Some companies have  found a fun and innovative way to engage employees by providing an unlikely benefit: a vegetable garden. This growing trend was recognized as one of the best ideas in Human Resources recently.

Minneapolis PR and branding company Haberman & Associates  spent about $10,000 last year to start a garden for its employees.  “It’s creating that water-cooler effect,” the article quotes company co-founder and chief executive Fred Haberman “People have a greater excitement [about] working at Haberman.”

Haberman’s off-site garden, called the “Dude Ranch,” was recognized by Human Resource Executive magazine editors as one of the  “Best HR Ideas for 2010.” You can follow the company’s growing season, or get tips on how to start an employer-sponsored garden yourself, at the project blog.

The National Gardening Association says vegetable gardening is up about 20 percent, although it’s not clear how much of that is done by companies. But a growing number of firms have taken up the hoe including Google, Yahoo, Kohl’s, PepsiCo and Twisted Limb Paperworks, which began a 1,500-square-foot garden outside its offices to boost engagement, as this Washington Post story relates.

University of Maryland business professor Paul Tesluk says a garden can encourage camaraderie, help in recruiting and differentiate a business from competitors. Perhaps it’s time to plant a row for employee morale and engagement and, of course, to just say Thanks!

Although the certificate (suitable for framing) held no monetary value, it was treasured by the recipient and often displayed for years in cubes and offices. Accolades like this have been proven to be the greatest workplace gift of all. And I would argue that it’s not so much what or when (see Parts I and II of this series), but how the gift is presented that is really key to a successful workplace gift program that will return rewards to your company.

Saying Thank You to employees with meaningful rewards is good. Doing it in a way that recognizes specific achievements in a forum that creates awareness is great. Even if it’s a simple gift, putting thought behind the presentation has been proven to motivate.

It a recent Workplace Wrangler blog the Seattle Post Intelligencier drew attention to author Daniel Pink’s recent speech at the TED conference. The talk, detailing the science of motivation, notes that “when it comes to motivation, there is a huge gap between what science knows and what companies do.” Pink wrote the acclaimed Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. According to the PI:

Pink convincingly argues that once our basic need for financial stability is taken care of, the desire for intrinsic motivation kicks in. Intrinsic motivation is founded upon personal rewards (individual interest or love) rather than extrinsic motivation (money). In fact, many scientific studies have demonstrated that people actually become less motivated when money is tied to doing something we are already drawn to doing. It actually devalues it for us!

Pink advocates employers to adopt a “now-that” approach to rewards and gifts instead of the usual quid-pro-quo “if-then” rewards system to gain motivation.

A recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and OfficeTeam reported in the Toronto-based Globe & Mail recently  noted that 33 percent of workers in North America believe their manager fails to recognize them.

The certificate and hearty handshake method worked because it was a gift that carried a lot of meaning behind it. The recipient was most often a surprise, and always well deserved.

What’s the best workplace gift you have received? What’s the best reward program you’ve been involved with at a company? Chime in.

But, gift giving experience shows that there’s more to it than that. Following Part I of our guide to the Best Workplace Gifts,  exploring when to give, it’s important to now consider how you decide what to give, To wrap your head around that question, consider that the psychology of gift giving  suggests that “the nature of the gift, not its monetary value, determines the prevalence of reciprocal reactions,” according to researchers at the University of Zurich’s Institute for Empirical Research in Economics who in 2008 published a paper on “The Currency of Reciprocity – Gift-Exchange in the Workplace.”

In field studies, researchers found out that employees offered a gift performed better than if offered higher wages.

“…An increase in fixed wages only has a negligible impact on workers’ productivity. However, a gift in-kind of equivalent monetary value has an economically and statistically significant effect on productivity. Workers provide 30 percent more output on average. Moreover, this effect remains large and significant over the course of the entire working period…. Our main result remains largely unchanged if the price of the gift is communicated to the workers.”

