, I don't even
know why I'm doing this, andthey fall through.
(28:10):
But it's fun for the company,it's fun for the employees, it
makes the recognition meaningful.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You've got to think outside the box.
Yeah, you mentioned that and Igot to thinking I'm like, okay,
who would my Cameo be?
You know, I got to say it wouldbe hilarious.
This is probably what my teamwould do.
My team would have it be tobyfrom the office, and because
they would just assume that hewould be the guy for me, right,
you know?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
and so, kyle, I'll email you after this.
Our number our first a teamwinner selected toby, so we got
to announce the winner in frontof the whole company, and toby
in character that's how I.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I bet well.
And yeah, it would have to bein character, right you?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
know, the typical droning age it costs a couple
hundred bucks.
I mean it really, you know to,to do a cameo like that.
So once a once a month, uh, wemake that one a little bit more
special, and it's just a funthing that's cool.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
That's cool and and you know it's, it's funny, like
we, you know we're kind oflaughing about it here and and
uh, um, but that that's kind ofthe point, right, like making
the workplace a little bit fun,like like, can we not come to
work and and hate it and then gohome and, you know, just hope
that?
Uh, you know, we have athree-day weekend coming up,
(29:28):
right, like, like the wholepoint is to to make this
workplace more fun to be at, youknow, and and um, yeah, I could
, I could have, I could have alot of fun with something like
that.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah.
Yeah so and other people areusing us, kyle, in other ways
too, like, uh, you talk aboutother success, interesting ways.
People might be recognizingtheir employees and and so right
now we're actually having a lotof people use us for vaccines.
You know they use it as anincentive and they use our award
co platform to incentivizetheir employees to be vaccinated
.
And you can actuallyself-recognize on our platform.
(30:01):
So not only can you berecognized by peers, but you can
self-recognize as well, andthere's a way of workflow to do
that.
Another way is work at home.
People wanted to spruce up homeoffices and there's a way of
workflow to do that.
Another way is work at home.
People wanted to spruce up homeoffices, so we had some great
organizations and, due to NDAs,I can't disclose the company
names, but they created aprogram of recognizing their
(30:22):
employees for just working fromhome, and one of the things you
can do with AwardCo is you canactually take points and
designate those points to onlypurchase certain items.
So they were able to create acustom work at home catalog via
Amazon inside of AwardCo andthey were able to recognize all
their employees are working fromhome $400 of points, and then
(30:45):
they all were able to go intotheir curated catalog that was
handpicked from Amazon and pickitems from home.
And then all those items gotshipped from Amazon and it was
an unbelievable experience forprocurement, to HR, to the
employees, and then all they didis go on LinkedIn and say how
awesome their company is.
So it was a win-win foreveryone.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
That's cool, that's very cool, yeah, and I think
it's really interesting and Ithink you know, I think it's um,
it's really interesting andthis is um.
I think this is one of the moreimportant components here,
cause I've seen these programsbefore where you do like the
points and and then you go intothe, you get the catalog and you
go in the catalog and you pickthe, you know whatever, whatever
(31:26):
thing you want, um, this isamazon yeah right, so so you can
basically get whatever you wantthen with with this type of
platform correct.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, yeah, so we have a unique relationship with
amazon and that's a whole notherstory how we even did that?
Because they said they told meno, we don't want to work with
(32:05):
you, and somehow, somehow webroke that.
But yeah it 500 companies wherethey have their logo on the
left hand corner.
It's their marketplace ofoptions, of all the Amazon
products inside their ownrecognition site branded to them
.
And then they have gift cardsand Priceline hotels.
(32:25):
We created the ultimate awardnetwork that is theirs for their
employees, and so it's allabout employee choice.
It's whatever they want, butyou do have the ability to
curate those points to say, well, this is an onboarding program,
so you can only spend these 100points in the swag store.
So we helped solve the swags.
(32:46):
Whether they're working home orat the office, they can pick
what they want, choose the sizeand then Amazon, they can just
choose whatever they want.
And you should see, kyle, thethings that people buy.
It's one of the I, anonymously,I will, I will feature items in
our all hands-on meetings thatwe do once a week.
And and the other day, someonebought like a heated uh branch
(33:10):
for their bird cage bird cagefor their bird to be, you know,
because you know, maybe it hascold, cold feet.
You know stuff like that you'dnever think to put on an award
catalog.
I also saw someone do apersonal sauna where you
literally like push a button andit's a balloon that goes over
you and then it steams you upinside and it's just like it is
(33:31):
so wild what people get and theylove it because it's theirs,
it's what they want.
So I can go on and on all thethings that they they purchase.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
But the point is it is amazon, you get what you want
yeah, yeah, I get you know I Idon't remember seeing the heated
bird branch or the the bubblesauna in the last uh service
awards uh catalog that we have,but uh you don't put it, but
it's uh.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
No, it's so fun and and the employees have fun with
it and they know they get itfrom their, their organization,
it's their brand.
When they log in, it's all theproducts there.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
So, um, it's exciting for them absolutely and and, uh
, you know, I.
I think one of the one of thethings that's just really
interesting about this programis is, even though you're
getting something that maybe you, I don't know, you know, bird,
heated bird branches, uh, youknow, maybe you were going to
(34:23):
get that anyways and you, yougot it.
Because you got this, you knowyou got recognized.
But now every time you look atthat bird and his feet are warm,
there's a little bit of afeeling there like, oh, I got
that because of X, you know,because I did a great job that
day, or I won the employeenomination that week, or, you
(34:43):
know, I hit three months with mycompany and I belong with that
company, right, like that doesmean something, right.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
It does.
It does, it means something.
So we have some people thatturn off our gift card function
because they don't want theiremployees to get gift cards.
They, because you do, you putit in your pocket and you may or
may spend it.
You may spend only 70% of it.
How many times have we leavethe dollars on it?
But with this, you know it'sit's with Amazon, they can get
what they want and um and whenthey want it and um, it's always
(35:13):
there when they log in to getsomething more, so they can earn
more points as well.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Absolutely, absolutely, um.
No, it's.
It's funny, you know this is um.
I mean, it just sounds like areally great program.
It sounds like a lot of fun.
It's bringing me back to thetime that I got that cooler for
(35:42):
a service award from one of myemployers.
I'll be honest, it was a choice.
I could have a choice, but Ihad five things to choose from.
I wasn't really thrilled aboutanything, but I was like you
know, I could use a cooler, likea little cooler, like a uh, um,
six pack cooler for, you know,beer or whatever, and uh.
But I use that cooler everyweek when I walk to my
(36:05):
neighbor's house and we havehappy hour and every time I get
that cooler.
I picked that cooler.
I'm like oh yeah, I got that.
Yeah, you know what it's, soit's, it's it's goofy, but it
really does.
It's like there's like a like awarm, like kind of a cool
feeling like.
