BY D.H. COBURN

When the pandemic forced Soapy Joe’s Car Wash to take its annual awards bash virtual, Anne Mauler huddled with her marketing manager and her marching orders were clear.

“‘I’ve been doing events for years and you can’t just have another Zoom meeting,” she told Mauler, vice president of marketing for the San Diego-based operator. “People are going to sit there with their cameras off. It’s going to be boring. If this is going to be a thing, it has to be a THING.”

That was the week Grammy nominations were announced, and an idea was born. Mauler created a theme and logo, hired an event producer, and pulled off a Grammy-style production called the “First Annual Virtual Soapy Joe’s Award Show,” replete with a Jay-Z music spoof, “Soapy State of Mind,” an energetic emcee (multiple outfit changes, naturally) and a CEO speech written entirely in memes.

Even amid the pandemic, companies like Soapy Joe’s, voted San Diego’s best car wash last year, are taking employee recognition to new heights, and for good reason. Keeping employees happy, productive and engaged is seen as a key to helping your business thrive and grow.

HAPPY EMPLOYEES, HAPPY CUSTOMERS

Feeling a sense of value is among the most basic of human needs, but survey after survey indicates that many employers don’t do a great job fulfilling this need for their employees by showing how much they’re appreciated.

Consider the following findings:

• Officevibe, the developer of employee engagement platforms and tools for business, found that 34% of employees are unhappy with how frequently they’re recognized. Of 26 engagement sub-metrics Officevibe measured, the two most strongly correlated were “Frequency of Recognition” and “Happiness at Work.”

• Gallup found that 65% of employees had received no form of recognition in the 12 months preceding the survey, and that 82% of employees think it’s better to give praise than a gift.

• CareerBuilder found that 50% of employees would stay if they were recognized, and another survey found 35% of employees considered lack of recognition the biggest hindrance to their productivity.

For Justin Young, Director of Marketing for Splash Car Wash in North Little Rock, Ark., there’s a direct relationship between employee recognition and the overall success of the business.

“At the end of the day we know that our people aren’t going to treat our customers like family if we don’t treat them like family. We really do put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that we treat our team members really, really well.”

Mauler agrees. “From a strategy perspective, we feel that good employee experience directly leads to good customer experience, so that’s why loving our members and loving our employees go hand in glove,” she said.

KEYS TO GREAT RECOGNITION PROGRAMS

Experts say it’s vital that employee recognition adhere to the same set of standards as all other internal communications. Above all, recognition has to be honest, authentic and tailored specifically for the employee audience it’s intended for.

It can’t be canned or impersonal, experts say, suggesting it’s time to retire the wall plaques. It doesn’t hurt if recognition is fun, too.

Soapy Joe’s has two programs that easily qualify in that category. Its Soapy Cup — literally a gold cup filled with candy, gift cards and other goodies — is awarded monthly to site staff based on criteria that includes sales goals, online reviews from customers, site inspections and maintenance. Mauler’s colleagues spread the news on all of Soapy Joe’s communication channels, including the home page on its intranet site, a feature story in its printed newsletter and social media.

“Who would think a trophy filled with candy would be so popular, but our employees love it,” Mauler said. “It’s tangible, it’s bragging rights for our staff. It’s a BIG deal.”

Just in the past year, the 300-plus employee operator introduced another dynamic program, Magic Moments, that has caught on with employees. Home office employees and site managers carry Magic Moment-branded notepads when they are on site at one of the company’s 14 locations, ready to catch an employee doing the right thing — for example, demonstrating one of Soapy Joe’s core values such as “Leading with Heart.”

Break room posters promote the program and Soapy Joe’s has an online chat room devoted to it, which has spawned an organic internal response of “Speech! Speech!” whenever winners are announced. Mauler knew Magic Moments was a success when she saw the same rallying cry on the chat during the annual award bash. At the end of every month select Magic Moment winners receive a $100 gift card.

Employee engagement experts say that private displays of recognition can provide immense value, and surveys have shown that recognition is one of the most valued things for a team member to receive from their direct supervisor or CEO. Members of the executive team at Splash Car Wash pen handwritten notes, include a gift card, and then hand-deliver them to employees who have been mentioned by name in a customer review. Additionally, the executive leadership team and location managers carry “Core Value Cards” with them to thank employees in the moment for positive behaviors that showcase company values.

