Here are a few ways to make your life greener and our planet cleaner.

The Green Mile

We all need to get from point A to point B, but there are ways to do it in a more eco friendly way. If you’re currently driving to work in an SUV by yourself, you can instantly upgrade to a darker green by adding one passenger to your car or taking public transportation a few days a week. To be medium green, trade in the SUV for a hybrid or ride your bike to work. Remember, it ain’t easy being green.

Get Your Greens

When it comes to food, some goods make us greener than others. Local organic food is a greener choice because it doesn’t use harmful chemicals or pesticides and isn’t transported in gas guzzling trucks like store-bought goods. To go from light to medium green, shop at farmers markets and buy organic. To go a shade darker, start growing your own veggies in your backyard.

Home Sweet Green Home

Your home is a really great place to get greener. If you’re the light green type who has been recycling and using energy efficient light bulbs, you can really kick things into high gear by switching to energy star appliances and windows. If you want an even darker green abode, try switching to formaldehyde-free kitchen cabinets and non-toxic paint. And when it comes to the yard, the grass really shouldn’t be greener. Get a shade darker by limiting lawn chemicals and fertilizers.

“As organizations being to recover from the recession, picking the right way to reward a job well done, and avoiding common pitfalls, will be critical to repairing wounds to morale and restoring staff confidence and loyalty”

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So let’s start with the extreme green –the incredible hulks of the eco world. While these enviro-trailblazers used to be oddball survivalists who lived off the grid and swore off electricity and fossil fuels, this type of lifestyle has slowly become more mainstream. More and more people are now living lifestyles where they supply their own energy, grow all their own food and believe radical political change is the answer to our environmental problems.

What exactly would you see around the home of an extreme green? Well they use dirty bath water to water plants, run their cars on vegetables and it’s not entirely uncommon for darkest of greens to turn the refrigerator off and use the great outdoors to keep food cold. It’s a tough lifestyle that certainly isn’t for everyone.

If you happen to like electricity, and your fridge but still consider yourself somewhat environmentally friendly, you may be more of a medium green. What exactly happens in the life of a medium green? Well for starters something as simple as getting from point A to point B is a big deal to you. If you’re not driving a hybrid, you’re car-pooling – maybe even riding your bike to work. And when it comes to changes around the home, a medium green goes beyond the call of duty, buying locally grown organic food and energy efficient appliances and shutting down computers when they’re not in use. Medium greens understand the big picture and their role in it. If there’s a corporation out there that’s not doing their part for the earth, a medium green just might boycott them.

If you’re not quite as committed as a medium green but are still doing your part, you are likely a light green. The light greens have mastered the basics and are always looking for other small changes they can make. They use cloth grocery bags, recycle at home and use a stainless steel water bottle and recyclable lunch container. And when it’s vacation time, light green will likely use the same towels for a few days to conserve water. Regardless of light greens’ daily behavior, the important thing is they are making an effort. Besides, being light green is better than not being green at all.

So when it comes to your own shade of green, there are always opportunities to go darker. If you’re a medium green at home but work in a light green office, you can help make a few simple changes. Take a look at the suppliers you work with and choose ones that are introducing sustainability practices to their work. For example, Hbc offers Eco friendly gift cards that companies can incorporate into their own rewards and incentives program. The biodegradable, corn-based plastic Eco friendly gift cards are reloadable and come with a 100% recycled paper card carrier. It’s a simple way to go from a Pale Green to maybe a Lime Green. And who knows, employees just might use the cards towards energy efficient appliances or stainless steel water bottles. And that’s a good thing.

When it comes to making eco friendly decisions at home, we all know exactly what to do. But are we doing everything we can for the planet from 9 to 5?

Here are some tips on how to make the office a little greener.  Incorporate a few of them and you just might see an increase in productivity too – and that’s always a good thing.

There are many ways to reduce your corporate footprint. And while you don’t have to be an eco super hero, changing a few things can really make a difference. One way to save energy is to simply make sure all computers and lights are shut off at the end of the day. It’s an easy way to save energy and yes, money too.

Another way to do your part is to encourage people to drive less. With instant messaging, video conferencing and email, a lot of work can be done from home. And fewer people in the office will mean fewer cars on the road. Try offering perks or incentives to staff who use city transit, carpool or drive hybrids to work every day. Free lunches or a bonus at the end of the year just might do the trick.

