REWARDING your employees is hard. Wanting to reward them iseasy. This is particularly true at our insurance agency. AllHigginbotham employees own stock in the agency, and theircommitment to their investment shows. Thanks to our staff,Higginbotham won the “Best Place to Work in Dallas-Fort Worth”award from the Dallas Business Journal. The votes of 90% of our196-person workforce earned us a spot on Texas Monthly's 2006 “BestCompanies to Work for in Texas” list.

I know Higginbotham is a great place to work fromexperience–I've been an employee at the agency's Fort Worthlocation for 16 years. Until recently, the only part of myresponsibilities as personal-lines manager that I didn't like wasrewarding my workers. It's not that they didn't deserve accolades.The problem was with me. Each year, I strived to come up withcreative, meaningful, yet budget-conscious ways to say “thank you.”But no matter what I devised, it seemed, some employees ended upfeeling slighted.

This year, I finally got it right. I devised an agencywiderewards program that didn't break the budget or bruise any egos,and that I'm convinced will work for any company. I call it “ThreeWishes.”

I fashioned the program after the NBC series “Three Wishes.” Onthe show, host Amy Grant traveled around the country fulfilling thedreams of unsuspecting do-gooders. While watching the show andpondering what Higginbotham management could give its employees forChristmas, it came to me: We could grant three wishes.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, I e-mailed the idea to our agency'spresident, Rusty Reid, and my fellow 12 managing directors, ourtitle for the agency's department heads and $1 million producers.Their response was instantaneous and unanimous: “Yes!” They dubbedme Higginbotham's “little cheerleader” and pledged to help howeverthey could.

Now, all we had to do was tell the agency's 196 employees in sixoffices across Texas the good news. I enlisted the help of myoffice's marketing employee, Christina, who decided using thecompany Intranet was the best way to spread the word.

Christina designed the “Three Wishes” Intranet Web page. At thetop of the page was an explanation of the program. Each employeecould make one wish. The wish could be for the employee, for afamily member or for another Higginbotham employee. I wanted “ThreeWishes” to benefit Higginbotham employees, and I knew that withoutthis provision, our selfless workers would make wishes for friends,acquaintances, or even strangers, if they could.

On the Web page, we posted a Dec. 2 deadline for the receipt ofall wishes. The winners would be announced at the company Christmasparty a week later.

Underneath the explanation appeared the “Three Wishes” logo, anangel blowing a clarion, and below that, a wish request form. Init, we asked for a description of the wish, the name andHigginbotham branch of the person making the request and the nameof the person for whom the wish was made. (If the wish was made fora Higginbotham employee, we asked for that person's branch aswell.) Applicants needed only to click the “Grant My Wish” buttonat the bottom of the page for their request to be considered.

On Nov. 27 we anonymously e-mailed each employee a link to the“Three Wishes” Web page and an invitation to make a wish. Allemployees, no matter how long they had worked at Higginbotham, wereeligible to participate.

To encourage response by ensuring all employees felt theirrequests would be considered on their merits only, I didn't wantany of the employees to know who had sent the email or who would bechoosing the winners. Employees couldn't reply to the “ThreeWishes” e-mail, and their requests were forwarded to apassword-protected e-mail queue. Even Christina did not know whowould grant the wishes.

I received responses right away. Some requested flat screen TVsand payments on student loans, but by and large, the wishes werefor the fulfillment of urgent needs.

One of the winning wishes read:

“My daughter recently enlisted in the Navy, so this might be thelast Christmas we get to spend together for who knows how long. Shewants a digital camera for Christmas so that she can e-mailpictures to me on a regular basis to keep me updated on her newlife in the military. I have been pricing digital cameras and adecent one will run approximately $200.”

Two hundred dollars for a daughter in the Navy?! I was going togrant this wish if I had to do so with money from my ownpocket.

Other e-mails pulled at my heartstrings and reminded me why ouremployees deserved to have their wishes granted. A new hire fromour Fort Worth branch, Corrine, asked for financial help with herimpending wedding:

“As you may know, I am getting married on Jan. 22. My fianc? hasbeen out of a job for the last four months and was just recentlyoffered a position. We have paid for most everything for ourwedding. It has been very hard and is getting even more difficultwith Christmas coming up! We had everything set to go to Cozumelfor our honeymoon, but when Hurricane Wilma hit, we had to move itto Colorado. My wish is that we would be able to have an awesomehoneymoon. We still need about $500 to pay for some things andworry we will not have much extra to spend on activities and such.It would be such a blessing if Higginbotham would grant thiswish!”

Unbeknownst to Corrine, her boss had made a request as well:

“Corrine has been an invaluable help to us since joining lastspring. We would not have been able to grow like we have this yearwithout her. She is getting married in January and is strapped forcash and has a lot of wedding expenses. I would like her to be ableto get herself or her fianc? something unexpected for Christmas, soI wish for Higginbotham to give her a Christmas bonus–$250 to $500?Thanks.”

To grant this wish, I would need help. I approached the threemanaging directors of Corrine's department, with her request and aproposal. “I will personally pay $100 towards her honeymoon if youwould each contribute $100.” I collected the $400 and Higginbothamdonated the rest.

Only one of the wishes Higginbotham granted was made by anemployee for herself, but I would hardly call the requestselfish:

“I would like to have a hearing aid. I have an old one (15 yearsold), but I have been told that there are new models out that allowyou to talk on the phone and be in crowds without a lot ofbackground noise. This would help me in my work environment and athome. I am unsure of the expense, but I know it's not covered underour insurance policy, and I would imagine it would be at least$1,000, possibly more. Thank you.”

Higginbotham granted this request with no problem.