Oh, yeah, I got that.
I think it was three yearsservice award, Right, so I, I
earned that.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, exactly, and it's so much better when they
can pick what they want, ratherthan there's a lot only thing
that I wanted, but I reallydidn't care for it.
You know what I mean.
So it does the opposite effect.
So that's why it's all thechoice is king and um, and you
(36:40):
got to give them the choice.
Uh, these days, you knowespecially the younger
generation there.
They they understand, they livein the Amazon world where they
have choice and they're going toget a fast and that's the same
thing too.
That's so important.
If you are going to give anemployee an award or reward,
then it needs to come in acouple of days.
And it's cool stories Like Ihave people you know we have
over 3 million users now andwhen we were going to trade
shows, people would come up andsaid, oh my gosh, I ordered
(37:02):
something that morning and I gotit that evening.
Because they live close to theAmazon warehouse, our
integration is direct with them.
Once it's placed on our system,it goes to their world-class
fulfillment centers in real timeand, depending on the time they
got it, they could literallyreceive it the same day.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
We'll be back after a quick break.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
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Speaker 2 (38:05):
That's tryrumiai for a 14-day free trial.
Super cool, super cool.
Yeah, I think it's really aninteresting program.
I don't know how you got Amazonto agree to it.
Yeah, that's probably anotherpodcast, but good for you.
(38:28):
It was a lot of luck and a lotof hard work, but you know we,
yeah, so definitely for anotherpodcast, because that'll
probably take me 10 minutes tokind of go through.
Absolutely Well, I, you know, Ithink it's a.
It's a really fascinating take.
I do think that, you know,recognition is one of those
things that HR, I mean.
I've been looking for a toolthat works, you know, for years.
And every time I look, you know, I look for something, it just
tends to be the same thing.
(38:49):
You know, it's just it's, it'sjust a different company and
this, this really does.
You know, it sounds different,it sounds quick.
I do think the other thing youhit on is is the speed.
You know, having a tool torecognize um is critical,
because if you don't recognizeemployees in a timely manner,
(39:10):
just with a tool that allows youto recognize them, let alone
get, get the thing in their hand, um, you know, or you don't
empower your managers and say,hey, when you want to recognize
someone, use this thing, it'sright here, use it.
Um, it's so easy to just forgetabout it and if you're not
tracking it, like we alreadytalked about, there's no
(39:30):
accountability there andeventually, with best intentions
, you go home and you're like,oh crap, I was going to say
thanks to Susie and then you goin the next morning with best
intentions to recognize her andyour day gets away from you.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And then it's next week and it's next month and you
missed it Totally and that'swhy I talked about earlier the
integrations with communicationapplications is key.
So you mentioned Kyle.
You're in an RFP right now.
Your recognition tools need towork with the Slack, the Teams,
the Yammer, the Outlooks.
Recognition works when ithappens in your natural flow.
(40:08):
It can't be this other tool.
It can't be a WordCo.
What's that site?
We use again Something slash,wordco, our recognitions and
countless other customers thatwent from Slack to took a WordCo
and put it inside of Slack andTeams.
I know personally ours went up400% because it happened in our
flow.
I'm constantly communicatingwith people and now I can do a
(40:30):
slash recognize and littlewidget pops up right within
Slack.
That is key to any modern dayrecognition solution that you
need to have.
And then you recognizenon-monetary and monetary, have
a mixture of both and I thinkit's good to have a mixture of
both.
You don't want to create a selfof entitlement.
(40:51):
That's why you want to givemanagers budgets that they can
be responsible for, that can useto incentivize, and you just
have a mixture of.
I like a 70-30 rule 70%non-monetary, 30% monetary.
That's what I've seen thewinning equation to be.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Well, and it's just like where the world is going
right now.
It's the ease of use kind ofthat frictionless experience
where, like, oh, this is great,I need to spot, recognize, done,
hashtag, recognize or whateverwe don't use Slack, so I don't
know all the lingo and then it'sright there, and then it's done
, and then it's tracked orwhatever.
(41:33):
Whatever we're at, we don't useSlack, so I don't know all the
lingo, but um and then, and thenit's right there, and then it's
done, and then it's tracked andit's yeah, the easier you make
it, uh, the more your managerswill do it, cause I guarantee
you, I know.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
I know there's some HR people here listening.
They're like my managers woulddo this.
I've tried.
Um, it's, it's not thatmanagers don't want to do it,
it's that they don't.
They, they don't have a tool todo it in their, like you said,
in their flow, like in their, intheir workday, right?
Uh, so if they have somethingwhere they just shocked with how
easy it became as we juststarted recognizing it become
part of our culture.
(42:23):
And I actually that's how I gota word code we have to be the
best, protect revenue andrecognize often and recognize
the good.
And so I always go in front ofour company and I share a number
.
I say, look what we did lastmonth.
We averaged about three and ahalf recognitions per user, like
, let's see if we can get alittle higher.
(42:44):
And then it's like then peopleare like, yeah, we can do more
and it just became natural.
You know what I mean.
So it does start from the top.
You got to get your managersbought in and you have to have
an easy solution and you have torecognize in your flow and then
it'll be amazing to watch yourorganization flourish and become
a culture of recognition.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Yeah, love that.
Well, it's been an absolutelywonderful conversation, but we
are coming close to the end ofour time together and I know
you're a super busy guy, so Iwant to be respectful.
We are going to shift gears,we're going to go into the Rebel
HR flash round, so are youready?
I'm ready.
All right, here we go.
Question number one what areyou reading right now?
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Well, I'm an entrepreneur and the book that I
currently have right now is, uhand this is my second time
through now is shoe dog.
I love shoe dog.
In fact, I was with some Nikeexecutives and and they didn't
love shoe dog cause it didn'tget in, but it's involved with
the Michael Jordan.
How did they land the Jordanbrand and all that?
(43:47):
They didn't.
You know, I loved it because ofthe entrepreneurial side of
that book, of the crazy thingsthat Phil Knight had to do to
build his company, and that'swhat I love, because there's no
roadmap to building a company.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I love Shoe Dog, love that, love that.
I have not read that book, so Igot to put that one on the list
.
I have just not had a chance,all right.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Question number two who should we be listening to?
Um, well, I'll just kind of thefirst thing that comes to mind
is your customers and yourprospects, and what I mean by
that is one of my favoritethings to do.
People always have podcasts oruh, or listening to audio books
as they drive home.
I actually use a tool calledGong G-O-N-G dot I-O.
(44:36):
That is a tool that records allmy sales conversations and they
organize it in categories and Ican actually, on my ride home,
I listen to real liveconversations of people trying
to reimagine recognition with mysalespeople and I love learning
and listening to thoseconversations.