If you’re serious about going green, then it’s time to go digital. Get used to reviewing documents online more often and archive files electronically instead of in filing cabinets. And when you do need to print something, print double sided and look for paper that is recycled with a high percentage of post-consumer content and the minimum of chlorine bleaching. Consumers, clients and suppliers like to work with people who are making sustainability a priority so you can feel good about going green without compromising relationships.

Try giving the office a bit of a green makeover too. Buy pencils made from recycled material and refillable pens. There are great biodegradable soaps and recycled paper towels for the bathroom and kitchen too. And when it comes to office furniture, companies like Herman-Miller and Steelcase design incredible chairs from recycled materials. And why not leave the lights off and let the natural daylight light the office. It’s free and all the Vitamin D will keep people smiling. If you do require artificial light, buy LED bulbs that use very little energy.

And while there’s a lot that can be done during office hours, lunchtime is a great opportunity to reduce our footprint. The most eco-friendly lunch option is to bring lunch in a reusable container. If you are ordering in, place a group order and use your own reusable utensils and plates to cut down on packaging.

As a company committed to sustainability, Hbc continues to do its part for the planet. Each year we review our environmental programs to see where we can make changes. We’ve accomplished some impressive tasks like increasing recycling to 90%, reducing water consumption, introducing one of the most ecologically friendly retail stores in Canada, putting more biodiesel fuel trucks on the road and being the first office tower in Canada to be certified by Zero Waste. Our Eco Gift Cards are another great example of changes we’re making that will help protect the planet.

Whether you’re starting a green business, reducing your paper trail or walking to work every day, we can all work towards a greener office. And if you’re working somewhere that could use an eco overhaul, you can always start by forwarding everyone this newsletter.

Hbc Gift Cards are taking another giant green step forward.  Air Miles will be offering the Hbc Eco Gift Card as a redemption item through their rewards program, which will benefit their customers and the planet at the same time.

“We are thrilled to offer the new HBC Gift Card in both $25 and $50 denominations in our Rewards portfolio to AIR MILES Collectors. The new card displays Hbc’s commitment to environmental responsibility and awareness,” says Jill Morison, Vice President, Marketing, Consumer Products, AIR MILES Reward Program. “It’s our pleasure to work with a like-minded organization that is dedicated to offering sound sustainable products to its consumers.”

The Hbc Eco cards are an excellent addition to the AIR MILES Reward Program which is focused on offering its Collectors more environmentally-friendly options through the new My Planet initiative. Consumers can now redeem reward miles for biodegradable corn-based, eco-friendly gift cards that come with a 100 per cent recycled paper card carrier.

While Hbc Gift Cards have always been a successful tool for motivating, rewarding and increasing productivity, consumers feel even better when they have the chance to give an Eco card. “Giving back to the environment now can be rewarding and sensible,” says Andrew Noonan, manager of the program. “We are excited to introduce this Eco friendly gift card as an alternative at the forefront of environmentally responsible gift giving.”

Hbc Eco Gift Cards come in denominations of $10, $25, $50 or $100 and can be redeemed for over a million products at any of the Hbc Family of Stores.  Customers will love the cards. Recipients will love the cards. And yes, Mother Nature will certainly love them too.

Sometimes it’s all in the way we look at things that determines the final outcome. In a recent interview with Incentive Magazine, Patrick Lencioni (President of The Table Group, a management consulting firm focused on improving teamwork and employee engagement) makes a great point by stating that we have to ask ourselves the fundamental question: “Do we believe things will get better?” (Lencioni, 2009)². If the answer is no, then we’ve essentially pigeon-holed ourselves into an inevitable conclusion. However, most people would admit that in due time, the economy will rebound and we should take this time to invest in employees; the backbone of every organization.

Now is the time when employee morale can be low and employers are looking for ways to energize and restore confidence. The reasons for low morale are many: whether it’s worries about money, job security, the stress of having to take on more work as a result of company layoffs, or the general media negativity seen and heard all around, the impact of the situation can be overwhelming. As such, it is the role of organizations, and more specifically upper management and HR, to help employees feel secure and reduce their level of fear and anxiety. Employee incentives, coupled with positive communication and leadership, are steps in the right direction to re-engage and motivate employees towards a common organizational goal.

Now is the time when a tiny gesture of recognition through an incentive will go a long way in restoring morale. During a time of abundance, when everyone was living in a sea of prosperity, such gestures could go unnoticed. The same is no longer true and many organizations are finding that a small reward and, more importantly the recognition it carries, are doing wonders in making employees feel valued. The impact of such gestures can be amplified further if the reward is personalized through symbols that the recipient identifies with (eg. their name or project name). This can be easily accomplished through customized and personalized gift cards.