Gifts are personal expressions and should be treated that way. But this suggests that small tokens can be more meaningful than big bonuses. Follow these simple guidelines to best determine what to give:

1. Consider any company policy or rewards program details first when looking at specific employee gifts. (If you don’t have a reward policy, it could be a good time to develop one.)
2. Your mission and culture can give strong clues to good gift fits. Family-friendly firms, for example, will reap great benefits form gifts that will be meaningful to entire families, rather than an individual tchotchke.
3. There’s nothing wrong with promoting your company with gifts, such as corporate logo goods, but stay away from anything that says “gag” gift. That sends the wrong message.
4. Fun is good. Enjoy the process and make the gift choosing and giving fun for managers and employees to create a positive, strengthening atmosphere.

There’s no need to wrack your brain about what to give. It is important to have a rewards program that emphasizes the mission and culture of your organization. Revisit it, evaluate it and tweak it when necessary.

He retired after 25+ years on the job. Along the way, he was given traditional service awards. Treasured were his gold pocket watch, and bronzed locomotive plaque.

Times, of course, have changed. Gone are the service awards of my Poppy’s day. Often by choice, employees don’t stay with one company long enough to earn a reward based on years and years of service. The next generation of workers in a recent survey from I Love Rewards says they really don’t plan on sticking with one job that long:

“The average job seeker according to the survey wants to stay with their first employer for 8.9 years, but the reality is that students only stay an average of 1.5 years according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employers have a real opportunity to save money in the long term by investing in robust retention strategies in order to keep this group engaged,” says I Love Rewards CEO and founder Razor Suleman.

This survey indicates that employees today need rewards early and often:

“…they don’t care about years-of-service awards, which 91 per cent of companies offer.”

Companies have a real opportunity to create a new paradigm in their employee reward (and retention) programs. Here’s a blueprint to get you started:

• Implement and keep a program that reflects your company’s values. In her Work with Me column,  Detroit Free Press workplace reporter Patricia Montemurri recently wrote on the decline of company recognition programs. Victims of tough economic times, these programs hold real value. Don’t cut, experts say.

• Establish rewards that are given regular intervals. Earlier is better, according to Montemurri’s column:

“Instead of waiting decades to recognize employees,  it’s becoming more popular to acknowledge an employee’s one-year anniversary — perhaps with a token gift such as a titanium flashlight or a pen and pencil set. If you keep somebody and train them well, and recognize them during the first year, you’ve got a better chance of keeping them on the second year,” according to Anthony Luciano of TharpeRobbin

• In addition to these regularly scheduled rewards, it’s a real motivational boost to recognize special effort of teams of employees or individuals with tokens that are meaningful.

Employers may not get much chance to hand out gold pocket watches any more, but there is ample opportunity and reason to recognize achievement and service in the workplace. Your company’s success may depend on it.

To help you through the process of using your gThankYou certificate, I’ve created this handy primer designed to answer any questions. Since I, too, was the recent recipient of my first gThankYou Turkey Gift Certificate, I thought there no better way to help than to share my own experience

Told that my gThankYou Turkey Gift Certificate would cover $20 toward the purchase of any Turkey of my choice from any grocer, I went shopping. Here’s how it worked.

After settling on the exact Turkey I wanted – Kosher this year – I planned where to shop for the perfect size Turkey at a good price. I found the perfect bird at Trader Joe’s, a national specialty food retail chain that caters to the foodie crowd. The bird fit my criteria, and those spelled out on the certificate (it needed to cost at least $20).

Certificate in hand, I advanced toward the check-out. After I presented the certificate, my checker examined it and began reading the instructions. He was a first-timer too, having never seen a Certificate from gThankYou. A manager responded, and after he read the certificate instructions, completed my transaction.

After hardly the bat of an eye, I was done. It worked just like a coupon presented during the check out process. But this was better, because I was fulfilling a reward.

