Several years ago, I was kicking around ideas of how to communicate employee accomplishments to everyone inside our organization on a regular basis. It’s important to recognize the people who are working hard for you and your business.
A company-wide email could have worked, but I wanted to find something that was more of a personal touch. Mark Richardson, who’s been a great advisor to me, recommended that I look into a service called DialMyCalls. This technology allows me to record a voicemail message, edit it, and set it up for mass distribution to the phones of my entire team of about 800 employees–all within 10 minutes.
It was a no-brainer for me to be able to speak to the entire company on a weekly basis. These two-minute messages mean a great deal to the employees.
A couple of years ago, we had a young IT guy named Nathan who had done something really well alongside his supervisor. I recognized them by name for their contributions on one of my Friday morning messages.
The following Monday morning, he showed up at my office door and thanked me for mentioning him. He said that after listening to the voicemail, he visited his parents to play it for them. He was smiling as he told me how proud his parents were of him.
There are many ways you can use a tool like this to touch your employees. Here’s a list of themes that I include in my messages that have the most impact on my Dreamstyle team:
1. Recognition of on-the-job achievements.
The primary purpose of these messages is to honor individuals for key contributions. I encourage our branches to submit names of individuals who have been mentioned in our online reviews.
2. Notices of key dates for open enrollment or other company benefits.
It’s important that employees don’t miss these deadlines, so I remind them to sign up before it’s too late.
3. Health and safety warnings.
I encourage employees to be safe when they’re celebrating holidays or to take extra precautions when we see an uptick in COVID. This shows them that I care.
4. Recite words of wisdom.
An example of this would be sharing some thoughts on World Gratitude Day. I read quotes from well-known people on the subject of gratitude and received positive feedback from our employees.
5. Special holiday announcements.
The Friday before Mother’s Day, I thank the moms in the company for the sacrifices that they make in working at Dreamstyle. In advance of Veteran’s Day, I thank all of our employees who have served in the military.
6. Vendor recognition.
I encourage our people who have been working with a vendor to reach out to them to let them know that they've been doing a great job for us.
7. Seeking suggestions and complaints.
Every quarter or so I remind employees that they can make anonymous suggestions or complaints and I give them the phone number to call to do so.
These are just some examples of ways you can use this tool to reach your employees to let them know that you care. When I visit a branch and I get introduced to people, the first thing many of them say is that they can now put a face to voice behind my messages. That’s the kind of impact these voicemails have on our employees. And they can do the same for you.
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