Are you serving a prix-fixe Valentine’s Day dinner to your employees?
By Kevin Mullins
For many people, Valentine’s Day represents a day to appreciate the loved ones around you. While I certainly agree with that course of action, Valentine’s Day also reminds me of an annual restaurant tradition: the dreaded prix-fixe meal.
In my opinion, this practice is a fancy way of jacking up the cost of a holiday dinner out, under the veil of a pretty menu and ballad-singing soloist. The cost of your meal gets hidden by a package price that most often exceeds the cost of the individual items. It comes down to an issue of transparency – of showing the true value of all the contents.
The same can unfortunately be said of some organizations today. Many companies fail to be open with employees about how “the meal gets made” and the company reaches its goals. Employees perform at their best and are most engaged when they feel valued and when they know how they contribute to the big picture goals. We saw this in our Globoforce Mood Tracker survey and world renowned business thinker Gary Hamel also discusses it in this short video about the need for companies to have “democracy of information” and “complete transparency across the organization.”
It’s simply not enough to put the goals out there and expect employees to take the ball and run. The prix-fixe package as a standalone doesn’t work. Employees need to know what’s inside, how their menu items can help make the meal complete. For this, they need to be acknowledged and recognized for the behaviors and performance that contribute to the goals getting accomplished. Our own CEO, Eric Mosley, detailed this point quite well in this Valentine’s Day interview about the importance of employee recognition.
So this Valentine’s Day, think about the menu you’re serving employees. Are you giving them the hidden prix-fixe or are you being transparent with what’s inside? The difference is engaged employees who can’t wait for their next meal versus those left holding the doggie bag.