After selecting the three winning wishes, I felt we still had ane-mail queue full of worthy solicitations. A couple of employees inmy department, for example, had asked for financial help on thebehalf of ill family members who could not work and consequentlyweren't going to have much of a Christmas. I granted these wishesmyself. I bought each family a $100 Wal-Mart gift card, which, Ireasoned, could provide at least a little assistance with a gamutof needs: groceries, prescriptions, clothes, toys–almost anythingof the families' choosing.

To my surprise, even Christina, who designed the “Three Wishes”Web page, had a wish. She had a medical condition that requiredregular doctor visits. For years, she wrote, her parents had footedthe bill, but recently she had assumed responsibility for the bulkof her debts. She realized she still needed her parents' help, butwanted to relieve their burden in the coming year, and requested$1,300 to $2,600 toward that effort.

Higginbotham has an employee benefits department that sellsmultiple lines of insurance: property, casualty, benefits, personallines–everything. I went to our employee benefits managingdirector, Jim, with Christina's request. Like me, Jim started atHigginbotham 16 years ago, loves working at the agency andsupporting its employees. “We sell employee benefits and by-gosh,we need to take care of our own. I'll take that one and we'll grantit,” he said.

By the evening of Dec. 9, as Higginbotham employees gatheredunder a party tent on the roof of the agency's downtown Fort Worthheadquarters, six wishes had been granted. The office had buzzedall week about the Christmas party and the “Three Wishes,” so whenI took the microphone to announce the winners, everyone huddledclose.

We awarded the digital camera first. For each recipient, I'dprinted a certificate with the “Three Wishes” logo on it. “WishGranted” appeared at the top the certificate, followed by the words“this certificate entitles,” the recipient's name and a descriptionof the wish. The winner of the camera, a member of our Austinoffice, didn't attend the party, but I read her “Three Wishes”certificate to the crowd anyway. “Danielle, we've granted yourwish. I've purchased some American Express gift checks for $200,” Isaid. “Go to any store of your choice and purchase the camera.”

We handed out the other awards in a similar manner. I read thecertificates and presented them to the winners. Instead ofdistributing checks, however, I explained to the employees that Iwould meet with them after the party to make arrangements forgranting their wish. In the case of the “Three Wishes” winner withthe new hearing aid, she had a choice to make. She could take thepayment or she could visit an agency-appointed doctor, one of ourcarriers' clients, who had offered the hearing aid and his medicalservices at cost. She and her husband balled when they heard thenews.

And they weren't the only ones. By the time we'd presented thesix wishes, there wasn't a dry eye in the house–and we weren'tthrough yet. We had one more wish to grant, but to do so we neededhelp from the audience. I read the final wish request out loud:

I wish for an additional two to three weeks vacation (Icurrently have two weeks) so that I may be able to spend time withmy mother while she has surgery for both knee replacements (at thesame time). Due to the extensive damage from an auto accident andher weight, the recovery time will be very lengthy. My dad is inpoor health himself and will be unable to help her much withoutendangering his own health. If I could even just have half of mypay for the time off, it would help tremendously.

I asked if anyone would offer a day or two of their time off,sort of like a vacation savings bank, so that their coworker couldtend to her family. I didn't have to ask twice. Hands went up andtears came down. Another wish granted.

We granted a total of seven wishes out of 58 requests. After theparty, I didn't hear one complaint, only praise, from thereceptionist to the agency president.

“Three Wishes” was so successful that a Fort Worth newspaperfeatured our story. A businesswoman from Arkansas read the pieceand sent me a letter asking how our agency pulled off such a featand if her public relations company could do the same. My advice toher is the same advice I would give to any agency:

1) Let the employees tell you what they want. I'm convinced thiswas the key to “Three Wishes.” There are a variety of ways tomotivate and congratulate employees, and no one way will work foreveryone. When offering a reward, you may have the best intentions;but in the end, only your employees know what they will respond to.Give them the opportunity to tell you what this is.

2) Use the resources at your disposal. Higginbotham is a healthybusiness with approximately $30 million in revenue, but money isn'tour only resource, and it isn't yours either. We have almost 200employees who would support any effort to reward their co-workers.Several of them did just that by offering their vacation time atthe Christmas party. Our employees, like most members of theinsurance industry, are incredibly well connected and work withclients in every profession and with carriers in every market.These people are usually eager to help if approached with alegitimate request. Higginbotham's connections in the health-careindustry, after all, afforded one of our employees a hearingaid.

Yes, in addition to networking, to do “Three Wishes” your agencywill probably have to spend some money as well. But remember, Ididn't put a price on Higginbotham's wish requests; yet to do aprogram like “Three Wishes” our agency only spent $4,000 on makingour employees' dreams come true. How did we do it? By using ourresources.

3) Make “Three Wishes” public. All agencies have employees withunspoken needs. “Three Wishes” is an opportunity for your agency torelieve these silent tensions by taking care of its own. Knowingthe needs of their co-workers united our employees. It also humbledthem. The usual strife that follows the distribution of rewardsdidn't happen after “Three Wishes.” Since I'd read the winningwishes aloud, our employees knew the circumstances that merited theprize, and those who weren't selected understood why their requestswere given a lower priority.

We plan to make “Three Wishes” an annual part of Higginbotham'scalendar. Thanks to the program, instead of dreading giving myemployees rewards, I anticipate the opportunity. Now I can praisemy workers with ease, knowing that the impact of my reward is asgreat as the gratitude that prompted me to give it.

Mary Russell is the managing director of Higginbotham &Associates' personal insurance department. She oversees thebrokerage and servicing of approximately 9,000 customers. Mary isinvolved in the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors and is aCertified Insurance Service Representative as well as a member ofthe Chubb and Fireman's Fund Agency councils. In addition, Mary isone of seven executives on Higginbotam's board of directors. Shejoined the agency in 1990.