Now is the time when talent management must be considered a top priority within an organization. Current conditions in the economy can leave an organization vulnerable towards a talent sweep by the competition. Maintaining your current talent workforce will not only sustain you through the down times, but it will also ensure that your organization is ready to compete during boom times. Some industry experts suggest that this environment can lead to greater innovation and discovery of new efficient procedures (Hebert, 2009)³. An incentive for idea generation can be built into your current program to recognize the top talent in your organization.

Hbc Gift Cards has incentive solutions that can fit in with your existing program. Talk to us today about the many options that are available from standard, to personalized and customized Gift Cards. Visit www.hbc.com/b2b or call us at 1-888-461-2323 to learn more.

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1 CareerBuilder, Nearly 40 Percent of Employers Plan to Trim Benefits and Office Perks This Year, Finds New CareerBuilder.com Survey. Press Release, February 18,2009, Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.careerbuilder.com

2 Lencioni, Patrick. Leaders, Take a Ride on the “Down Economy” Bandwagon, Incentive Magazine; The Recession Survival Guide. February 20, 2009.  Retrieved from http://www.managesmarter.com

3 Hebert, Paul. Now Is Your Chance…Thrive!, Incentive Magazine; The Recession Survival Guide. February 19, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.managesmarter.com

Motivation. It’s the fuel that gets us all moving toward our goals. It’s what wakes us up to face the day each morning and what lives in our dreams when we go to sleep at night. If we could bottle it, patent it and put it on a shelf, we’d all be millionaires.

But is motivation something that dwells only within an individual, or can we (as HR Professionals) guide it, shape it and bend it to our will? Can employee incentives really motivate lasting changes in behavior? To answer this question, we need to delve more deeply in to the science behind motivation.

According to the interim results from the Hbc 2007 HR INCENTIVE SURVEY (hbccards.com/survey), the number one ‘Point of Pain’ among HR Professionals who have responded to date is low motivation. Obviously, motivational issues are a major concern to HR professionals and ways of improving motivation among employees are highly sought after.

There are really two types of motivators intrinsic and extrinsic.

Extrinsic motivators are things that are external to one’s self. They are outside forces such as money, promotions, rewards, etc. Intrinsic motivators are forces internal to one’s self. Things like self esteem, satisfaction, pleasure, etc.

Intrinsic motivators are generally considered much more powerful because, like almost everything involving human beings, we give weight to what manifests from within ourselves more than manifests from outside. In short, they are more powerful, because they are more personal.

When we talk about incentives in the HR world, we are almost always talking about extrinsic motivators such as cash, prizes, points or the like. We have all been taught to believe that extrinsic rewards alone can motivate action.

In fact, there is good evidence to suggest that the opposite is often true. Adding an extrinsic reward (such as cash) to an action that was previously performed for intrinsic reasons (say, a passion for craftsmanship) can often reduce the desired behavior.

The reason could be as simple as this. By taking an activity that was previously engaged in for intrinsic reasons (more powerful) and adding an extrinsic incentive (less powerful) we have somehow ‘cheapened’ that activity in the mind of the individual being affected. As an example, think of anyone you know who works in a job they’re passionate about, versus someone who works purely for the money.

So does this mean the idea of providing employee incentives is ineffective? Not at all!

Extrinsic rewards are easily assignable to other individuals, but are not as powerful. Intrinsic rewards are extremely powerful motivators, but because they come from within, they’re inherently difficult to assign to other individuals.

So, we need to find a way to tie extrinsic incentives we can assign to our employees with the intrinsic benefits that motivate them on an individual basis. Viola!!! An Employee Incentives program this is both easily assignable and yet individually powerful at the same time!

Let’s look at an example using a typical employee. For argument’s sake, let’s call him Bob. It’s quite easy to provide a temporary boost in motivation by providing Bob an extrinsic reward such as a cash bonus, time off or a gift card he can redeem for whatever he’d like. However, we have yet to tap into Bob’s deeper, more powerful motivation hot buttons by attaching this extrinsic reward to something that will motivate Bob on a personal level.

And therein lies on of the biggest (and most overlooked) opportunities in the world of corporate incentives today, linking the extrinsic rewards we offer our employees and customer, to a more personal, more powerful intrinsic benefit that will provide stronger and longer lasting motivation for improvement.

