When people hear the term employee rewards, they oftentimes leap to the conclusion that these rewards need to be monetary. Yet motivational research shows that, for most people, intrinsic rewards are the more powerful. This month’s column relates how one of our clients – Ecumen[1] - has very successfully applied this idea.
A March 2006 Minneapolis Tribune article featured Ecumen’s approach to rewarding employee-inspired innovations. For example, one rewarded group was the Dining Services employees at Mankato (MN) Lutheran Home. What was their winning idea? They decided to utilize their kitchens and culinary skills to establish a catering service for the larger Mankato community. They did so for two reasons: to dispel the notion that nursing home food is awful and to generate new revenue. Due to profits from this fee-for-service enterprise called the Gourmet Apron, they have been able to reinvest more than $34,000 into improved services for residents.
What was their reward? What did the dining service employees receive in return? As the article comments: “No money. No trip to Hawaii. No gift coupons to take shopping. They received a wooden acorn. And Dining Services Director Shelly Sabatka likes it that way, ‘(Our idea was) for the greater good of 150 residents. It’s one reason our employees are proud to say they work here.”
Actually, Ecumen has four categories of non-cash rewards, and this team won the Seedling award:
Categories of Rewards:
| Acorn |
Awarded to all innovators who put new ideas into practice and sharers who communicate the ideas to others. This award’s name symbolizes that an acorn is the small seed that can bring about big things. |
| Seedling |
Awarded for all innovators who contribute what is deemed by their peers to be a significant innovation. These select ideas are singled out for companywide recognition at an annual award ceremony. |
| Majestic oak |
Awarded to all innovators who both contribute a significant idea – and help others to duplicate it. Recipients receive an oak tree planted at their facility. |
| Fertile ground |
Awarded to anyone who duplicates a major innovation at their own worksite. |
In the article, the internal generation of these employee ideas was termed “intra-preneurship[2].” During the last two years, over 140 ideas have been implemented, of which seven have been deemed major. And, I love that spreading good ideas is encouraged!
The impetus – and mechanism – that lie beneath intra-preneurship
What the article didn’t tell is the equally deserving story underneath the surface story. I’d like to recognize four more ideas from Ecumen.
- A dashboard that included Innovation. One impetus for the level of employee-inspired change now is Ecumen’s dashboard of success set three years ago (previously featured – download word document).[3] You’ll note there that the Board of Trustees set Innovation itself as one of their seven key indicators of success.
I still remember the conversation. The Trustees knew the organization needed to change in order to reposition for changing expectations of the Baby Boomer generation and other market forces, yet they didn’t want to dictate a particular course. They decided to place Innovation on their dashboard as a way to feature the need for, and regular disciplined attention to, innovation itself.
- Second, I’ve always loved how Ecumen’s Trustees defined innovation. Innovation was defined as “new practices that outperform past practice.” And, the trustees set targets for the number of small ideas and the number of bold redesigns they wanted to see after five years time.
- Trusting employees. Then, Ecumen’s leadership team needed to actualize the dashboard’s aspirations. Again, a good news story - they intentionally chose to not initiate a top-down approach to moving that Innovation dial. As Kathy Bakkenist, Vice President for Operations, says: We trust our employees can help us determine what our future needs to be. So, for the past two years, they have encouraged bold ideas from their employees.
- A technology-aided way to spread ideas. Last, Ecumen built a technology-supported means to identify and share the innovations. They created the Innovation Station – a place on the company’s Intranet where employees can easily post innovations that they have put into practice. Because the ideas are accessible, all Ecumen employees can easily view, share, and potentially implement them at their own facilities. The content in this website is proprietary, but here is a screen shot from early this year.
I trust that you like this rewarding story as much as I do. Here’s one last tidbit – Ecumen’s approach to innovation has itself been singled out for recognition. They belong to the Minnesota Health and Housing Alliance. At its annual conference in February, Ecumen’s Innovation Station was awarded the Innovation of the Year Award. Now there’s an example of spreading and growing ideas on Fertile Ground!
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[1] Ecumen is a large non-profit provider of nursing home and independent living services for older adults in Minnesota. Their mission, which we helped them clarify, is to create home wherever older adults choose to live.
[2] I like that term - and acknowledge its coiner Leo Brajkovich.
[3] See Connie’s Corner – May 2005
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