Employees are recognized sooner and more often today than when employee engagement and retention company Royal Recognition began 40 years ago.
“It’s changed dramatically since I started,” said Dan Cull, national accounts manager, who has worked full time in the family-run business for 15 years. Cull’s parents, Margaret and Joseph Cull, started the company in 1983, when many employees stayed at the same workplace for decades.
In 2008, when Cull joined the company, he recalls, “a lot of organizations would start recognition at five years of service.” Today, employee-recognition programs begin with onboarding at many companies because more employers understand the benefits of employee recognition include improved retention rates. By boosting retention, companies can reduce recruiting, hiring and training expenses.
“We definitely recommend having early engagement. A lot of our clients in the c-store space recognize employees at 30 days, 60 days, 90 days and one-year increments,” Cull said. “We want to have touches along the way from the first day of onboarding to retirement.”
Cull explained why workplace practices are important to a company’s success. “A happy workforce is a productive workforce. If you look across our client base, the people we partner with always have dynamic and ever-evolving ways of recognizing their staff, keeping them engaged along the way,” Cull said.
Top Workplace
It might not be coincidental that Royal Recognition lists among its customers top employers like LaCrosse, Wisconsin-based convenience-store chain Kwik Trip Inc., a Top Workplace in southeastern Wisconsin for 13 years in a row, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The company, also named to Energage’s Top Workplaces USA list for the third year in a row this year, rewards its coworkers with recognition in company newsletters and other announcements.
The company provides employees a share of its profits and starting pay well above minimum wage. Its core values emphasize how important its workers are.
When a Kwik Trip customer calls with a compliment or thank you, the employee who made the difference is recognized in a weekly newsletter recognizing “outstanding performances where guests are saying, ‘I love this store. I love what they did for me,’” said Kwik Trip Inc. spokesperson David Niemi.
Some are random acts of kindness, or customer-service experiences above the call of duty, Niemi said. “You think, really? How is this part of your job? And yet it’s people saying, ‘Hey, I can do this for you’.”
“If somebody runs out of gas, a coworker might say, ‘Hey, let me give you a lift. You don’t have to walk all the way back’,” Niemi said.
Kwik Trip
The company doesn’t pressure its workers to extend themselves too far. “Again, we’re not asking coworkers ever to put themselves at risk. It’s just way outside-the-box helpfulness that’s recognized weekly and if it’s appropriate, a Royal Recognition gift for them,” Niemi said.
Kwik Trip also sends out a monthly newsletter announcing new hires and recognizing its employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries. It also uses a badge system of recognition where employees are encouraged to give coworkers a badge for going above and beyond, thinking outside the box or making a difference. “They don’t just get a message saying, ‘Good job, way to go.’” Niemi said.
- Kwik Trip is No. 11 inin CSP’s 2023 Top 40 update to the 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by total number of company-owned retail locations.
As Royal Recognition’s employee-recognition programs grow, so are its facilities expanding. The company is adding 30,000 square feet to its production facility and 6,000 square feet of office space to its headquarters location in Muskego, Wisconsin. It operates 54 global distribution sites and serves 1,500 clients, according to its website.
At some convenience-store chains, employee recognition starts with onboarding, Cull said. It also can include celebrating employee milestones other than tenure, such as weddings and the birth of children, Cull said. Convenience stores also offer appreciation days for store managers and assistant store managers, he said.
Refuel C-Stores
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina-based Refuel Operating Co., which has acquired about 15 convenience-store chains since it began a partnership with private-equity firm First Reserve in May 2019, smooths the transition for employees of acquired companies by giving them Refuel swag items, Cull said. The gifts are a form of employee appreciation.
- Refuel is No. 40 in CSP’s 2023 Top 40 update to the 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by total number of company-owned retail locations.
When new employees start at Refuel convenience stores, they receive a welcome letter from an executive at the company and information on how to log on to the employee-recognition platform, Cull said.
Recognizing Milestones
Companies can distribute “points” on an employee’s birthday or anniversary, allowing the worker to redeem them online. They also might choose to send a paper certificate to recognize a milestone or achievement.
“For those early engagements under a year or under a six-month milestone, it doesn’t have to be full-blown choice program or high-spend item,” Cull said.
After the employee is established at a company, employers can send a birthday or anniversary card, or provide a keepsake such as jewelry, a watch or a useful item, such as a slow cooker or health and fitness product, Cull said.
When assistant store managers are promoted to store manager and the information is input into HR software, the promotions are pushed to the platform and a congratulations card can be sent. The platform integrates with an e-catalog of items employees can choose from.
“We have a full merchandise team that works with five hundred manufacturers to source items from Rolex watches to travel experiences to sporting goods tickets and household items,” Cull said. Employers can choose to offer streamed movies, movie tickets, dining tickets, iTunes certificates on the low end and on the high end, big-ticket items like backyard hot tubs, sporting events tickets, travel experiences and Rolex watches. “You have to have options that really appeal to everyone,” he said.