3 Tips to Get the Most Out of Social Recognition * How JetBlue Got Its Lift

Recognize This! – Social recognition has most impact when it touches all employees frequently, wherever and however they work, to drive the data needed to make smart talent and business decisions.

During my career as an employee recognition strategist and consultant, I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with many truly innovative and forward thinking company leaders who want to do right by their employees. These people, and the companies they work for, are deeply invested in the helping their employee engage more fully in their work, thereby delivering a more satisfying experience for their customers and communities.

JetBlue is an excellent example of this attitude and approach. Mike Elliott, JetBlue’s vice president of crew relations, was recently interviewed by Erin Osterhaus for New Talent Times. In the interview, Mike shared three tips to get the most out of social recognition. (Quoting below)

1) Use Social Recognition to Reinforce Great Behavior

“When one of JetBlue’s employees—or as JetBlue calls them, “crewmembers”—receives recognition from a peer or crew leader, other people in their workgroup can see that recognition and add their own comments and congratulations… It’s a win-win. Because employees know that they will be recognized for their efforts—and know what type of behavior merits recognition—they’re inspired to do their best. As a result, JetBlue has been able to maintain a culture of high performance, even while adding new members to its team. In fact, JetBlue won the J.D. Power award for customer satisfaction for the eighth year in a row after implementing the Lift program.”

2) Make Your Program Easily Accessible to Boost Participation and Job Satisfaction

“According to Elliott, the best way to make sure employees actually use the Lift program is to make it easily accessible. In the airline business, that means going mobile. At JetBlue, Elliott notes, crewmembers must be able to receive recognition, redeem monetary rewards (in the form of gift cards) and nominate peers via mobile devices, whether they are on the ground or in the air. Thus, the social recognition program is accessible via smartphones, tablets and computers… Since repeated recognition helps improve and maintain crewmembers’ job satisfaction, keeping employees connected to the Lift program is vital. After all, if they don’t have an opportunity to use the software, how can they congratulate fellow crewmembers for their good work?”

3) Use Your Rewards Program to Identify Influencers

“Through its social recognition software, JetBlue can record and track data for metrics that were previously difficult to quantify, such as stellar employee performance… Now JetBlue is able to continuously collect a pool of valuable behavioral data that gives its leaders insight into who their top performers are. These top performers, known as “Influencers,” are outstanding crewmembers who deliver service above and beyond expectations every day. According to Elliott, many of these employees have been with the company for over a decade, despite the fact that the airline industry can be particularly challenging to work in. Uncovering how Influencers are able to deliver such high-quality service over time is crucial to improving JetBlue’s operations.”

Social, Mobile and Business Relevance through Data – those are the three keys to getting the most out social recognition in terms of driving the bottom-line results every organization needs for success in today’s highly competitive marketplace.

Be sure to read the full article for the complete Lift story at JetBlue.

 

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