(44:56):
So I love listening to futurecustomers, uh, prospects and
customers, because you can learnso much about what they're
looking for right now.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Um, what they're looking for right now.
That's fascinating, just kindof yeah, there's no, I don't
know if that's a, you know that,but that's that's what I do.
I love listening to our ownpeople and real life situations
that happen that day as I drivehome.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah it's, it's a.
It's a far departure from myworld because you know I'm in
manufacturing setting andusually when I have to record a
conversation it's not good, it'sa.
You know I'm in a manufacturingsetting.
Usually when I have to record aconversation it's not good.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
I'm notifying somebody I'm recording.
Yada, yada, yada Everyone'stalking about right now.
How do I retain my employees,how do I engage with them, how
do I recognize them?
The great resignation.
That's why I'm listening tohundreds and thousands of
conversations.
Then I take that and it allowsme to stay true on the course of
what a ward coach should bedeveloping.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
Ah yeah, I love that.
And at the end of the day, youknow, I think about.
I think about whether you're anentrepreneur or you're an HR
practitioner.
You know that your customersyou have customers for HR.
They just might happen to beinternal, yeah Right.
And so you need to have thatfeedback loop.
You need to make sure you'reserving your organization, your
managers, your team with theright type of solutions.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Otherwise, what do you do, and your employees too?
That's something I do everyFriday evening.
We use Lattice.
A lot of people know it's apulse thing, and every day I get
that information.
I love reading what employeesare saying.
So exactly right.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Absolutely All right.
Last question how can ourlisteners connect with you?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Best way just find me on LinkedIn, Steve Sonnenberg.
I accept most invitations and Ithink that's probably one of
the easiest ways to connect withyou right now is just via
LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Perfect, and we'll have that information in the
show notes.
The company is AwardCo andcheck it out.
I know I'm going to throw thisinto the RFP here and you know
you're telling me that I can getsomething quick for my
employees on Amazon and have itlink in with my systems, and my
interest is piqued.
So, Steve, thanks so much forthe time.
(47:12):
It's been a great conversation.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Yeah, my pleasure.
It's great, great getting toknow you and appreciate the time
today.
Thanks, take care.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
All right, that does it for the Rebel HR podcast.
Big thank you to our guests.
Follow us on Facebook atRebelHR Podcast, twitter at
RebelHRGuy, or see our websiteat RebelHumanResourcescom.
The views and opinionsexpressed by RebelHR Podcast are
those of the authors and do notnecessarily reflect the
official policy or position ofany of the organizations that we
(47:42):
represent.
No animals were harmed duringthe filming of this podcast.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Baby.
Recognition happens from the day we were just born
and we're kids and we just seekit from our parents and
naturally we give it all thetime at work.
But if it's not tracked and youdon't know how to measure it,
there's no way you can helppeople that are falling through
the cracks.
Of course, there are certainpeople that get recognized all
the time because that's just whothey are and they're front and
center, but I'm more concernedabout those that aren't so front
(00:20):
and center, that are doingamazing work, and so it's all
about measuring it.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the Rebel HR podcast, the podcast where we
talk to HR innovators about allthings people, leadership.
If you're looking for places tofind, about new ways to think
about the world of work, this isthe podcast for you.
Please subscribe from yourfavorite podcast listening
platform today and leave us areview.
Rebel on HR.
(00:44):
Rebels All right, rebel HRlisteners.
Super excited for theconversation.
Today we have Steve Sonnenberg.
Steve is the co-founder and CEOof AwardCo.
He learned a great dealwatching his father's career in
employee recognition withcompanies like McDonald's, but
something was missing.
In 2011, he began workingmissing.
(01:06):
So in 2011, he began working onplans to use new innovative
technology to solve the pitfallsof traditional employee
recognition programs.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Thank you, appreciate it.
It's great to be with you.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Well, I'm super excited about it and I'll be
honest with you, this is alittle bit self-serving, because
I'm in the midst of an RFP,trying to figure out what in the
world to do with employeerecognition.
And so, before we get into itand I ask all of my selfish
questions, what led you into theworld of recognizing others?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Yeah, kyle, great question.
It does start with my father.
He is an employee recognitionconsultant, independent from any
specific company.
He works for companies likeJostens and ring manufacturers
and he got into the lapel pins,the rings, the plaques for
(01:59):
corporations.
So I grew up in the Chicagolandarea.
He had incredible customerslike McDonald's and Motorola and
John Deere out of Chicago.
But my love probably startedwhen he did the six Chicago
Bulls championship rings.
He got involved with thechampionship sports side and I
(02:21):
as a junior high at the time Iwas able to go to those ring
ceremonies, those after parties,meet the players and we're
talking this is the nineties,you know, era of the Chicago
bulls.
So that's where I was like Iwant to do what my dad does.
But there was a problem.
I didn't care for rings andplaques.
I love the part of.
(02:42):
Well, you know what he wasdoing, what it was about, about
rewarding and recognizingachievements, but I always knew
there was a better way.
But that was my introduction.
It was my own father, who stillis an independent contractor
and still out there workingtoday.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Okay, man, now you're speaking my language.
So I'm a Midwest kid and, yeah,my formative years was watching
the Bulls win all thosechampionships.
I didn't have a rookie card,but I had a couple of Michael
Jordan basketball cards, scottyPippen, bj Armstrong I had a BJ
Armstrong autograph, yeah, so,yeah, we could talk about that,
(03:17):
I'm sure, but yeah, I could seethat being impactful for someone
in their youth, totally,totally, but okay, so no ring.
So I, I get that, like I got a,I got a class ring somewhere.
Actually, my wife and I werejust laughing about this.
We were, we were cleaning out acloset or something we're like
oh.
Hey look, I found my class ringand it's been there for the last
(03:39):
10 years.
Oh well, I guess put it back inthere.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
There's a time and a place.
I think it's great, right, butit's nowadays.
People want choice, they wantmore options, and that's where I
saw the opportunity in thisspace.
I viewed it as decades, acentury long, of people doing
the same thing over and over,and I was shocked, as I learned,
watching my dad do the certainthings he was doing for his
(04:04):
whole career, and I just knewthere was a.
This younger generation iscoming up.
There's just a better way tolook at it.
And but that but the seed wasplanted with my father and I
told him he says Look, I wantyou to take over my accounts.
And I and I said Look, thatsounds great, I love it.
You've built an unbelievablebusiness for our family and
(04:28):
you've been very successful.
But if I'm gonna get into thisspace, I wanna reinvent it.
There's a better way to do itand I wanted to create that
Amazon-like experience.
You know where there's choiceand it's fast and it's you know
just.
You know the era that we livein today.
So that's why I got into it andhe kind of led me into a newer
(04:48):
path in the field.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's really interesting, you know, and
you're you're hitting onsomething that I think is it's
it's one of the it's reallycritical, and I'm sure everybody
listening to this is can pullout a scenario where this was
was very, very relevant.
