The RecogNATION: An Employee Engagement Podcast

At National SHRM in New Orleans, we asked attendees to recognize someone, give a shoutout, or just say thank you to someone who has personally or professionally made a difference in their life.  Here's what we captured! From left to right, you'll find the person doing the recognizing, those being recognized, and the time stamp you can find their snippet at: Alhaji Kargbo | Mohamed | (8:0...

Co-hosts Neely and Kailey dive into Gallup's data on returning to the office, covering statistics on the current, preferred, and future state of remote work. How many employees are "remote capable" (1:50) What percentage of these employees are remote, hybrid, and on-site (2:16) Where employees actually prefer working (3:33) What happens when employees don't work in their prefer...

Liz Cotner, MA, SHRM-CP is an experienced HR Business Partner. She is knowledgeable on each generation and their similarities and differences in the workplace. Plus, she offers advice for how to work in harmony with multiple generations. Burnout introduction source: Can't Even If you are looking for more discussions and resources, join our LinkedIn group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/913...

An end of the year chit chat with HR Director Tricia Huizinga.  Listen for quick insights on things like open enrollment, inflation, the current labor market, giving 110% for employees, and exciting things in store for 2023. Plus our opinions on when it's an appropriate time to put up your Christmas tree. If you are looking for more discussions and resources, join our LinkedIn group at https:...

Walt Brown is a serial entrepreneur and Organizational Activist. He believes in empowering employees to be the best they can be with an organizational graph rather than the traditional org chart. Walt also shares insights on employee engagement and company culture.  If you are looking for more discussions and resources, join our LinkedIn group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9133023/ To hear mo...

As an employee engagement and recognition company, we love celebrating milestones. And yesterday, October 17, 2022, our company did just that! Though this may be mostly for the entertainment and nostalgia of our RecogNation team members, we put together a compilation of interviews from yesterday's celebration to reflect on the last 10 years, talk about what makes RecogNation stand out from ot...

Cohosts Neely and Kailey discuss Gallup's research on career wellbeing, plus some ways leaders can help employees thrive in their careers and overall wellbeing.  Five elements of wellbeing (2:53) Quality of work > hours worked when it comes to determining wellbeing and burnout (3:31) People want to work and career wellbeing has the strongest impact on overall wellbeing (5:33) Even if they...

What do kindergartners, horses, and working adults have in common? We'll give you a hint: It has to do with recognition and motivation. We met with Kasandra Cordes who is a Program Engagement Manager at RecogNation but also has experience in education and equestrianism. Much of our conversation was based around psychological theories, motivation, and recognition trends.  If you are looking fo...

Jane Newton is the Associate Vice President of People Services at Creative Dining Services and has received the GRBJ 40 Under 40 award. In a genuine conversation with Kailey, Jane shares her personal journey regarding DEI and mental health. She offers many tips to leaders for how to start conversations and create safe spaces for employees. You can read the GRBJ article mentioned in the episode her...

Hannah Padnos, Director of Sales & Marketing at Baudville , dives into the importance of personalized recognition, how to motivate different teams, and the difference between an award and a reward.  If you are looking for more discussions and resources, join our LinkedIn group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9133023/ To hear more music from The Fracture, follow this link: https://linktr.ee/...

We met with David Klein, Sr. Director of Talent for Spirit Airlines and President of RPI .   In this episode David answers: - How are employees doing considering recent news and how are you handling the messaging? (6:08) - What does recruiting look like for Spirit Airlines in today's market? (7:23) - How do you market the culture to candidates despite Spirit's reputation? (9:07) - What g...

Co-hosts Neely and Kailey talk about the trending concept of quiet quitting (when employees slowly detach from their jobs, often while looking for new work). Listen for some hot takes, data points, and tips for how HR and people leaders can address it.  If you are looking for more discussions and resources, join our LinkedIn group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9133023/ To hear more music from...

Dr. Jermani Thompson is the HR Director for the southeast region of Anheuser-Busch . She offers up wisdom on leadership, belonging, engagement, and IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility).  In this episode Jermani answers: - How did you get to where you are today? (5:05) - Do you coach other people leaders or individual contributors? (10:31) - What are major areas of concern or interest...

