Let’s focus on the example of annual Service Anniversary or Long Service Awards, which many organizations have used successfully for many years. While the idea of receiving an anniversary award will likely excite the conventionally dedicated, live-to-work Baby Boomer employees (particularly if they are celebrating 10-25 year milestone tenures) this type of reward might not seem as exciting to their younger Generation Y counterparts who are typically more focused on working-to-live and for whom 1-2 years with the same employer is considered long service.

In order to understand how to effectively reward Generation Y employees, here are a few key considerations and suggestions:

• Born into a technological world. This generation doesn’t know life before the internet, social networking, instant messaging, cell phones, ipods and reality TV.
• They are “plugged in” socially and value spending time with their friends and families. Thanks to technology, this is the first generation that is truly getting to know their grandparents.
• A strong desire to work on their own terms. Generation Y employees typically focus more on actually accomplishing the task (so that they can be social), as opposed to “how” the task is to be accomplished.
• More value on whether or not the job is accomplished than on how long or the amount of effort it takes.
• Conscious activists. Thanks again to technology, this worldly generation is not only aware of local and international events, they will also seek to be part of the big picture and wants to make a difference.

Rewards and recognition suggestions:

• Time off with pay
• Social activities where they are encouraged to bring a partner/spouse/friend
• Rewards that recognize their achievement of goals - Gift cards (itunes, Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Online store – Chapters/Amazon)
• Environmentally sensitive gifts (ie. Notebooks of recycled paper, gifts that donate a portion of the price to a local charity, trendy and recyclable shopping bags)

When it comes to recognizing and motivating today’s employees, it is important o understand that yesterday’s tried and true methods may not be as effective as they once were. Is it time to re-evaluate your existing rewards & recognition program? Not sure what kind of rewards would motivate your employees? Ask them. No matter what generation they belong to, employees appreciate being asked and are more likely to work harder for a reward that they have suggested.

Ginger Brunner is the founder of Dynamic HR Solutions Inc., (www.dynamichrsolutions.com); Ginger is a specialist in leadership development and trains on Bridging the Generation Gaps in the Workplace, For more information, contact

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McGraw-Hill did a study of US recessions that analyzed 600 industrial companies. They found that Business to Business firms that maintained or increased their advertising expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession grew their sales by 256 percent, both during the recession and for the following three years compared with those that eliminated or decreased advertising.

A fear-based response caused hundreds of thousands of investors to pull out their investments during the recent economic crash, causing catastrophic results that have left businesses reeling. Financial advisors recommend frugality during difficult times, but advocate patience and faith in the financial products to regain their value over time. Similarly, businesses must clearly focus on marketing efforts that create the biggest return on investment, be cautious with spending, and keep an eye on the bigger picture rather than reacting to the immediate challenges.

According to Jeff Swystun, Les Binet and Dan Miller (DDB Company), authors of the Yellow Paper Series titled “Capturing Opportunities in Challenging Times”, customers are behaving differently right now, so your marketing efforts need to reflect those behaviours if you are to be successful.

Customers are considering needs vs. wants. When money is tight and people are pulling back, before they make a purchase they are asking themselves “do I really need this?” Wants will be restricted, especially for larger items. Therefore, if you focus your marketing on repositioning your product or service to become a need, you’ll be way ahead. Perhaps they won’t buy a brand new washing machine from you, but can you convince them that they need to protect their existing washing machine through a service agreement so it doesn’t break down and force them to buy a new one? They aren’t going to buy the new machine anyway, so why not sell the something that will keep them coming back when things pick up again?

If they do consider it a need, price will be the major purchasing factor. So your customer has decided they DO need a service agreement for their old washing machine. Chances are they’re going to do some comparison shopping. This is where you need to be savvy in knowing your competitor’s pricing. Now your marketing efforts must focus on how you can beat what they are doing. This doesn’t necessarily mean reducing your prices, but it does mean being creative. Can you throw in a supply of laundry detergent, or offer the first service visit at a percentage off? If you can add something to make them feel like they’re getting more for their money, you’ll win their business.

