The one thing to consider for ordering company values in a recognition program
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The order of your company values is an aspect many HR professionals and executives overlook. See why it is important to order the company values in a way that gets staff to read all of the values when sending an employee recognition.
Above the Fold
Newspapers started the idea of “above the fold”. It’s when the space on the top of the newspaper, before the half fold, has the prime real estate for readers’ attention. People see the top far more than the bottom. The newspaper companies knew this as obvious and there’s no secret why the top of the newspaper is the top current story.
Today above the fold is a term used in web design. Similar to attention fixated on the top of the newspaper, website heatmaps show the top is the most viewed. Just as newspapers were enticing people to buy a newspaper based on the top story, now web designers are trying to entice visitors to scroll. This is no easy task.
The Lesson
The lesson is people read what’s on top and may not read the rest in just about any list of information, which brings us to the main topic.
Order of Company Values
Order of values should be continuously considered. As time changes, things change and we must adapt. Your company culture has foundations, and the values that grow from that foundation will change with time. With new values come new ideas and new ways to promote employee achievements. In fact, you are late to company value housekeeping when employees start requesting a refresh on the recognition program or in general. This is an opportunity to put the new values on top through reordering.
The #1 Thing to Consider for Company Values
Given that people do not like to scroll, that means we have to nudge them to do so. People will select the first item in the list more than any other item. So if your Thank You recognition value is at the top of the list, people will select the wildcard Thank You instead of thinking about the values. But we want staff to think about the values because then they internalize them.
Put Thank You Down Below in the List
Put the wildcard Thank You recognition at the bottom of the list. This requires staff to go through and read the values at the top down. Even put the Thank You in the middle so staff has to find the Thank You. Your program should see a boost in recognition sent via the other badges. Use the analytics to discover that trend with a tool like Recognize.
Use a tool like Recognize that allows the reordering of values in your program.