A few weeks ago we spoke about the negative effects that can result from not appreciating your employees when we discussed the story of Benedict Arnold. On the opposite side of that same coin, I would place Mary Kay Ash of Mary Kay Cosmetics.
At the core of her business model was employee appreciation. She believed that it was vital to any business that supervisors go out of their way to recognize their workers. Even with over 850,000 employees, Ms. Ash sent each of her workers a PERSONAL birthday card. She believed for any recognition program to work you have to make it personal.
Mary Kay also believed that incentive programs needed to stand out and be first class because these programs tell people how important they are. To that end, she set up a very elaborate and generous “Thank You” system. Recognition ranged from a simple “Thank you for showing up early” to the iconic Pink Cadillac.
Let’s face it; Mary Kay’s generous recognition program made huge network deposits on the employee side of the ledger. Employees were very eager to get back in balance by performing Herculean acts on behalf of Mary Kay Cosmetics.
Moreover, Mary Kay Ash knew that people support efforts they help to create, so she frequently made it a habit to solicit input from her employees.
Mary Kay Ash started her cosmetic empire with just $5,000 and an idea about how to keep people motivated and turned it into an empire with over a billion dollars in sales.
Do you have a first-class recognition program for your employees?