Emily Babson is the Systems Director of Talent at Mary Free Bed . In this conversation, Neely and Kailey learn more about the programs and processes in place at the nation's largest not-for-profit independent rehabilitation hospital system in the nation. If you are looking for more discussions and resources, join our LinkedIn group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9133023/ To hear more musi...

We had the chance to meet with Steve Browne and Andrew Bishop for a rich discussion about connection. And it all started on the plane ride to SHRM22! Steve Browne (SHRM-SCP) is not only Chief People Officer at LaRosa's Inc., but a major influencer in the HR space. He has a popular blog and is the author of HR Rising!! and HR on Purpose!! Intro monologue source: Sonder If you are looking for m...

Neely and Kailey discuss Great Place To Work's blog "The High Value of Building Pride in the Workplace." Workplace pride is a factor in employee engagement that retains, inspires, and even recruits employees. Here's a snapshot of what we cover: Three levels of workplace pride (1:42) Individual pride and the role of managers (3:16) Company pride and personal alignment (4:33) Sta...

Steve Huizinga is a college dropout, a two-time felon, an addict… and President of Allied Mechanical Services (AMS). We learned about his journey and his unique values which include giving second chances and hiring nontraditional employees. In this episode Steve answers: - How did you get to where you are now? What has your personal journey been? (3:43) - How do you bring the vision statement &quo...

Brad Darooge, CEO of Baudville Brands, joins us to discuss how company culture shifts and evolves as a small company grows. In this episode Brad answers: - What is the history and expansion of Baudville Brands? (5:46) - Is Baudville Brands still a young, growing company? (7:56) - What dynamics and behaviors change as a company grows? (8:28) - Who is responsible for developing and maintaining a sen...

Customer Service & Sales Manager Amy Horton breaks down how to keep a customer service team motivated and engaged. In this episode Amy answers: - How do you keep a customer service team motivated and energized day to day? (6:57)  - How often are one-on-ones conducted? (8:12)  - Are customer service team members naturally motivated and resilient or is there training involved? (8:47) - What chec...

We were joined by Program Engagement Manager Lisa Moody to explore what it means to have a comprehensive recognition strategy when creating and updating programs. In this episode Lisa answers: - What are the different types of recognition considered when designing a program? (6:17) - What is the difference in impact and budget between each dimension of recognition? (8:19) - Who has access to each...

Neely and Kailey walk through the Harvard Business Review's article "How to tell your boss that you're not engaged at work." With the amount of disengagement and active disengagement in the workplace today, it's important that both individual contributors and people leaders are making the effort to engage each other to have the conversations on how to increase engagement....

We traveled with Josh Kerns to Chicago to meet with Tom McCauley and Leslie Strong from Athletico, one of the largest physical and occupational therapy providers in the country. They recently celebrated one year as our client so we discussed what it takes to build a recognition program and partnership.  In this episode we answer: - What triggered the decision to find a recognition partner? (5:19)...

At National SHRM in New Orleans, we asked attendees to recognize someone, give a shoutout, or just say thank you to someone who has personally or professionally made a difference in their life.  Here's what we captured! From left to right, you'll find the person doing the recognizing, those being recognized, and the time stamp you can find their snippet at: Alhaji Kargbo | Mohamed | (8:0...

Congratulations to Baudville Brand's Abby Gogulski on becoming a SHRM-CP! We met with Abby to talk about her new certification. In this episode Abby answers: - What do SHRM-CP and CRP stand for? (5:38) - What did you study in college and how much time did you spend in the field of HR prior to  certification? (7:40) - What were your main reasons for taking the certification exam? (10:03) - Wha...

Inspiring leaders, Tricia Huizinga and Andrew Bishop, return to flip the performance bell curve on its head to make way for a better recognition strategy, and even a Mario Kart analogy.  In this episode we answer: - What is the performance bell curve? (6:53) - Why should we avoid using the performance bell curve for recognition? (8:16) - Can we retitle it to a culture or engagement bell curve and...