By Mario Pistilli
It seems that leaders are always searching and hunting for ways to recognize staff and the usual methods (rounding, sending a card, saying thank you) are getting a little stale.
I wrote a previous article (New Approaches to Employee Recognition July 1, 2020) with some other innovative ideas to recognize staff that are still effective, but in the last two years I have added some new tricks to the bag. I also have found that expanding my recognition to include peers and staff in other departments has been a great way to promote an organization wide culture of recognition and I will include some of those strategies as well.
- Take some pictures of your team members and use them as your virtual background. I have been doing this and get many positive comments from other leaders. It’s also a great chance for me to brag about a team member or group.
- Use an electronic greeting card service. I use bluemountain.com which has a wide variety of electronic messages you can send, and some can even be personalized with a name. The other thing I love about it is that you can attach a wide variety of gift card options if you want to include a small gift as well.
- Use your internal messaging platform (if your institution has one) to send out thank you messages or uplifting messages to others. For example, we use Microsoft Teams in our organization, and I will send a random message to one of my team members, a colleague, or someone from another team that say things like, “I appreciate you,” “You rock,” “Thanks,” or sometimes just “Have a nice day.” You can send GIFs or emojis through this app.
- Send a random note of appreciation or the previously mentioned e-cards to another department or a colleague in your organization that just says, “I really appreciate that [insert great thing they did here]”.
- Send random gifts of chocolate to people or groups. Amazon can truly be a great tool. It doesn’t have to be something expensive and most people love chocolate.
- Elicit others to help. I will sometimes ask one of the physicians to recognize a staff member or my vice president. If asked directly, they have been very helpful in talking to and thanking staff for a specific thing. I have always found that recognizing a specific action is more powerful. For example, if I hear that a tech worked a double, I will ask one of the radiologists to call or message them a thank you for working extra and that it is really appreciated.
- Pick a random time to drop off some coffees in one of your areas.
- Don’t forget about the admins throughout your organization. Take some time to thanks a colleague’s admin or a C-suites admin. Get them a coffee or a drink every so often or send a note of appreciation. Admins can get lots of things done in an organization and often go unrecognized.
The key is that you vary your recognition methods and also that you are consistent. Buying pizza every time a department is busy is just not enough anymore. It needs to become part of your routine to promote a culture of gratitude and recognition. •
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Mario Pistilli, FACHE, CRA, is the director of imaging services at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