But, um, you know, everythingyou read about recognition and
and and celebrating employeespoints to the fact that people
(05:14):
like to be recognizeddifferently.
You know, and what, what worksfor someone doesn't work for
someone else, and so I thinkyou're hitting on a really
critical point here, uh, whichis, you know, kind of that
optionality of recognition.
But you know my context.
There is like, ok, instead ofgiving somebody you know
Mountain Dew, give them DietCoke because that's their
(05:35):
favorite pop, right, and I kidyou not, my first job out of
college, we literally had abinder and you were supposed to
fill out the binder and haveyour employees fill out what is
your favorite pop, what is yourfavorite snack.
And then the idea was okay, I'mgoing to pull this binder out,
I'll pull out this piece ofpaper, and then when they do
something good, I'm going toreward them with whatever they
(05:57):
wrote down on that paper.
It was super high tech, so I'msure AwardCo is kind of similar.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, it is true, we all wantto be rewarded in different
ways.
People have different personas.
Sometimes people want to be outfront, in the whole
organization, at all hands onmeeting, and you come up and
everyone claps.
And other times people are moreshy and they don't.
They don't want that and theywant to make it more private.
(06:26):
But they but.
But really we want to beacknowledged that we're on the
right path.
And so, when it comes torecognition, there is that
social element that is soimportant, that feeling that you
receive it's not all monetary.
Uh, you know it has to cometimely, it has to come.
Um, you receive, it's not allmonetary, you know it has to
come timely.
It has to come.
You know from a close peer thatyou know and they saw the work
(06:50):
that you did.
And then it has to come in theway that you like to be
recognized, because if you'reuncomfortable and you don't want
to be shot out in front of thewhole company people got to know
that the managers are soimportant to understand their
employees.
But then, when it does come tothe monetary side, it's just,
it's all about choice.
You know, get something that isimpactful to you and that will
(07:14):
be meaningful, rather than youknow something that is a cool
gift, like there was a companyhere in the Valley, here in
Silicon Slopes area in Utah,where everyone got an Oculus
Awesome, you know what I mean.
It's such a cool gift, but it'sjust not everyone wanted that,
you know what I mean.
So it was very expensive forhalf the employees that didn't
(07:34):
care for it.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, yeah, I'd be the one I'd be like, oh, that's
cool.
What do I do with this?
Like it looks cool, it looksexpensive.
Can I hawk it on eBay?
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Thanks for listening.
So I wanted to hit on somethingwith with the word code.
I think it's it's important.
I want to understand it alittle bitCo.
(09:06):
And I think it's important.
I want to understand it alittle bit more because I have a
feeling it was very intentional.
But AwardCo is the employeerewards and recognition company
that builds culture throughvalue-driven recognition.
So, as you look at value-drivenrecognition, how do you look at
that, how do you define thatand how do you provide a look at
that?
How do you define that and howdo you provide a solution for
(09:26):
that?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Yeah, well, I think people with the great
resignation out there I meanthat's been used a lot now they
want to work for an organizationthat has a great purpose, a
great place.
They're going, something whythey exist.
And there's great companies outthere something why they exist.
And there's great companies outthere, like the Patagonia's and
(09:48):
the Starbucks, that haveincredible purposes of why they
exist, that employees want toattach themselves, they believe
in and it's something biggerthan themselves.
And then you have these valuesof an organization that are
intended to support that overallpurpose of an organization,
organization that are intendedto support that overall purpose
of an organization, and thosevalues should support that
(10:10):
purpose.
And so one of the things thatwe do at AwardCo is we want to
create a system within anorganization.
Part of their culture is wherewe take those values, whether
it's customer obsession orall-in or whatever that makes up
the organization that supportsyour overall purpose.
And we want to make it easy andnatural for the organization to
(10:33):
recognize on those values everyday.
So when somebody is exemplifyinga value, um, you know, at your,
at your, at your company.
And I'll just do one of ourexamples.
You know, one of ours is um, um, just grit Right and um, and I
(10:54):
love when, when people tag thatvalue and share a story of
something that they did, thatrepresents what that is.
And and then, um, it getsposted on, posted on our
recognition feed and it's socialfor everyone to look at it and
like it and comment.
And also, I think it's soimportant for that recognition
(11:15):
to flow into your communicationchannels as well.
So that same recognition thathappened went to Slack, or went
to Microsoft Teams, to hisdesignated channel, and so when
we're constantly going about ourday, working, solving complex
problems, the recognition isfront and center.
It's in the applications thatI'm using.
(11:36):
And so I think, when it comesback to your question of like,
what are we doing?
And it's allowing organizationsto recognize those values on a
daily basis and having thosevalues flow into the
communication channels that theyneed to.
And then, if your manager has amonetary budget of points, they
(11:57):
can give monetary points aswell to put an exclamation on
that, and it's discretionary,it's up to them, uh, but that's
one way we do it is weconstantly, uh, help
organizations recognize on theirvalues, meaningful recognitions
on a daily basis that thatreally support that overall
(12:17):
purpose.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, I love that and you know it's, it's.
I think it just comes down tobeing authentic, right?
Yeah, Um, yeah, exactly.
Right, it needs you know it's,it's.
I think it just comes down tobeing authentic right, yeah,
yeah, exactly Right.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
It needs to be an authentic recognition, not just
like hey, you know you were, youwere amazing working with that,
that, that that customershashtag, customer obsession,
general, not authentic.
There's nothing there Like.
There needs to be details,there needs to be explanation,
share the story.
And now one of the things thatwe do, just so you know, to help
(12:48):
encourage the authentic to be,for employees to be authentic we
do contests, we have fun withit, we gamify it, we say the top
five recognitions that are themost authentic, creative, fun.
We're going to recognize themon our all hands-on meeting and
you're going to get 100 pointsor 100 bucks and what it does?
(13:10):
It gets people that just wantto win.
And so then, all of a sudden,it's this contagious culture
where everyone's trying to beclever and funny and it adds to
the quality of the recognitionbecause we're actually talking
about it, um and and it, and.
When you talk about it and youput an incentive there, usually
(13:30):
get what you want.
That's what I've seen.
We use our platform Right.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Right, I love that.
I'm just.
I'm just sitting here and I'mthinking, you know, man, I could
really have some fun with that.
Oh, you see what people come upwith, yeah, could be dangerous.
So yeah, I'm sitting here, youknow, I put my compliance hat on
.
I'm like, ooh, that could getugly, it could be fun.
(13:55):
But that's the other thing Iwanted to touch on, and that's
one of the things you know thatI saw in your recent press
release is it's talking aboutHR's role in culture and
recognition and the fact that isthis an HR function or not?
So what is your perspective onHR's role in culture and
(14:19):
recognition?