A few tips:

1. Pay attention to the specifics. Details on your certificate will tell you what the gift covers: Turkey, Ham or Groceries and for how much.
2. Certificates will have a good-through date. Use the certificate by this day to ensure you receive the full benefit of your gift.
3. Expect to wait a minute or two for verification from a store manager. Shopping during a slower time of day on a slower store traffic day will minimize your wait.
4. If you run into stores with questions, there’s a toll-free number on the certificate that managers or clerks can call on the spot.
5. Rest assured that the certificates are usable for any specified item at any store, even if they’ve never (as was my experience) processed a gThankYou certificate. It’s the real deal.

It was truly an unexpected thrill to receive a gThankYou Gift Certificate. I felt proud using it, and enjoyed serving the Turkey I purchased with it, which this year had more of a story. Share your experience getting and using gThankYou certificates, and serving the resulting meals.

What does it take? Grit.

The term was coined by psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania in measuring characteristics that lead to perseverance. Jonah Lehrer wrote last month in the Boston Globe on the new scientific measurement that predicts long-term success.

Grit, says Lehrer, “is about setting a specific long-term goal and doing whatever it takes until the goal has been reached”.  “Grit is an essential (and often overlooked) component of success”, he says.

Pioneering grit researcher Angela Lee Duckworth, a U. Penn psychologist, has written extensively in this area.  She characterizes grit as a “noncognitive trait” that predicts success over and beyond IQ and conscientiousness.  Her research looks at success in places as diverse as the US Military Academy at West Point, the National Spelling Bee, plus college and grade-school grades.

If you’re interest is whetted and want a readable academic reference from Prof. Duckworth, see this one from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Grit examines traits that enable some people to reach long-term goals while others just give up. You can test your grit by participating in the University of Pennsylvania study if you want to see if you have the power to persist.

The upshot: Some people are more successful because they have the skills to help them stick with a task long enough to reach a goal. Those who want to help foster these traits – parents, HR professional and workplace leaders, for sure – can do so by learning an important praise or feedback technique: recognize the effort behind work, rather than an intangible quality.

Instead of saying, for example, “good job — you’re so smart!” Go with something like this: “I appreciate how you handled that negotiation – it resulted in a cost savings for the division.” Or, for your child: “Nice going.  You really worked hard on that project and it looks great!”  This sort of recognition will net big results in job satisfaction, and can further develop loyalty.

Success depends on having the “grit” to keep on working toward a goal in the long-term even in the face of challenges. It’s up to leaders to provide the right tools – including meaningful praise, feedback and rewards – to help them keep working toward that success.

Giving meaningful praise and backing it up can prove valuable to your bottom line.

Grit is great.  As the father of a grade-schooler, I earnestly work at my grit-reinforcement parenting, imagining I’m helping myself by helping someone else.

Is grit as interesting to you as it to me?  If so, and you want to learn more about passionate persistence, or mindful diligence, there’s lots much more reading you can do in the popular domain.  Prof. Duckworth’s work is a great place to start, but it’s written for academics.  (Although I can’t wait to see her in-process study for the KIPP Schools, one of the most exciting, large-scale grit-centric imaginable—that can change the course of our nation.)

Mindset, from Stanford University professor Carol Dweck is one place to start. Her work has begun to have a life of it’s own, which you can see at MindSetOnline.

For a business slat, Geoff Colvin, longtime editor and columnist for Fortune Magazine, has written Talent is Overrated.

And for a more popular take see The Talent Code, from Daniel Coyle.

Finally, a hearty gThankYou! to my friend and neighbor, Jim Zellmer, whose blog tipped me off to grit; School Information System is America’s #1 compendium of news for all things K-12 educational.

I’ll post on this topic again soon.

In the meantime, keep your nose to the grindstone.

Rick Kiley is President of gThankYou, LLC, based in Madison, WI.  gThankYou® Certificates of Gratitude™ are one way  savvy companies demonstrate commitment to valued employees. The company is best known for its Turkey Gift Certificates, Ham Gift Certificates, and Grocery Gift Cards.

“It has been proven that breaks are essential for satisfaction. But what does this mean to an employer? Well according to Rich DiGirolamo, Founder of Recess At Work Day, it’s simple……..Breaks lead to satisfaction; and satisfaction easily transfers to increase morale, reduced employee stress, more engaged and healthier employees; ultimately having a positive impact on productivity, absenteeism and profits.

