Fresh produce is often marked by a “use by” date. It’s there to guarantee quality and to make sure what you are about to buy hasn’t grown stale.
Recognition programs should have such markers. Too many are out-of-date. They don’t reflect modern methods and techniques and they don’t quite measure up to contemporary standards. Those programs have simply outlived their usefulness. Here are 3 ways to know if your program falls into that category.
1. It’s mobile, but it’s not responsive
There are more than 1.45 billion smartphones in use today. It seems like everyone owns one. Market demand has given birth to a long list of models, suppliers and operating systems including Apple, Blackberry, Windows, Nokia and Samsung.
In an effort to attract employees who prefer to use their own devices for work, 75% of all companies have instituted a BYOD policy. That type of benefit may make your company popular with future employees, especially millennials who want no part of toggling between work and personal phones — but it won’t endear you with IT executives. 90% of them say that so many different types of platforms in play across their companies pose security and service concerns.
That’s not an issue with Maestro; Madison’s SaaS based social recognition system. It’s built in responsive design. That means your recognition program will look and function the same way across any web-enabled device of any make or model. In addition, when it comes to data security, a cloud-based SaaS system often has better security standards than many in-house, homegrown recognition systems.
2. It’s global, but it’s not “in country”
There are over 200 multi-national companies headquartered in the United States. Chances are you work for one of them. Global businesses operate in different countries leading to complex employee recognition challenges.
Many so-called “global” solutions merely take what works in the U.S. and apply it elsewhere. That’s a major mistake. Managing cultural differences and economic realities across 196 different nations will require that you handle everything from communications, to goal setting, to reward redemption like you are actually in the country.
Take reward presentation and redemption for example. You will need to understand (and solve for) the unique delivery hurdles that can occur. True “in-country” selection and fulfillment provides the advantages of appropriate choice, faster delivery times, reduced expenses and localized service.
Offering the right merchants along with local delivery is the key to operating on an international scale. On the other hand, faking it (like some suppliers do), results in odd redemption selections, sporadic support, unexpected customs costs and frustrating duty delays, all of which will demotivate employees and escalate costs for companies.
3. It’s not configurable
Across the employee recognition space, SaaS solutions have become the technology of choice. Most provide increased reliability and enhanced cost efficiencies. But many providers overpromise. They market their systems as “flexible” when in reality they are limited. Making modifications within them becomes expensive and time consuming.
“Configurability,” or the ability to set or reset key functional settings by turning them on (or off), is the latest best practice. It allows organizations to adjust on the fly as business needs change or other opportunities present themselves. It helps companies apply recognition in a more precise manner based on performance needs and/or the potential across employee segments.
Madison’s system is a fresh approach to redefining what SaaS can do. It’s called Maestro and its configurability gives you the benefits of customized technology without any added development costs or deployment delays.