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah Well, you know one of the things I said in our
last series round funding.
I truly believe this that awork is becoming not just an HR
tool, a business operationaltool or the head of culture to
be responsible for it.
We are all responsible for it.
(14:51):
And so, when it comes to thesales organization, what tools
are they using to make sure thatthey're recognized and
appreciated, down to the HR team, to the marketing team, to
everyone across the organization?
Everyone has the torch and theyneed to carry it on to the next
generation that's coming on.
(15:12):
At AwardCo, we're scaling veryfast, and so I think about this
all the time.
How do we continue to keep ourculture as we continue to double
in employee size, and so weconstantly give to double in
employee size, and so weconstantly give education to our
managers in every departmentand we encourage them to
recognize, often, everydepartment, and we hold the
(15:36):
managers responsible for it.
We want to give them tools andanalytics so they can see their
department of who's beingrecognized and who's not, and
those that are quieter that aremaybe doing incredible work, but
people aren't noticing it.
It's up to the managers toraise the hand and say this
individual, let's rally aroundthem and they're going to give
the recognition of somethingthat they maybe did and they're
(15:57):
going to spotlight it and itbecomes contagious.
So that's what I mean itactually is.
It's up to the managers tocontinue the culture all across
the organization, and it's notjust up to the HR team to say,
oh, we don't have a greatculture, it's HR fault, it's the
head of culture.
No, it's everyone, and everyoneneeds to understand that.
And so you need to give themtools.
(16:18):
And so that's where I go back tothat one report I just talked
about.
Great for a manager to log intoa recognition system to see
who's being recognized and who'snot, and we even have like a
score on them.
And when it comes down topeople leaving an organization,
they leave because they don'tfeel appreciated.
How many times have we readthat?
(16:39):
But have we ever measured it?
I think we recognize all thetime, you know, through email or
just on Slack, but there's noformalized way of recognition
and nothing's tracking it.
And that's what we're trying todo at AwardCo is we're trying
to take all this great data andtrack it and then report back to
the managers to let them knowhow they're doing.
So that's why everyone isimportant.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Gotcha, gotcha.
Well, there's a lot of greatstuff in there and I'm furiously
taking notes here.
So, um, because I got, I gotsome just maybe some tactical
questions.
So so you, you hit on somethingthat I think is a really,
really, really critical pointright now, something I'm feeling
.
My organization is growing veryquickly and you know we have
(17:20):
that concern about how do weretain the culture that got us
here.
How do we make sure peopledon't feel like we're growing so
quickly or they're not feelingappreciated for the growth, or
they're being left behind, or aquiet employee that maybe is
just killing it every single daybut doesn't ask for the
(17:43):
spotlight or doesn't get thespotlight but doesn't ask for
the spotlight or doesn't get thespotlight, and that's been one
of the challenges that I reallyhaven't been able to solve yet.
So, when you talk about givingmanagers a tool and then holding
them responsible, what doesthis look like?
How do you approach this?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah Well, you can't measure something if you're not
tracking it, and so that's thefirst thing to do is understand
okay, here are all the peoplethat I'm responsible for, and as
a manager, I can then look downand see how many times did they
recognize someone.
That's one area of viewpointthat the manager has and then
(18:21):
you can also see how many timeshas that person received a
recognition.
And we're actually creating arecognition score for the
company and on the individualuser.
And if you're not measuring it,you have no idea.
And I've worked at someorganizations in the past, prior
to Awardco, and you just neverknow.
(18:41):
I mean, recognition happens fromthe day we were, you know, just
born and we're kids and we justseek it from our parents and
naturally we give it all thetime at work.
But if it's not tracked and youdon't know how to measure it,
there's no way you can helppeople that are falling through
the cracks.
Of course, there are certainpeople that get recognized all
the time because that's just whothey are and they're front and
(19:03):
center, but I'm more concernedabout those that aren't so front
and center, that are doingamazing work, and so it's all
about measuring it, and so youknow that's one of the things
that we focus on with ourapplication is measuring that
and giving those tools to themanagers so they can be smart
and so they can create a cultureof recognition within their
group.
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Speaker 2 (20:09):
Got it, got it, got it, got it.
Yeah, I um I'm just thinkingthrough geez, what would this
look like?
My organization might be kindof interesting.
Yeah, um, I gotta believe thatyou get.
You get mixed reactions from amanager when you tell them hey,
I'm measure this yeah, well, Imean that's.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I mean it's just the tools that you have behind the
scenes.
You know that you can help.
You know, and the point is forthe manager to have visibility
into the recognition side oftheir department and then to
identify the gaps and then forthem to have solved the problems
.
And I truly believe when youhave a high recognition score,
(20:51):
that that impacts your ENPS andyour NPS scores.
It's just a number we haven'tbeen tracking.
We just kind of say, hey, areyou happy?
Would you refer someone tosomeone at your company, zero to
10.
And then they give a scorethere.
Then you can generate ENPS.
That's fine.
But I'm taking this stufffurther.
I'm saying we have so much datanow at work and it's truly, if
(21:14):
that person's being recognizedand is recognizing a lot of
people, then I have a betterscore that I can create.
And if that score is higher,then I know that you know our
customers are being taken careof because our employees are
being taken care of.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely, it's really.
You know that's, it's reallyinteresting.
And you know, when you when youmentioned that I was just
having flashbacks to you knowyou mentioned net.
You know NPS or net promoterscore.
If you're not familiar, and Ican't tell you I've, I've done
dozens of employee surveys in mymy career and I I think, yeah,
(21:53):
with in in every single survey,one of the bottom three um
scores was was recognition.
Usually pay is in there.
And then you know communicationrecognition.
You know it's, it's, it's allkind of the same bucket.
And then, and then you look atyour, your net promoter score
and you're like, oh well, we'rekind of mediocre and it's so
(22:17):
frustrating to go through thatand do all this work.
And you feel like, yeah, thisis going to change that NPS,
we're going to be good,recognition looks great.
And it's like you barelyscratched the surface.
And so have you seen anyresults or any kind of stories
(22:38):
where you've seen anorganization that's really
trying to solve this problem?
You know, find the solution orfind something that works for
them?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, good question.
Yes, I mean, we see it all thetime.
I mean we're takingorganizations that are coming
from a culture of recognizing,just for service anniversaries,
you know, which is very common 5, 10, 15 years.
It's just that's how they'vedone it for decades and taking
(23:06):
those organizations andimplementing a value-based
recognition program, recognizingtheir values on a daily basis.
Now, you know recognition, youknow I do go back to the
Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
I mean that's important to usand that's something that's been
around for a while.
(23:26):
But I truly believe thatorganizations that have taken
this approach where they arerecognizing there's like three
levels here I want to kind oftalk about.
The first level is thisbelonging level, where
organizations just want tobelong somewhere and you should,
(23:47):
as an organization, take thoseopportunities to recognize them
at least three times that firstyear for belonging.
