When The Award Goes To Someone Else

RESEARCH SHOWS HOW NON-WINNERS REACT AND WORK WITH OTHERS GOING FORWARD

e are all familiar with the televised award shows. After the winners are announced the cameras pan to the losers - most of whom put on a game face.

The nominees who are left emptyhanded on awards night face the emotional letdown of almost winning. It’s the sting felt by anyone who almost had the win – think France’s World Cup team, any Olympic silver medalist, and the countless stellar employees nominated for their organization’s awards program who didn’t get the prize. Those almost-winners are very valuable to organizations and, with the right encouragement, can continue to contribute and collaborate to become winners next time, says Hui Liao, Smith Dean’s Professor in Leadership and Management at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

WIn new research in the Academy of Management Journal, Liao and her coauthors, including Smith PhD candidate Olivia Zhishuang Guan, look at how the experience of almost winning impacts the performance of nominees, specifically their collaboration with others.

Right after the awards are announced, nominees who didn’t win lost motivation to respond to and collaborate with the winners, the researchers find. This was especially true when the non-winning nominees worked in the same department or in other proximity to the winners. However, in the long run, the nonwinning nominees collaborated with other employees better. They got over the loss, picked up, and became even more responsive collaborators than they were before the awards were announced, says Liao.

She says previous research has looked at the effectiveness of company-wide employee awards programs, which are very prevalent and often include a monetary reward and public recognition.

A Different Experience

Companies set up these programs not only to recognize those who have done well, but also to reinforce the organization’s culture, goals and critical behaviors of all employees,” Liao says. “They want the award-winners to be role models for the rest of the organization.”

This is the first research to look specifically at the non-winner nominees as a separate group from others who didn’t receive the award. Having almost won, they have a much different psychological experience than other non-recipients, says Liao. “Lumping them together could prevent us from really understanding how these two groups of people will react to employee awards differently.”

And though nominees might be a small number of employees, they are very important to an organization.

“Being nominated itself is an indicator of a high level of capability, skill, and performance relative to those who did not get nominated in the first place,” Liao says. “That’s why understanding how an awards program is motivating – or demotivating – for non-winners nominees is very important.”

Liao and her co-authors specifically looked at employees’ collaboration responsiveness, or how promptly or not an individual responds to a request for information or a meeting from colleagues. Collaboration in teams, across units and even with other organizations is considered a critical component for success for many businesses.

The researchers analyzed data from an online collaboration tool from a large organization in the two months before a big company-wide award was announced and in the six months after. They focused on the collaborative responsiveness of non-winner nominees to other people in general, and to winners.

No Interest In Partnerships

“We found that compared to non-nominees, the non-winner nominees have lower collaboration responsiveness to winners following the awards announcement,” Liao says. “When they have a higher structural proximity to the winners – for example, they were on the same team or worked in the same office – then the negative impact on their responsiveness was even bigger.” no overall impact to non-winner nominees’ overall collaboration responsiveness to others in general, says Liao.

However, in the long run, the researchers found that non-winner nominees have higher collaboration responsiveness to others in general.

To figure out why, Liao and her co-authors surveyed the employees immediately after the awards announcement to capture their emotions and motivations.

But six months later, the positive effects prevail, she says, because negative emotions subside and people realize that if they didn’t win this time, they have potential to win next time..

“The non-winner got over it and became more rational,” Liao says. “That’s why we found in the long run, losing increased nominees’ collaboration responsiveness.”

She says there are things managers can do to encourage the best outcomes.

NEAR-WINNER ADVICE

“It is very important for managers to be mindful in promoting collaboration between non-winner nominees and the winners because that’s where the tension is the strongest, especially immediately following the award program. They should recognize that this shock to the non-winner nominees

Like many near-winners, the nominees who missed out on awards felt frustration, disappointment, anger and resentment –all the emotions that go along with the “itcould-have-been-me” thinking.

“This is why immediately following the award announcement, we see the non-winner nominees decrease their collaboration responsiveness to the winners,” Liao says.

