Having an employee recognition program in your corporate structure will act as a big motivator for your employees. Aside from stroking egos, this program also offers rewards for the employee who has positively performed above and beyond the standards of the company. In this day and age where focus is shifting to home based employment, openly recognizing and rewarding the value of an employee will serve as motivators for your workers.
While a plaque or certificates of recognition are the simplest forms of recognizing an employee, it is by far, the least successful among the forms of motivation being used. More successful motivation programs are those that offer material rewards or added benefits to a worker. Things such as monetary bonuses or tickets to movies, concerts and sporting events are a great way to motivate employees on a periodic basis. Adding a number of days to an employee’s vacation or sick leave is also a good motivator.
In one respect, there are those like Alfie Kohn who say that rewards are likely more punitive than showing praise, as they are insulting to people who have an innate desire to learn, to grow, to work—and who do not need to be tempted or bribed. But in another respect, those like the experts at The Business Research Lab find that productivity goes hand in hand with rewards, incentives, and a decent employee recognition program. As they put it, “…In the employee satisfaction studies we have done, we've never found a firm with low employee recognition scores and high employee satisfaction scores.” In other words, the only outcome of an employee recognition program is a positive one.
Further arguments in the corporate world hold, on one hand, that money is the best motivator and subsequently the best reward; while on the other hand, non-material or money rewards have more intrinsic value and staying power. Regardless of the success of either option, the bottom-line is that an employee recognition program includes numerous imperative components.
The program should be appealing, should be effective as a motivator (should be cash if they need cash or creative rewards if they have enough cash, for example), and in turn should reward and compensate positive behavior and positive results gleaned from that employee action/behavior.
The program should be fair. This caveat seems like a no-brainer, but if an employee recognition program leans in the favor of an employee who gets along better with the boss or rewards better the higher up on the ladder the employees are, the whole system will achieve an opposite (unwanted) effect. Instead of competing, there may be maligning. Instead of cheerful, forward-looking attitudes, there will be resentment and dread.
The program should be consistent. Again, this is an obvious characteristic of the employee recognition program. Clearly, if the system is implemented only part of the time, or begins strong and then is neglected, the attitude toward work will follow suit. Employees will likely become apathetic (as their bosses don’t care anyway) or will do work to the same standards that the program meets. This calls to mind the old "practice what you preach cliché". If the supervisors model good, fair, consistent ethics and action, the employees will respect and take pleasure in their jobs.
As an employee, it is difficult for me to find motivation in performing my daily functions. Knowing that I will be rewarded for performing above others will certainly make me take positive action. A good program will consistently offer different rewards on a periodic basis. |