And what I mean by that is anonboarding program.
Everyone gets onboarded.
So you recognize them, youappreciate them, maybe you give
them some points that could beused just in the onboarding
store of swag.
(24:08):
And then you go to the secondthing.
Everyone has a birthday.
You know.
For the most part some peopledon't celebrate birthdays and
there's other ways you can lookat that but a lot of people will
do like a birthday program andagain they're just celebrating
the employee for belonging.
And third is their workanniversary.
So you want to create a cultureof recognition and build that
(24:29):
foundation of a sense ofbelonging.
And so many people miss theboat there.
Because those are three greatexamples of things that you can
do the first year of recognizingto create a culture of
recognition.
You want to create a culturewhere they have to earn that
(24:50):
recognition and that's wherethey have to do something
amazing.
Where they're doing exemplifyingthe values of your organization
, they have to put forth theeffort and then you allow people
to recognize those employeesbased on that and that's that
second level.
And then you got the top level,which is more like your
employee of the month typeprogram, your president's club,
your A-team, and that's like anomination program.
(25:11):
So what we do is we helporganizations kind of create a
well-balanced solution to theirrecognition solutions, a
strategic reason of how yourecognize.
And when we see organizationsdevelop that balanced solution
of recognition, then theirrecognition scores go up because
automatically they'rerecognizing someone at least
four or five, six times throughtheir organization every year
(25:35):
and that is so much higher thanthe norm.
There's a lot of data out therethat shows that companies are
not recognizing their employeesall but once every two years or
three years formally, and so youknow, we've seen a lot of
incredible results from ourorganizations that we've worked
with, that have implemented thatbalanced structure of
recognizing.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah, you know what you just said just really kind
of struck me.
Could you imagine not gettingrecognized for two or three
years?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
And busting your hump every day.
I mean that'd be absolutelydemoralizing, but I know it
happens.
It happens a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
It happens a lot and that's why it's important to
actually have a strategicapproach to recognition and it's
a three to one approach.
Three belonging recognitionprograms onboarding, birthdays,
anniversaries two of the nextlevel, which you have to earn it
, which is spot recognition, andalso maybe health and wellness
and things like that that Ididn't elaborate on.
(26:43):
We can go on for a long time onthis.
And then that last level is onethat nomination program.
Now, with the nominationprogram, we have fun with it, we
actually we call it the A-teamand it has to be nominated.
Everyone gets one nominationonce a month, so it's a
glorified employee of the month,employee of the month is cheesy
, a-team is cooler, and you knowyou gotta get fun with the
branding of it, right?
But then what we do is weselect a winner and then we go
(27:06):
over to Cameo.
You know the celebrity, youknow we get a celebrity to say
something about an employee, andso we actually nominate who the
winner is.
We go find out who they like.
We've used Lindsay Lohan, we'veused, you know, whatever the
employee likes.
We find out and then we take itto our all hands-on meeting and
(27:27):
then we announce the A-teamwinner and then we have the
celebrity announce it.
We have people from the officedo it, we have.
You know what I mean, and it'sjust, it makes it a little bit
more special.
So, again, you have to go aboutit in a strategic way.
If you don't, you don't have anorganization, a culture of
recognizing that does sound fun.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
I mean that that that sounds cool.
I want to do that.
I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Well, you should see, and one of these days and we
get enough of them, we'veprobably done about eight or
nine now We'll probably havethem put them all on our website
and then people can rate them,the celebrities, because some
show up and that areunbelievable, that do such a
good job, that capture thespirit of recognition, and then
some are like I don't even wantto be on Cameo, I don't even
know why I'm doing this, andthey fall through.
(28:10):
But it's fun for the company,it's fun for the employees, it
makes the recognition meaningful.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You've got to think outside the box.
Yeah, you mentioned that and Igot to thinking I'm like, okay,
who would my Cameo be?
You know, I got to say it wouldbe hilarious.
This is probably what my teamwould do.
My team would have it be tobyfrom the office, and because
they would just assume that hewould be the guy for me, right,
you know?
Speaker 1 (28:36):
and so, kyle, I'll email you after this.
Our number our first a teamwinner selected toby, so we got
to announce the winner in frontof the whole company, and toby
in character that's how I.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I bet well.
And yeah, it would have to bein character, right you?
Speaker 1 (28:52):
know, the typical droning age it costs a couple
hundred bucks.
I mean it really, you know to,to do a cameo like that.
So once a once a month, uh, wemake that one a little bit more
special, and it's just a funthing that's cool.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
That's cool and and you know it's, it's funny, like
we, you know we're kind oflaughing about it here and and
uh, um, but that that's kind ofthe point, right, like making
the workplace a little bit fun,like like, can we not come to
work and and hate it and then gohome and, you know, just hope
that?
Uh, you know, we have athree-day weekend coming up,
(29:28):
right, like, like the wholepoint is to to make this
workplace more fun to be at, youknow, and and um, yeah, I could
, I could have, I could have alot of fun with something like
that.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah.
Yeah so and other people areusing us, kyle, in other ways
too, like, uh, you talk aboutother success, interesting ways.
People might be recognizingtheir employees and and so right
now we're actually having a lotof people use us for vaccines.
You know they use it as anincentive and they use our award
co platform to incentivizetheir employees to be vaccinated
.
And you can actuallyself-recognize on our platform.
(30:01):
So not only can you berecognized by peers, but you can
self-recognize as well, andthere's a way of workflow to do
that.
Another way is work at home.
People wanted to spruce up homeoffices and there's a way of
workflow to do that.
Another way is work at home.
People wanted to spruce up homeoffices, so we had some great
organizations and, due to NDAs,I can't disclose the company
names, but they created aprogram of recognizing their
(30:22):
employees for just working fromhome, and one of the things you
can do with AwardCo is you canactually take points and
designate those points to onlypurchase certain items.
So they were able to create acustom work at home catalog via
Amazon inside of AwardCo andthey were able to recognize all
their employees are working fromhome $400 of points, and then
(30:45):
they all were able to go intotheir curated catalog that was
handpicked from Amazon and pickitems from home.
And then all those items gotshipped from Amazon and it was
an unbelievable experience forprocurement, to HR, to the
employees, and then all they didis go on LinkedIn and say how
awesome their company is.
So it was a win-win foreveryone.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
That's cool, that's very cool, yeah, and I think
it's really interesting and Ithink you know, I think it's um,
it's really interesting andthis is um.
I think this is one of the moreimportant components here,
cause I've seen these programsbefore where you do like the
points and and then you go intothe, you get the catalog and you
go in the catalog and you pickthe, you know whatever, whatever
(31:26):
thing you want, um, this isamazon yeah right, so so you can
basically get whatever you wantthen with with this type of
platform correct.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, yeah, so we have a unique relationship with
amazon and that's a whole notherstory how we even did that?