While not everybody loves public praise, for those who do it is a real perk to have their efforts be acknowledged publicly among their colleagues. Receiving public praise from managers that is broadcasted to the entire team for all to see really is icing on the cake.

For that reason, Splash works diligently to use all of its communication channels to praise team members. The team is highlighted on social media and Splash prints a monthly newsletter for customers to read in the lobby, highlighting team member success. Additionally, they use an internal communications app called Crew, a group messaging platform, to celebrate awesome performance as it happens in real-time.

“That immediate feedback and public recognition is huge for our team. That’s probably the most instant form of recognition we do on a daily, and even hourly basis,” Young said. “There’s not a day that goes by that there’s not someone on the Crew app from our leadership team giving shoutouts to team members, celebrating wins and successes.”

Engagement experts say — and the surveys bear them out — that while frequency of recognition is key, the more ceremonial forms of recognition provide great value to a team member. For Splash, that looks like an annual company-wide Christmas party with awards like Spirit of Splash, Rising Star, Commitment to Excellence, and Team Member of the Year awards.

Above all, the experts say, once you find something that resonates with team members — like the Soapy Cup — ride it for all it’s worth.

“You never quite know which idea is going to create that groundswell among employees. The Soapy Cup did that, so we don’t monkey with it because employees have latched onto it so much,” Mauler said.

IT’S NOT JUST HR’S RESPONSIBILITY

When viewed as a vital subset of internal communications, it’s easy to see why employee recognition has to be considered an important vehicle for transmitting a company’s culture, core values, mission and vision. And that’s why it’s critical for senior leadership to be involved in shaping recognition programs.

Soapy Joe’s has been focusing on its culture for several years as fuel for the company’s growth. Key players have been added to the management team specifically for their ability to help the company live its mission, vision and values, and employee recognition is seen as a critical tool to accomplish that objective.

“We try to find creative ways to explore employee recognition companywide and throughout all departments. It’s an initiative we’re all invested in across the organization,” Mauler said.

At WashTec, a leader in car wash technology with 1,800 employees in 80 countries, employee recognition initiatives are defined by the global HR department. But everything is done in consultation with managers and the management board to ensure recognition is tied to broader objectives, said Ronald Barnsteiner, Vice President Human Resources for the Augsburg, Germany-based company.

“I think in most businesses employee recognition would be an HR function and there would be this nice, corporate, employee recognition program all packaged up. But at Splash, it is truly just woven into the DNA of who we are as a brand,” Young said. “It’s really not just coming from any one place. It really is coming from everyone at all levels of our organization.”

Most companies distinguish garden-variety sales incentives such as bonus programs and rewards for hitting sales or membership targets from employee recognition initiatives. While they, too, can play an important place in motivating employees and driving company goals, in most cases they are not as much about driving company culture through the organization and reinforcing core values, mission and vision.

To recognize top employees, Soapy Joe’s holds an annual awards show, which was held virtually in 2020. An event producer was hired, a logo was created, an emcee was brought on, a raffle for some great prizes was held – and employee morale skyrocketed.

TRAINING AS A FORM OF RECOGNITION

Not all companies think of training and leadership development as a form of employee recognition, but Soapy Joe’s and Splash Car Wash are two that see it as the ultimate way of acknowledging employees who are knocking it out of the park.

Soapy Joe’s, which is in the midst of significant growth, redesigned its Manager in Training (MIT) program to help support its expansion. The program includes six sessions over three weeks and covers everything from customer journey map to values, and company culture to HR policies and requirements, to tunnel maintenance and enhancing soft skills such as communicating empathy to employees and customers.

At Splash Car Wash, leadership development really ramped up in October 2020, when 18 of the company’s 170 team members joined the inaugural Emerging Leaders Program. This leadership development program includes assigned reading — Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” was first on the list — and dinners that provide face-time opportunities with company leaders.

“That’s probably paid off the biggest dividends of anything we’ve done, in profitability as well as just our team’s morale and the culture in the stores,” Young said.

Soapy Joe’s sees training as a powerful form of recognition, especially for young employees who might not have expected career advancement opportunities like the MIT program when they joined Soapy Joe’s.

“Having recognition that’s both fun and functional for emerging leaders has really been key,” Mauler said. “The feel-good stuff, the bragging rights, all of that is great, but to truly impart knowledge is something that people don’t think they’re going to walk away with when they sign up for working at
a car wash.”