A Great Motivator

But, she says, the research also shows how losing can also be a great motivator for nonwinner nominees. “We found from Study 2 that right after the announcement, they experienced simultaneously higher negative emotions and higher motivation. “On one hand they feel frustrated, angry and disappointed that they didn’t win, but on the other hand, that becomes motivation to do better to win next time.”

In general, because the negative emotional impact is canceled out by the positive motivation impact, in the short run, there is will generate strong negative emotions and that could impact their collaboration with others, especially the winners.

“Managers can help non-winner nominees curb such negative emotions through showing appreciation for their contribution and providing support such as encouragement, feedback, and resources to help them pursue higher performance and better chances of winning in the future.”

For the near-winning employees, Liao has this advice: “Though you may feel terrible right after losing out to others, you will get over those feelings. Believe in yourself and believe that good efforts will prevail. Have your eyes on the prize, keep trying and you may have a good shot at it.”

And the advice goes beyond award programs, she says.

“This can be applied to not only the situation where you got nominated but didn’t win the award, but to any situation where you really consider yourself very, very close to ‘getting it,’ but lost out.”

Ncontracts Announces Launch Of Risk Performance Management

Ncontracts, a provider of integrated compliance and risk management solutions to the financial industry, is helping to define a new category and view of risk management with the release of its Risk Performance Management (RPM) Suite.

The RPM Suite combines four of Ncontracts’ industry-leading solutions for financial institutions – Nrisk, Ncomply, Nvendor and Nfindings – into one powerhouse suite that expands on the enterprise risk management (ERM) framework by leaning into improvements in efficiency and speed to improve resiliency, responsiveness and growth.

Ncontracts’ latest RPM Suite provides superior ERM solutions designed to help clients navigate uncertainty by transforming data points into timely, actionable insights that inform strategic decision making. Leveraging knowledge as a service (KaaS), these customizable solutions combine software with business intelligence and services to ease the burden of risk and compliance management with comprehensive data for quicker decision-making, greater efficiency, and the foundation for the risk management culture examiners expect.

BMO Offering E-Closing For Refis

BMO Financial Group announced that it now offers fully digital residential mortgage refinancing for loans secured by property in U.S. states and counties that accept recording of e-signatures and digital notaries.

The bank said this will simplify and expedite the homebuying process for customers in those locations.

BMO said it will leverage digital mortgage technology provider Blend’s mortgage eNotes capabilities and its Close product to allow customers to complete their mortgage refinancing from anywhere, at any time, online.

BMO said it is the first bank to offer electronic close on mortgage refinancing in the U.S. with Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, which involves signing mortgage documents digitally. Many e-closings still require at least one face-toface meeting, the company said. BMO customers in certain jurisdictions, however, can review and sign documents to finalize a loan all online.

Revolution Mortgage Partners With Silverwork Solutions To Provide Software Robots Suite

Silverwork Solutions, a developer of digital workforce BOTs to significantly reduce production costs for lenders nationwide, announced a partnership with Revolution Mortgage. The Silverwork suite of software robots will be used across production operations at Revolution Mortgage to enable a low-cost and best-in-class loan manufacturing process.

Silverwork’s Digital Workforce Solution combines deep industry knowledge and cutting-edge automation to reduce operating costs. This delivers operational cost reductions through the execution of advanced intelligent automation and machine learning.

The BOTs take on human mortgage personas that are intuitive and immediately fit in with current staff, reducing the time to deploy. The Digital Workforce BOTs can quickly be trained and deployed adding digital labor to the mix enabling new ways to adjust and balance human capital and provide a new level of efficiency. With these advanced BOTs, lenders are seeing improvements in labor reduction, loan quality, compliance, tolerance cures, and processing speed.

UWM Enhances Its Safe Check Program

United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) has enhanced its Safe Check program in another effort to streamline the loan approval process.

Safe Check, launched in October 2022, provides loan officers more certainty and confidence to pull valid pricing, UWM said.