Because they said they told meno, we don't want to work with
(32:05):
you, and somehow, somehow webroke that.
But yeah it 500 companies wherethey have their logo on the
left hand corner.
It's their marketplace ofoptions, of all the Amazon
products inside their ownrecognition site branded to them
.
And then they have gift cardsand Priceline hotels.
(32:25):
We created the ultimate awardnetwork that is theirs for their
employees, and so it's allabout employee choice.
It's whatever they want, butyou do have the ability to
curate those points to say, well, this is an onboarding program,
so you can only spend these 100points in the swag store.
So we helped solve the swags.
(32:46):
Whether they're working home orat the office, they can pick
what they want, choose the sizeand then Amazon, they can just
choose whatever they want.
And you should see, kyle, thethings that people buy.
It's one of the I, anonymously,I will, I will feature items in
our all hands-on meetings thatwe do once a week.
And and the other day, someonebought like a heated uh branch
(33:10):
for their bird cage bird cagefor their bird to be, you know,
because you know, maybe it hascold, cold feet.
You know stuff like that you'dnever think to put on an award
catalog.
I also saw someone do apersonal sauna where you
literally like push a button andit's a balloon that goes over
you and then it steams you upinside and it's just like it is
(33:31):
so wild what people get and theylove it because it's theirs,
it's what they want.
So I can go on and on all thethings that they they purchase.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
But the point is it is amazon, you get what you want
yeah, yeah, I get you know I Idon't remember seeing the heated
bird branch or the the bubblesauna in the last uh service
awards uh catalog that we have,but uh you don't put it, but
it's uh.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
No, it's so fun and and the employees have fun with
it and they know they get itfrom their, their organization,
it's their brand.
When they log in, it's all theproducts there.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
So, um, it's exciting for them absolutely and and, uh
, you know, I.
I think one of the one of thethings that's just really
interesting about this programis is, even though you're
getting something that maybe you, I don't know, you know, bird,
heated bird branches, uh, youknow, maybe you were going to
(34:23):
get that anyways and you, yougot it.
Because you got this, you knowyou got recognized.
But now every time you look atthat bird and his feet are warm,
there's a little bit of afeeling there like, oh, I got
that because of X, you know,because I did a great job that
day, or I won the employeenomination that week, or, you
(34:43):
know, I hit three months with mycompany and I belong with that
company, right, like that doesmean something, right.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
It does.
It does, it means something.
So we have some people thatturn off our gift card function
because they don't want theiremployees to get gift cards.
They, because you do, you putit in your pocket and you may or
may spend it.
You may spend only 70% of it.
How many times have we leavethe dollars on it?
But with this, you know it'sit's with Amazon, they can get
what they want and um and whenthey want it and um, it's always
(35:13):
there when they log in to getsomething more, so they can earn
more points as well.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Absolutely, absolutely, um.
No, it's.
It's funny, you know this is um.
I mean, it just sounds like areally great program.
It sounds like a lot of fun.
It's bringing me back to thetime that I got that cooler for
(35:42):
a service award from one of myemployers.
I'll be honest, it was a choice.
I could have a choice, but Ihad five things to choose from.
I wasn't really thrilled aboutanything, but I was like you
know, I could use a cooler, likea little cooler, like a uh, um,
six pack cooler for, you know,beer or whatever, and uh.
But I use that cooler everyweek when I walk to my
(36:05):
neighbor's house and we havehappy hour and every time I get
that cooler.
I picked that cooler.
I'm like oh yeah, I got that.
Yeah, you know what it's, soit's, it's it's goofy, but it
really does.
It's like there's like a like awarm, like kind of a cool
feeling like.
Oh, yeah, I got that.
I think it was three yearsservice award, Right, so I, I
earned that.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, exactly, and it's so much better when they
can pick what they want, ratherthan there's a lot only thing
that I wanted, but I reallydidn't care for it.
You know what I mean.
So it does the opposite effect.
So that's why it's all thechoice is king and um, and you
(36:40):
got to give them the choice.
Uh, these days, you knowespecially the younger
generation there.
They they understand, they livein the Amazon world where they
have choice and they're going toget a fast and that's the same
thing too.
That's so important.
If you are going to give anemployee an award or reward,
then it needs to come in acouple of days.
And it's cool stories Like Ihave people you know we have
over 3 million users now andwhen we were going to trade
shows, people would come up andsaid, oh my gosh, I ordered
(37:02):
something that morning and I gotit that evening.
Because they live close to theAmazon warehouse, our
integration is direct with them.
Once it's placed on our system,it goes to their world-class
fulfillment centers in real timeand, depending on the time they
got it, they could literallyreceive it the same day.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
We'll be back after a quick break.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
At my current company , I've generated seven figures
in revenue in just six monthsdoing all the sales by myself,
Just me and Roomie, my secretweapon.
Roomie isn't just anothermeeting app.
It's like Zoom or Google Meet,but with AI tools to supercharge
my results.
Roomie records every meeting,gives me real-time insights
(37:43):
during sales calls and if I'vemet with a prospect in the past,
Roomie's meeting memory answersany questions I have before the
call.
I don't waste time diggingthrough notes.
Rumi preps me instantly.
Go to tryrumiai.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
That's tryrumiai for a 14-day free trial.
Super cool, super cool.
Yeah, I think it's really aninteresting program.
I don't know how you got Amazonto agree to it.
Yeah, that's probably anotherpodcast, but good for you.
(38:28):
It was a lot of luck and a lotof hard work, but you know we,
yeah, so definitely for anotherpodcast, because that'll
probably take me 10 minutes tokind of go through.
Absolutely Well, I, you know, Ithink it's a.
It's a really fascinating take.
I do think that, you know,recognition is one of those
things that HR, I mean.
I've been looking for a toolthat works, you know, for years.
And every time I look, you know, I look for something, it just
tends to be the same thing.
(38:49):
You know, it's just it's, it'sjust a different company and
this, this really does.
You know, it sounds different,it sounds quick.
I do think the other thing youhit on is is the speed.
You know, having a tool torecognize um is critical,
because if you don't recognizeemployees in a timely manner,
(39:10):
just with a tool that allows youto recognize them, let alone
get, get the thing in their hand, um, you know, or you don't
empower your managers and say,hey, when you want to recognize
someone, use this thing, it'sright here, use it.
Um, it's so easy to just forgetabout it and if you're not
tracking it, like we alreadytalked about, there's no
(39:30):
accountability there andeventually, with best intentions
, you go home and you're like,oh crap, I was going to say
thanks to Susie and then you goin the next morning with best
intentions to recognize her andyour day gets away from you.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
And then it's next week and it's next month and you
missed it Totally and that'swhy I talked about earlier the
integrations with communicationapplications is key.
