Employee Reward & Recognition Programs Can be Ugly!!

 

For the last few years I’ve more or less gotten away from my original challenge and initial objective of this blog which was to take a “candid look inside the recognition and award industry.”   Frankly I got a little lazy.  But no more!

 While we have posted on many different aspects of our wonderful award world, we didn’t really take any folks to task over things we thought were… well… unusual, off base and distortions of what we have experienced to be true.  Nor have we listed and discussed incentive and recognition reward programs that we encounter that we thought were “really ugly,” hence our name. 

Within the awards industry, There are a whole bunch of half-truths that are communicated as full truths, and opinions stated as gospel that we frankly know through 40 years in this business are just plain hooey, bunk, nonsense, hogwash, gibberish, and other expletives that we don’t use on this blog…you know them.  We see a lot of BS out there and when we do, we’ll call them on it.  Yea man, complete transparency, just like Washington!

Hey it’s a free speech world out there isn’t it?  So if you don’t agree with something you’re free to sound off on it, whether or not  you’ve even got a clue of what you’re talking about.  Of course there will be some who completely disagree with me as well, and that’s fine.  We encourage debate, are not afraid of the joust, will attempt to relate the facts as we understand them, and love all around argument on this industry which we are passionate about. 

There are some great and knowledgeable people and companies in this industry and when we come across them, we will let you know about them.  There are also some real phonies out there and when we see their work we will comment on that too.  But rarely will mention those names as our goal is to educate not disparage. 

Some of the companies we talk about will be competitors to one of my core competencies and that’s ok.  They have a hard time competing in our space anyway.  We sell (in my opinion the greatest gift card award system in the industry, and I’ll be happy to provide comparisons if you’d like) ...check out the Award of Choice.  Sorry for the shameless plug, but it is! 

The first one of the industry gurus that needs immediate mention is Paul Hebert.  We’ve used many of his blogs in the past to support our position on things, and will do so again.  Paul just moved from his own company, i2i-Incentive Intelligence, to Symbolist, a southwest reward and recognition company.   Paul will always tell you things the way they are.  He has integrity far beyond the norm, and I’m proud to know him.  We have never met, but have talked together many times, and will do so again.  Symbolist got one of the best when they got Paul, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they grow using his industry knowledge, ethics , terrific communications style and other skills.  Yep…I’m a fan.  I’ll buy him a beverage when we meet (but sorry no cigars….an inside joke).   

So stay tuned to some new stuff.  Hopefully it will be as fun for you to read as it will be for me to research and write.  This will be an open forum on the awards industry, so let me know if you agree, disagree, or “other” on things. 

 

Have a great day!