With the enhancement, Safe Check now allows lending officers to run a single or tri-merge soft credit check to pre-qualify borrowers. The new tri-merge option, available for a flat rate of $23, provides the FICO score accuracy of a hard credit report, while protecting both the lending officer and the borrower from credit trigger lead solicitations, UWM said.

Lending officers can also combine Safe Check with UWM’s BOLT underwriting technology, allowing them to obtain an initial approval in minutes and gather documents before ordering a full credit report for when the loan is ready to be submitted to underwriting, the company said.

UWM also recently announced a credit solution that allows independent mortgage brokers to order hard credit reports for UWM loans for a flat fee of $37.35, combating the recent significant increases in the cost of running credit reports.

Total Expert Powers 36% Of Total Mortgage Loans

Total Expert, the only CRM and customer engagement platform purpose-built for modern financial institutions, recapped a year marked by customer resilience during the most turbulent market in recent years. This announcement marks strong growth for Total Expert as the company debuted its Customer Intelligence solution, innovative platform integrations, and key executive leadership appointments.

In 2022, the company’s platform powered more than 2.1 million mortgage loans, representing 36% of total U.S. home loan volume, and continued to demonstrate its role in supporting banks, mortgage lenders, and credit unions.

In 2022, Total Expert introduced its Customer Intelligence solution, providing banks and mortgage lenders the behavior and intent data they need to connect with customers at key moments of opportunity and unlock growth. Helping customers shift beyond traditional marketing tactics, more than 30M customer contacts are being monitored by Customer Intelligence, watching for moments of opportunity, such as when a prospect or customer lists their home or has their credit pulled. These insights enrich Total Expert’s comprehensive profile of every customer and enable lenders to take the right action at the right time based on each customer’s unique financial milestones.

Guaranteed Rate Bolsters Extensive Spanish-Language Mortgage Program

TransPerfect, a provider of language and technology solutions for global business, announced a major contract renewal for Guaranteed Rate. Building off Guaranteed Rate’s September 2022 launch leveraging TransPerfect’s GlobalLink platform, this collaboration will support Guaranteed Rate’s multi-channel communications campaign for Spanish-speaking consumers in the U.S.

Guaranteed Rate specializes in providing easy, transferable, and affordable mortgage loans through a system that aims to simplify home buying. Increasing accessibility through an exceptional Spanish-language process is a top priority for Guaranteed Rate. With Spanishspeaking agents as well as Spanish educational materials, transaction documentation, corporate websites, and customer support services, Guaranteed Rate is one of the first mortgage organizations to provide an end-to-end experience in Spanish.

Guaranteed Rate chose TransPerfect and its GlobalLink technology to support the creation and launch of its customer-facing content, including marketing and supporting materials, with minimal assistance needed from IT and project management teams. The simplicity of the launch and maintenance has resulted in significant cost and time savings for Guaranteed Rate.

Scott L. Luna Partner

sluna@ravdocs.com

469-730-4607

Scott Luna’s practice is focused on real estate law with an emphasis on mortgage document preparation and land title issues. Scott managed a successful multistate highvolume title and document preparation business for over 20 years before joining RAV and is recognized throughout the real estate legal community for his expertise. As a past President of the Oklahoma Land Title Association, Scott’s ongoing involvement in the industry adds to his wealth of title-related knowledge. Scott received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 1991 after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University. Scott is currently licensed in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kentucky.

Mitchel H. Kider Managing Partner

kider@thewbkfirm.com

202-557-3511

Mitch Kider is the Chairman and Managing Partner of Weiner Brodsky Kider PC, a national law firm specializing in the representation of financial institutions, residential homebuilders, and real estate settlement service providers. Mitch represents banks, mortgage companies, homebuilders, credit card issuers, and other financial service companies in a broad range of litigation and regulatory and compliance matters. He defends clients in investigations and enforcement actions before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice, Department of Veterans Affairs, Federal Trade Commission, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, and various state and local regulatory authorities and Attorneys General offices. In addition, Mitch acts as outside general counsel to smaller companies and special regulatory and litigation counsel to Fortune 500 companies.