Lets go back to the example of our now model employee, Bob. If Bob receives a $100 cash bonus each time he meets his monthly quota for sales, he quickly learns the cause and effect relationship and will strive to meet this minimum goal each month.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “that’s good, isn’t it?”. Well, yes and no. We are in fact, creating effective change in Bob’s behavior and achieving our collective goals. However, we’ve failed to affect change on a deeper, more personal level — we’ve failed to tie the extrinsic benefit of a cash bonus to a more personal, more powerful intrinsic benefit.

So what could we have done differently? Well, for starters, we could think very carefully about the ‘other’ reasons Bob might actually want to contribute to the goal. How about the ‘thrill of the kill,’ the rush that comes from making the deal? The desire to be recognized and praised in front of his peers? Any of these intrinsic motivators could be trigger-points for Bob that will provide more powerful and longer lasting motivation then cash alone.

The problem is, how do we tie these powerful, personal motivators (which we can’t control), to a less powerful but easily shaped extrinsic motivator such as a monetary reward (which we can control).

The answer lies in the concepts of sentiment and context.

Context is simply the situational relevance of the incentive received. In other words, what are the specifics of the situation that resulted in the reward being given and received. Was it for reaching a specific sales target? Referring a new employee? Closing a huge account? In order for Bob to be motivated by the incentive to perform similar acts in the future, he needs to be completely clear on the context in which the incentive was given.

The second and much more important component of the incentive is the sentiment. The sentiment is essentially the feelings, emotions and thoughts we are intending to evoke in the recipient, by giving the incentive. It is the sentiment that is missing from most of the corporate incentives work being done today. In short, it’s not enough to help Bob understand the reason the incentive was given, he must also deeply feel the intrinsic benefit of achieving the goal.

So, how do we do this? Simple – Personalization. By personalizing the incentive to the experience, we can tie the extrinsic benefit of the incentive itself, with the intrinsic benefits that will truly motivate and even inspire Bob over the long term.

To understand how this might work in Bob’s case, let’s look at a specific example, using a gift card as the incentive.

Let’s say our collective goal is for Bob to lead his sales team to their best year ever, surpassing all previous records. Let’s also say that we’ve broken this lofty goal down into a series of more bit-sized monthly goals and that we’re willing to provide a monthly incentive of a gift card loaded with a percentage of the increase in sales over last year’s figures for that month (a great extrinsic incentive).

There is no doubt that this extrinsic incentive alone might provide certain level of additional motivation for Bob to at least achieve the minimal level of sales required. However, there’s more we can do in this case. We can tap into Bob’s inherent desire to lead and succeed, by reminding him of why he’s reached the level he’s at and why he wants to take it to the next level as well, not just for the benefit of the organization, but for himself as well.

The sentiment we wish to invoke in this case might be the passion he feels for the ‘thrill of the kill’ that got him into this game in the first place – and the same passion that has brought him to this point in his career up until now. We can invoke these feelings and tie them to the desired actions by simply acknowledging the context for which the incentive was given, and weaving them together with the sentiment we’re hoping to invoke.

Say, for example, that we replace the generic gift card we were planning to give Bob for meeting his monthly targets, with a more personalized gift card and signed, personalized letter that both reiterate the context and sentiment we’re looking for.

Going back for a moment to the Hbc 2007 HR INCENTIVE SURVEY, the majority of respondents have stated they ‘strongly agree’ that offering more personalized incentives would Increase the employee’s goodwill/appreciation for the reward. They also ‘strongly agree’ that more personalization would increase the employee’s motivation to perform well in the future. Clearly, personalization is catching-on in the world of employee incentives, and HR professionals are beginning to respond accordingly.

There are virtually as many contexts and sentiments for providing incentives as our creative minds can conceive, including examples from these universal categories:

1. apologies/win-backs

2. congratulations

3. holidays

4. introductions

5. milestones

6. thank yous, and

7. welcomes

Remember, the time the extrinsic benefit reaches fruition is at the time of redemption of the incentive (in this case, the gift card). In other words, the goodwill created by the incentive is fully realized when the recipient actually redeems the gift card, much more so then when it is received. It is important that the desired sentiment is reinforced at this point as well, if we hope to permanently make the connection between the context and the sentiment. This is the true power the personalized gift card can provide.

So remember, when searching for a way to motivate your employees that is both powerful and long lasting; don’t overlook the effect of personalization. By personalizing both the context and sentiment of the incentive, you’ll magnify the effect of your incentive and reap a far greater return in the long run.

Published in Workplace News. July/August 2007. Volume 13. Issue 4