Now in its 6th year; Recess At Work Day is the perfect complement to any Health and Wellness or Employee Engagement Initiative.”

This initiative hits a couple of HR goals, covering both praise and motivation as well as the continued movement toward corporate wellness programs and team building.

How can a game of Dodgeball provide  engagement? Consider this from Dale Sweetnam, an Army public affairs specialist who worked at Google’s office in Washington, D.C as part of a training program. While there, Google put on a “Recess at Work” day that included “square pizzas, chicken nuggets, juice boxes, four square and dodgeball.”

“I can’t remember ever having that much fun at work. The whole office got into it.  A computer and speakers were set up on the side of the room and a projector  displayed YouTube Michael Jackson videos while we pelted each other with         dodgeballs.  The event was a huge success. I really felt like it was recess. I was still attending recesses in grade school when Michael Jackson came out with “Bad” and it had probably been that long since I’d last played dodgeball. It was a             blast.  The event led straight into the weekend. As far as I’m concerned, weekends don’t start out much better than that.”

There seems to be a mini movement toward this idea of corporate recess as a reward. There *are* lots of creative ways to say “Thanks” and engage employees.

Stay tuned!

The Fast Company article predates the hoopla created when Hyatt Hotels created its customer thanks program this year. Heath & Heath push (hard) for the idea of bringing active thankfulness a step further.

“Suppose there were some way to lower the transaction costs of a thank-you so much that praise became effortless?”

They continue, “Think of those obnoxious engaged couples who skip around Macy’s with UPC scanners, zapping waffle irons and cutlery for their registry. What if there were some ways to zap the cup holder in your car, or the quesadilla on your plate, and instantly deliver a thank-you to the people who count?”

Aren’t there a zillion times you’ve walked out of a meeting with colleagues, or suppliers, or customers, when someone really, really lightened your load, and you want to show your gratitude?  Give them a *huge* “Thank You!”?

Guess what? There are companies that have it figured out.

These companies make it easy for customers to praise their employees.  Doesn’t that makes sense?  If customers show their gratitude for a job-well-done it means a lot.  The employee’s boss finds out in the process.  The with-it boss piles on the “thank you”, and what do you have?  The perfect storm that makes employees feel great.

Exhibit A:  American Airlines runs a program called “Rounds of Applause.” The Program enables American Advantage frequent flyers to give a personalized certificate to AA employees who go the extra mile.

Exhibit B: Anyone who travels by highway has seen those signs on trucks asking, “How’s my Driving? Kelmar Safety runs this “How’s My Driving?” for companies with driving fleets in industries including trucking, law enforcement, education and delivery services. It encourages feedback from the public, which in turn provides some positive comments for employees.

Exhibit C: Internet appliance and electronics retailer ElegantAppliance.com is using social networking site Twitter to get customer feedback about its customer Web experience.

Some business to consumer companies, through their culture and way they relate to customers, generate feedback without even solicitation. One  example is Wisconsin-based Lands’ End ( part of Sears Holdings) which at one time had a band of employees who volunteered to read and respond to customer letters and emails. The benefit was mutual for the customer and employee in creating loyalty and that intangible feeling that one gets from making a difference.

Know of any other company that has a good customer praise program for employees?

We’d love to hear about it!

Drawing on examples from my own career as well as stories from others where bumpers stickers and sticky notes became treasured badges of thanks for a job well done, it’s apparent authentic praise, in whatever form, goes a long way toward creating engagement.

Amazing as it may sound, giving simple thanks can be less than easy in some companies. In a 2007 article. BusinessWeek careers columnist and author Liz Ryan asked: “Is Praising Employees Counterproductive?” Some managers have an irrational fear, Ryan writes, that too much praise can “spoil” a good employee.

After exploring what she sees as the basis for some of this fear, Ryan concludes this: Praise is a key motivator but effectiveness hinges on the praise being credible.

