6 KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL RECOGNITION PROGRAMME

In addition to your usual, thoughtful informal methods for recognizing and rewarding employees, are you interested in creating a more formal program?

Formal recognition programs require more structure, communication, criteria, consistency, & fairness than informal methods of employee recognition.

In informal processes, keys to success include:

Provide a lot of rewards and recognition so that employees don’t regard them as scare resources that must be gained at the expense of coworkers,

Provide recognition frequently so that employees are motivated by their work environment, in general,

Make the recognition unpredictable so that it does not become an entitlement to employees, &

Make sure that everyone receives recognition for an action or behavior frequently.

Keep these characteristics of effective informal recognition in mind as you set up your formal program.

But, you need to treat formal recognition processes differently than the recognition you provide through your daily interaction with employees.

These are examples of formal programs you might offer your employees.

A monetary award for the employee who exhibited best practice customer service this week,

A spot award for an employee who is observed facilitating the forward progress of a team,

A sales commission increase on each sale that exceeds last year’s same day sales by x%,

A monetary reward for increases in quality and production, &

A monetary award for attendance.

In a formal recognition program, criteria are important so that employees know exactly what change or improvement you seek.

So are additional factors that make a formal program achieve its purpose.

These are the components that must exist if the program is to achieve its goals and avoid making employees upset and demotivated.

Establish criteria for what constitutes performance that is worthy of an award.

If the actions and behaviors requested are not measurable, verbally describe the desired outcomes in word pictures that are so clearly described that employees can share meaning with you on them.

Where possible make the criteria measurable.

But don’t let your desire to measure cause you to pick a measurement that is not related to the key behavior you want to encourage.

Sometimes what you most want from an employee is not measurable.

All employees who do the same job, or who work for the company, depending on the nature of the award, must be eligible for the recognition.

If a manager is ineligible, all managers must be ineligible, for example.

It is not in the best interests of your overall company goals and culture if one or two departments offer a formal recognition program that leaves others out if they are doing similar work.

On the other hand, if only your production unit needs to improve production and quality, the rest of the company should not participate in the program.

If the goal is to increase the helpfulness and service orientation of a call center, only call center employees should participate.

The method of recognition must inform the employee about exactly what he or she did to merit the recognition.

Your goal is to encourage more of that

behavior from your staff, so sharing the recognition publicly is good practice.

Anyone who performs at the level stated in the criteria should receive the reward.

If you want to limit the recognition to one employee, select a fair method for deciding which qualifying employee will be rewarded.

For example, if 20 employees meet the criteria, place all qualified names in a drawing.

Do not make the mistake of allowing a manager to pick the winner from the people who qualified.

It changes the nature of the recognition program & leaves it opens to charges of teacher’s favorite, a practice that negatively impacts the morale of most employees.

You can’t change the program midway into the covered time period either. For example, you realize that you have 50 employees who have met all of the criteria for this week’s reward.

You need to follow through, as promised, and award all 50, if that was the program. You can introduce the idea of a drawing for the next week’s award.

But, employees who work to exhibit the behavior requested need to know in advance how you will handle the award.

The recognition should occur as close to the event as possible so that the recognition reinforces the behavior the employer wants to encourage.

You need to accompany the formal recognition with an official letter or a handwritten note that reminds the employee why he or she received the award in detail.

Employees cherish these notes forever.

When the money is spent and the treat has been eaten, you have given them something substantive to remind them they were recognized and rewarded.

A formal recognition program has special challenges that your informal methods don’t have.

But, each has their place in a company that wants to provide a work environment in which employees fell recognized, rewarded, and thanked for their efforts and contributions.

Thank You

(S. Iyer, Vijay Tanks, Vadodara)