How Early Recognition Increased Employee Retention for Armorous

Jimmy Spencer, Account Director for C.A. Short Company and Tawny Kesser, Chief Experience Officer for Armorous join R. Scott Russell and Kevin Gergel for this episode of the All-In Employee Podcast.

Recognition for Armorous starts at the top. Eric Hanson, CEO for Armorous, puts focus on his employees. As a former security guard, he wanted to do things differently for his own organization – putting people over profit to create a culture that people loved to work for. The security industry isn’t known for this.

Employees typically churn within the first 30-90 days. Armorous wanted a recognition program that recognized and engaged employees on the day they’re hired. Early recognition throughout the first 90 days of employment has made a huge difference for Armorous’ retention.

The orientation and onboarding process for Armorous focuses on culture and the instrumental role each employee plays in the success of the company.

Traditional methods of recognition are not enough anymore. You cannot affect retention as an organization if you wait until an employee’s one year milestone to begin recognition. C.A. Short Company’s recognition programs allow the flexibility to start recognizing employees on day one.

In today’s world, it’s rare for an employee to show up for orientation, so employees are recognized the second they walk through the door. The tone is set immediately for our core values.

Flexibility is key to the success of Armorous’ recognition program. Recognition is done in the following ways for their program:

• New hire

• Milestone recognition, starting at one month

• Birthdays

• Employee of the month

• Attendance

• Instant award cards for positive reviews, uniform inspection, reporting, safety, as well as going above and beyond

As part of their culture, Armorous also has 1:1 check ins with their employees that focuses on three key questions:

1. What can we stop doing?
2. What can we start doing?
3. What can we keep doing?

The recognition program is consistently an answer to keep doing.

And the results speak for themselves – the average tenure of an Armorous employee has increased from 4 months to 8 months as the average tenure.