“Of course, you can’t go around praising people all the time, even when they’re doing a great job, and you should never praise people when they don’t deserve it.  If you praise people nonstop your complimentary words will lose their effectiveness as a motivator. If you give praise when it’s not deserved, you’ll lose  your credibility and undermine the whole group’s efforts.”

It’s all a matter of style, of course. But the following examples provide some solid tips to get HR managers and company leaders started on developing a program that gives well-deserved and credible thanks to employees:

1. Don’t praise the employee, praise their work. Gary Vikesland writes on Employer-employee.com that it’s important to be specific and target abilities or work when handing out compliments. Furthermore, it’s best to be specific and make you’re your praise has a purpose. (http://www.employer-employee.com/praise.html).
2. Work to build an organization that has a “climate of positive reinforcement”. Bruce L. Katcher, president of The Discovery Group, says a healthy organization makes praise part of the culture. These companies have supervisors frequently overheard saying: Good point!  I’m glad you brought that up!  I really appreciate that!  Good job!  Well done!  (And my favorite Thank you!
3. Praise in public, advises the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness (CMOE) in its five tips for praise “Acknowledging people in public accomplishes two important things. The employees feel even better as they are recognized in front of their peers. In addition, public praise is one way of reminding other employees of what you want from them.”

Great insights indeed!

One past employer never praised anyone.  Anyone.  He thought praising good work would make other workers envious and feel left out. Ya think?!?!?  Of course it would!  That’s the idea.

• Praise good work and everyone wants a piece of the action.
• Praise good work and then employees know what you value.
• Praise good work and employees want more.
• Praise good work and everyone gets in on it.
• Praise good work and employees praise each others’ work.

To paraphrase that great American sage, Forest Gump: “Praise is a praise does.”

Or, to repeat one of “One Minute Manager” guru Ken Blanchard‘s basic tenets: “catch someone doing something right”.

That’s it: catch someone doing something right = praise.

Do it.  It’s free; it’s appreciated; it builds great organizations.

Back in the day, engaging employees used to mean providing nice perks. I think it started with dress-down Fridays and pizza lunches bought by executives as a fun way to end the week.  When the economy was chugging along at a breakneck pace, the stakes were raised. Companies felt compelled to offer free food every day, ping-pong and foosball tables and even, in at least one instance I know about, build elaborate facilities with a full-scale gym with free fitness classes, weight room, an indoor track and Olympic-size swimming pool!

Now that most companies are looking for ways to both trim costs and keep valuable employees, the focus has changed again.

Now, engagement is more about making employees feel valued when a big bonus and annual raise is out of reach and economic jitters are widespread.

There’s a new meaning to value proposition for employees in corporations. This new value proposition bears out in study after study. Right Management, the talent and career management expert arm of Milwaukee-based Manpower Inc., found in a survey of company leaders and HR professionals earlier this year that employee engagement is the most important practice to reach goals in this economy.

“Leaders must manage this situation very skillfully or they are likely to see those remaining either start looking for another job, disengage from the company attitudinally, or simply ‘quit and stay’ while waiting until the air clears,” explains Right CEO Owen Sullivan.

Yikes! Start looking? Disengage? Stay-and-quit?  Just when we think it’s all about customers-customer-customers, the experts come along and tell us our best employees are in danger of apathy!

How do you engage now? Sullivan advises leaders to:

1. Spend time with employee and executives (what management guru Tom Peters refers to as “the talent”);
2. Answer their questions to the best of your ability;
3. And, most importantly, continually reinforce each employee’s value to the company.

This isn’t a difficult as it sounds, simple measures work in reinforcing employee value.

They key is to keep engagement and value at the top of mind each and every day.

Rick Kiley is Presidnet of gThankYou, LLC, based in Madison, WI.  gThankYou® Certificates of Gratitude™ are one way  savvy companies demonstrate commitment to valued employees. The company is best known for its Turkey Gift Certificates, Ham Gift Certificates, and Grocery Gift Cards.