So you mentioned Kyle.
You're in an RFP right now.
Your recognition tools need towork with the Slack, the Teams,
the Yammer, the Outlooks.
Recognition works when ithappens in your natural flow.
(40:08):
It can't be this other tool.
It can't be a WordCo.
What's that site?
We use again Something slash,wordco, our recognitions and
countless other customers thatwent from Slack to took a WordCo
and put it inside of Slack andTeams.
I know personally ours went up400% because it happened in our
flow.
I'm constantly communicatingwith people and now I can do a
(40:30):
slash recognize and littlewidget pops up right within
Slack.
That is key to any modern dayrecognition solution that you
need to have.
And then you recognizenon-monetary and monetary, have
a mixture of both and I thinkit's good to have a mixture of
both.
You don't want to create a selfof entitlement.
(40:51):
That's why you want to givemanagers budgets that they can
be responsible for, that can useto incentivize, and you just
have a mixture of.
I like a 70-30 rule 70%non-monetary, 30% monetary.
That's what I've seen thewinning equation to be.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
Well, and it's just like where the world is going
right now.
It's the ease of use kind ofthat frictionless experience
where, like, oh, this is great,I need to spot, recognize, done,
hashtag, recognize or whateverwe don't use Slack, so I don't
know all the lingo and then it'sright there, and then it's done
, and then it's tracked orwhatever.
(41:33):
Whatever we're at, we don't useSlack, so I don't know all the
lingo, but um and then, and thenit's right there, and then it's
done, and then it's tracked andit's yeah, the easier you make
it, uh, the more your managerswill do it, cause I guarantee
you, I know.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
I know there's some HR people here listening.
They're like my managers woulddo this.
I've tried.
Um, it's, it's not thatmanagers don't want to do it,
it's that they don't.
They, they don't have a tool todo it in their, like you said,
in their flow, like in their, intheir workday, right?
Uh, so if they have somethingwhere they just shocked with how
easy it became as we juststarted recognizing it become
part of our culture.
(42:23):
And I actually that's how I gota word code we have to be the
best, protect revenue andrecognize often and recognize
the good.
And so I always go in front ofour company and I share a number
.
I say, look what we did lastmonth.
We averaged about three and ahalf recognitions per user, like
, let's see if we can get alittle higher.
(42:44):
And then it's like then peopleare like, yeah, we can do more
and it just became natural.
You know what I mean.
So it does start from the top.
You got to get your managersbought in and you have to have
an easy solution and you have torecognize in your flow and then
it'll be amazing to watch yourorganization flourish and become
a culture of recognition.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Yeah, love that.
Well, it's been an absolutelywonderful conversation, but we
are coming close to the end ofour time together and I know
you're a super busy guy, so Iwant to be respectful.
We are going to shift gears,we're going to go into the Rebel
HR flash round, so are youready?
I'm ready.
All right, here we go.
Question number one what areyou reading right now?
Speaker 1 (43:26):
Well, I'm an entrepreneur and the book that I
currently have right now is, uhand this is my second time
through now is shoe dog.
I love shoe dog.
In fact, I was with some Nikeexecutives and and they didn't
love shoe dog cause it didn'tget in, but it's involved with
the Michael Jordan.
How did they land the Jordanbrand and all that?
(43:47):
They didn't.
You know, I loved it because ofthe entrepreneurial side of
that book, of the crazy thingsthat Phil Knight had to do to
build his company, and that'swhat I love, because there's no
roadmap to building a company.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I love Shoe Dog, love that, love that.
I have not read that book, so Igot to put that one on the list
.
I have just not had a chance,all right.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Question number two who should we be listening to?
Um, well, I'll just kind of thefirst thing that comes to mind
is your customers and yourprospects, and what I mean by
that is one of my favoritethings to do.
People always have podcasts oruh, or listening to audio books
as they drive home.
I actually use a tool calledGong G-O-N-G dot I-O.
(44:36):
That is a tool that records allmy sales conversations and they
organize it in categories and Ican actually, on my ride home,
I listen to real liveconversations of people trying
to reimagine recognition with mysalespeople and I love learning
and listening to thoseconversations.
(44:56):
So I love listening to futurecustomers, uh, prospects and
customers, because you can learnso much about what they're
looking for right now.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
That's fascinating.
Speaker 1 (45:07):
Um, what they're looking for right now.
That's fascinating, just kindof yeah, there's no, I don't
know if that's a, you know that,but that's that's what I do.
I love listening to our ownpeople and real life situations
that happen that day as I drivehome.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah it's, it's a.
It's a far departure from myworld because you know I'm in
manufacturing setting andusually when I have to record a
conversation it's not good, it'sa.
You know I'm in a manufacturingsetting.
Usually when I have to record aconversation it's not good.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
I'm notifying somebody I'm recording.
Yada, yada, yada Everyone'stalking about right now.
How do I retain my employees,how do I engage with them, how
do I recognize them?
The great resignation.
That's why I'm listening tohundreds and thousands of
conversations.
Then I take that and it allowsme to stay true on the course of
what a ward coach should bedeveloping.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
Ah yeah, I love that.
And at the end of the day, youknow, I think about.
I think about whether you're anentrepreneur or you're an HR
practitioner.
You know that your customersyou have customers for HR.
They just might happen to beinternal, yeah Right.
And so you need to have thatfeedback loop.
You need to make sure you'reserving your organization, your
managers, your team with theright type of solutions.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
Otherwise, what do you do, and your employees too?
That's something I do everyFriday evening.
We use Lattice.
A lot of people know it's apulse thing, and every day I get
that information.
I love reading what employeesare saying.
So exactly right.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Absolutely All right.
Last question how can ourlisteners connect with you?
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Best way just find me on LinkedIn, Steve Sonnenberg.
I accept most invitations and Ithink that's probably one of
the easiest ways to connect withyou right now is just via
LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Perfect, and we'll have that information in the
show notes.
The company is AwardCo andcheck it out.
I know I'm going to throw thisinto the RFP here and you know
you're telling me that I can getsomething quick for my
employees on Amazon and have itlink in with my systems, and my
interest is piqued.
So, Steve, thanks so much forthe time.
(47:12):
It's been a great conversation.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Yeah, my pleasure.
It's great, great getting toknow you and appreciate the time
today.
Thanks, take care.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
All right, that does it for the Rebel HR podcast.
Big thank you to our guests.
Follow us on Facebook atRebelHR Podcast, twitter at
RebelHRGuy, or see our websiteat RebelHumanResourcescom.
The views and opinionsexpressed by RebelHR Podcast are
those of the authors and do notnecessarily reflect the
official policy or position ofany of the organizations that we
(47:42):
represent.
No animals were harmed duringthe filming of this podcast.
Speaker 3 (47:48):
Baby.
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