Changing My Mind on Employee Recognition w/ Meisha-ann Martin

People Business w/ O'Brien McMahon

Meisha-ann Martin is the Senior Director, People Analytics & Research at Workhuman. She has a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and has spent almost twenty years as a researcher and practitioner on topics like recognition, wellness, inclusion and psychological safety. In this episode, we talk about employee recognition programs and adjust some of O'Brien's preconceived notions.
Mentioned in this Episode:

• Connect with Meisha-ann on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meisha-ann-martin
• Learn more about Workhuman: https://www.workhuman.com/

Timecodes:
(2:20) - Welcoming Meisha-ann
(3:05) - What is Workhuman?
(4:31) - Why is a company like Workhuman needed in the first place?
(6:22) - What is an employee recognition program?
(8:02) - Why are we so bad at this?
(9:10 ) - What is the power of saying ‘thank you’?
(11:03) - The things you acknowledge are the things you reinforce so if you want to see more of something complimenting people gets it done. Is it that simple?
(13:29) - Practical tips for showing gratitude
(15:07) - What do you say to nay-sayers who say it’s just about checking off boxes and going through the motions to say the culture is working?
(18:50) - How do you balance the line between showing gratitude but not expecting people to over-extend themselves?
(21:14) - What does the data look like?
(23:45) - Do you have examples of clients who have improved business outcomes and how they’ve demonstrated that?
(25:42) - How drastic are the results for this?
(27:22 ) - How do you see bias play out in this?
(34:03) - How do we think about money in tying money to these programs?
(36:41) - How do we avoid bias while still giving managers the ability to adjust compensation?
(37:48 ) - Do you see a difference between written recognition and spoken recognition?
(41:20) - What do you see in the research from people who say they don’t like public recognition?
(44:03) - Do you find feedback has more of an impact in a one-on-one or group setting?
(45:20) - What do you say to someone who thinks this is too much work?
(47:44) - Can you share some examples of how you’ve made changes with this in your personal life?
(50:41) - Anything else we haven’t covered regarding recognition?
(52:42) - What is the purpose of business?