Staff Recognition: Hardest Worker

So, another top entry in the pantheon of ideas that I thought were a little bit shit, but turned out to be a corner stone of our program is our daily hardest worker awards.  (Another Entry and Here)

This idea originated  with Kate Dadourian, now founder and owner of Camp Rippling Brook in MD, but at the time a newly acquired Program Director, and one of my all time top two hires.

Her idea was simple.  Each day she would recognize the achievements of one or two staff who had gone above and beyond in some capacity the day before.  This would be awarded by her, but she invited the feedback of other staff.  Each day the winner would receive a Hard hat following an announcement at breakfast.   I told her it was a dumb idea.  She disagreed and if nothing Kate is persistent, and I don’t care about most things, so I shrugged and said do it

As with many things I was wrong.  But I am a firm believer in “strong opinions, weekly held” and I am happy to have been wrong and I am now a strong advocate of a very simple program that has huge returns on our staffing at close to zero cost.

The program has gone through some changes over the years, but the general premise remains the same.  Now the program is entirely staff nominated, though Meagan Springer, my AED and Camp Operations Director, and I retain veto.  Staff come to us with nominations and the reasons why the staff deserves it.  Then each morning we meet and choose the most deserving of all the nominations.

Then at our opening council, we make the announcement.  There are cheers, and the winner gets a button for the hardest worker.  They then make a speech.  They get a special parking spot that is marked as reserved for the hardest worker of the day and they of course get the hard hat.

Remember this is Florida, so its Hot.  Yet, this program has become such a central part of our program, and such a part of our collective identity as a staff that the winner will wear it all day. 

Their campers are proud of them, were proud of them, their proud of a job well done.  Winners all round.

We have learned a lot over the years. 

It takes time to get it going

This program took us years to get it to where it is today.  The first year no one nominated anyone.  It was Meagan and I doing all the nominating.  But we could see people were excited and the nominations started to trickle in.  Before we hit the stage of critical mass it was a chore some days.  But when you go out and look around your camp trying to find people working hard, you suddenly start to see it everywhere.  When this happens your views of your staff rapidly change.  Suddenly your empathy for what they are doing skyrockets, your nostalgia for your time as a counselor increases.  You fall in love with what you’re doing all over again.  Having a bad day? Go look for staff working hard.  It will inspire and uplift you. 

You need to do this everyday.

You can’t miss a day ever.  Not one.  Who gives out the award matters too.  You must do this everyday rain or shine and it must be the senior leaders of your leadership team presenting the award.  This has to be a top-down program.  When people see its important you, it becomes important to them.  So  I try and be there every day and be on stage when the award is presented, but I can’t, and people notice, One Day neither of us could be there and the recipient was devastated.  It diminished the whole award not just for them, but for everyone. 

We seriously do this everyday, we have not missed a day in 5 years.  That’s over 250 days of camp.  Missing just a single day would impact the whole program.  I firmly believe you are what you celebrate, and we choose to celebrate the people making camp happen.

It can feel like a popularity contest, don’t let it be.

We get a lot of people that nominate their friends, we also get people that nominate someone on the understanding that they will reciprocate.  We have become good at catching these.  The times that we haven’t caught it the other staff see it and again it diminishes the whole program.  We are careful to recognize staff that have struggled and have had a great day, even if that great day was a blimp.  The recognition of that one day often turns under performers around.

It’s the person that matters, more than their performance

When we announce the award Meagan is very careful how she announces who it is.  She is intentional in not saying what they did, but what character values they exhibited while doing it.  She will talk about why they are a great person, not why they are a great staff.  Again, you choose what we celebrate, and we choose to celebrate our core values in action.

So rather that say, “Ian is a great counselor that delt with a problematic child”.  We talk about his patience and his perseverance.  His sense of humor, how he smiles and laughs when his day isn’t going as planned.  We celebrate who he is. Not what he does.

There is a speech, and its important.

This has evolved into a bit of a ceremony.  We give the 30 second speech, make the announcement, the crowd goes wild.  The actually do, and they are genuinely happy for them.  Through our staff training and through years of building culture we have created a “Coopetition” This concept blends elements of cooperation and competition, suggesting that businesses or individuals can benefit from both competing and cooperating with one another.  It really is the notion that rising tides lift all boats.  But our staff might not see it that way.  They know it’s a hard job, and some days are tougher and they are glad that we recognize this. 

Then comes the speech.  They get 10 or 15 seconds to speak.  What do they talk about?  Their peers.  Always.  They thank them and they thank them sincerely.  All but one time – and everyone remembers that for all the wrong reasons.  We don’t tell them what to speak about.  Some speak a word or two; some people really lean into it.  But at the end of the day, they say thank you.  They are humbled by the recognition.  This happened organically but I think its really important to the program

The hardest worker is so simple but has changed Camp.  We currently have about 65 staff each week and give out two.  A smaller program might need only one, my program with almost 90 staff also had two.  Maybe the threshold for three is around 100 staff.

If you introduce the program, or talk about it in the future please credit Kate.  She deserves it.

You can buy the hard hats on amazon here Last years ours were pink and green. You get about two years of use before they get really scuffed up.