Finally, they’ll consider value. In times when the economy is good, people find value in a greater number of things. In good times, people have the luxury of remaining committed to brands they like – even if they are more expensive than others. In difficult times, they re-evaluate whether the value they get for that brand is really worth the extra money they are spending. These “value” based perceptions are often more emotionally motivated in good times, but tend to be more fact-based in tough times. “Winning companies will ideally use marketing and advertising to communicate to consumers the story of their brands in a way that moves them from a “want” to a “need”. This will entail a clear statement of benefits that represents the overall value and justifies the associated price through a strategic program of communications.” (Capturing Opportunities in Challenging Times)

Before you throw in your marketing towel, make sure you’ve considered whether that is the best decision. Remember, the most successful companies use recession times as an opportunity to create an impact in the market when others are pulling back. Change your marketing to adapt to consumer economic realities rather than simply cutting back, and your patience and strategic plan will see you through the tough times.

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What exactly is creativity?

According to Michael Michalko, one of the world's leading experts in the field, creative people are those who come up with more ideas in a shorter space of time. They had more good ideas. But they also had more BAD ideas. The key is generating ideas quickly. Out of this wealth of ideas will spring some that better solve your problem in new and exciting ways. Let's look at this in another way - let's draw a picture of creativity.

Imagine two people, Joe Average and Cathy Creative. They work in the same department of a large telecommunications firm, and they both have problems they need to find a solution for. Joe Average holds his idea gun and slowly moves towards his problem. He carefully takes aim and holds his breath. Then he squeezes the trigger. He hits, slightly off target, but he breathes a deep sigh of relief because he hit what he was aiming at and he puts his idea gun away. Cathy Creative, on the other hand, has a idea machine gun. As soon as she sees the problem, she aims her machine gun in the direction of the target, presses the trigger, and sprays ideas all over the place. Some hit; some don't. Some are far off target - actually hitting the ceiling and the floor. But ten are close to dead centre.

Why do many business owners lack creativity?

Part of the reason could be that the ever-present "profitability focus" of business, plus the downsizing trends of the last decades have put blinders on people. Why? Cutbacks in staff have made for more work in less time. And people worried about losing their job – especially these days - are too stressed out to relax and think creatively. Another reason is that people mistakenly think they aren't creative - and because of that mind set, they continually miss opportunities and insights that people on the look out for creative ideas immediately pounce upon.

So, if you are stressed, always thinking of the dollar, and don't think you are creative, what can you do to bring innovation to your work? The first thing is to assess what you realistically can and cannot do. After all, no one is Superman (or Wonder Woman)! If you don't have time to impart a creative touch to your work, then hire someone to either do it for you, or to look your work over and then talk about it with you. It is amazing how often people who think they aren't creative can come up with good ideas when they bounce ideas off of someone who is innovative, non-judgmental, andenthusiastic.

The second thing that even the most time-stressed person can do is to take a few seconds here and there throughout the day and notice things. When you flip through a magazine, pause if something catches your eye and spend 15 seconds thinking about exactly what it is that you like, and how you might be able to do something similar in your own line of work. When you are watching television, look at the advertisements that make you smile, or think, and try to figure out how the advertising executive came up with the idea for that commercial. When you are cooking, look at the cut kiwi in your hand and see how two totally different colours and textures form something visually appealing. Doing this will help you realize that creativity is just a word for the merger of childlike curiosity and what experts call "unusual connection". Creativity really is simply the ability to bring two things totally unrelated together in order to solve a problem.

More ideas and better ideas - that's something that can help any person in any job, especially a small business owner. After all, who doesn't have problems to solve? Everyone benefits from being creative. And, fortunately, being creative, or coming up with more ideas and better ideas, is something YOU can learn. Religiously doing these things will help you, the non-innovative and time-stressed person, actually become creative. You will start seeing associations between totally different things. You will begin to be adventurous in your choice of colour, texture, and language. And you will find that over time, you will come up with more and more ideas that astound your staff and especially your customers. That makes for great business!

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