Commiting to Recognition: Tommy Lee and RPI September 08, 2008
By Leo Jakobson
Five years after stumbling upon its Web site while looking for advice on what to do in his new role as MetLife Auto & Home's first corporate recognition chairperson, Tommy Lee Hayes-Brown is now a member of the board of directors of Naperville, Ill.–based Recognition Professionals International.
At the time, it was known as the National Association of Employee Recognition. But in 2007, a year after Hayes-Brown joined its board, the organization "took a look at ourselves, trying to figure out where our place was among the sea of organizations out there that claim to help you with engagement or recognition," he says. "We made a commitment. We said, 'We're not going to be the engagement specialist. We're going to hone in on what we do best and what we believe is the best way to get engagement out of employees. And that's recognition.' So we refocused ourselves."
From Hayes-Brown's perspective, his involvement with RPI brings significant advantages to both MetLife Auto & Home and to him personally. "It tells the industry that we take employee recognition and ultimately our employees seriously," he says. "That is the biggest advantage of being a part of RPI." On top of that, he adds, "we get some best practices by coming to the conferences. I'm sitting there trying to absorb all I can as well and pass that on to my company."
And just as he accepted the corporate recognition champion position in 2003 to expand his work responsibilities beyond MetLife's claims department, Hayes-Brown is doing the same thing with RPI as a member of the board's marketing committee. "It's helping me professionally because I'm new to marketing," he says. "I bring the stuff I'm learning back to MetLife. So I'm getting as much out of it as I'm putting in."
One of the things he takes most seriously is RPI's Seven Best Practices. "They were so important in helping us fine-tune a recognition program that was already good, but I think it helped make it even better," he says. Take number five: Recognition Training. "We just kind of knew that that's the way we do things, but didn't have much structure around it. Now we have structure, and we're still working on it to get even more structure around it."
Editor's Note: Read more about Tommy Lee Hayes-Brown as MetLife Auto & Home's first recognition chairperson in Metlife Rethinks Recognition.
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