A look at BC Biomedical Laboratories' recognition program
Running a good recognition program is like keeping a house clean, or so Barbara Karhuniemi of BC Biomedical Laboratories likes to say.
There’s little time for rest. “You have to solicit information from the employees. Do your homework, do your focus groups, and then you have to keep going back and reviewing it,” said Karhuniemi, human resource advisor for compensation and benefits at the Surrey, B.C.-based community laboratory.
Karhuniemi is proud of the recognition program at BC Biomedical. She points to the fact that staff at the company helped bring home the top spot in the most recent annual Report on Business’ 50 Best Employers in Canada survey.
“We must be doing something right,” Karhuniemi chuckled.
The company’s approach to recognition is “we’re not too innovative or extravagant but we do like to recognize people.”
The idea is to keep things simple, specific to the occasion and timely. Above all, it has to stay in front of employees.
Whether a prize is a Starbucks coffee or a Chapters gift certificate, Karhuniemi said, what counts is the sentiment. That’s why whenever someone deserves to be recognized, supervisors write up a letter or a card of thank you and describe why the act is being recognized.
Others bring in something that the employee being recognized prizes.
One lab assistant, for example, had done an electrocardiogram (ECG) on a patient. When the results came back, showing this patient required additional medical care, the patient had already left the building.
“So the lab assistant was on the phone for over an hour trying to contact the patient to tell them to seek further medical care. And of course, the entire staff helped, too. The next day, the lab assistant’s supervisor brought her a plant and cookies for the staff.
For the service recognition program, which begins at 10 years of service, employees are invited to bring a guest to a formal dinner.
Because there isn’t time during dinner for managers to make a speech about each employee, HR staff create a yearbook that includes a photo of, and a write-up on, each employee.
A photographer is on hand to take another photo of the employees and their guests.
The picture is later sent, enclosed in a congratulations card, to the long-standing employee.
New hires are also a priority. Staff still on probation are not necessarily as competent as someone with 10 years of experience, Karhuniemi said. “But they’re doing really well and their learning curve is increasing, and they’re really trying, we’d give them something that says, ‘Great effort,’ and tell them to go have a Starbucks.”
With 46 locations in the Lower Mainland, Karhuniemi sometimes finds it hard to make sure that the spot recognition program is being used. Plus, she said, “every supervisor has his or her style. People get bogged down in day-to-day operations. So I might say to the HR supervisors to talk to their supervisors and managers. ‘Talk it up. Remind them.’”
There’s little time for rest. “You have to solicit information from the employees. Do your homework, do your focus groups, and then you have to keep going back and reviewing it,” said Karhuniemi, human resource advisor for compensation and benefits at the Surrey, B.C.-based community laboratory.
Karhuniemi is proud of the recognition program at BC Biomedical. She points to the fact that staff at the company helped bring home the top spot in the most recent annual Report on Business’ 50 Best Employers in Canada survey.
“We must be doing something right,” Karhuniemi chuckled.
The company’s approach to recognition is “we’re not too innovative or extravagant but we do like to recognize people.”
The idea is to keep things simple, specific to the occasion and timely. Above all, it has to stay in front of employees.
Whether a prize is a Starbucks coffee or a Chapters gift certificate, Karhuniemi said, what counts is the sentiment. That’s why whenever someone deserves to be recognized, supervisors write up a letter or a card of thank you and describe why the act is being recognized.
Others bring in something that the employee being recognized prizes.
One lab assistant, for example, had done an electrocardiogram (ECG) on a patient. When the results came back, showing this patient required additional medical care, the patient had already left the building.
“So the lab assistant was on the phone for over an hour trying to contact the patient to tell them to seek further medical care. And of course, the entire staff helped, too. The next day, the lab assistant’s supervisor brought her a plant and cookies for the staff.
For the service recognition program, which begins at 10 years of service, employees are invited to bring a guest to a formal dinner.
Because there isn’t time during dinner for managers to make a speech about each employee, HR staff create a yearbook that includes a photo of, and a write-up on, each employee.
A photographer is on hand to take another photo of the employees and their guests.
The picture is later sent, enclosed in a congratulations card, to the long-standing employee.
New hires are also a priority. Staff still on probation are not necessarily as competent as someone with 10 years of experience, Karhuniemi said. “But they’re doing really well and their learning curve is increasing, and they’re really trying, we’d give them something that says, ‘Great effort,’ and tell them to go have a Starbucks.”
With 46 locations in the Lower Mainland, Karhuniemi sometimes finds it hard to make sure that the spot recognition program is being used. Plus, she said, “every supervisor has his or her style. People get bogged down in day-to-day operations. So I might say to the HR supervisors to talk to their supervisors and managers. ‘Talk it up. Remind them.’”
