Tales from the Corporate Frontlines:Choosing an Effective Employee Recognition Program
This article relates to the Recognition competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It tells the story of how one company found the right recognition program by paying attention to employee feedback. This competency also explores what type of behavior is appreciated and rewarded within your organization. Studies show that employees who receive regular recognition and praise are more likely to increase their individual productivity levels, increase engagement with their colleagues, and stay longer at the organization. Evaluating this competency can be especially useful if your organization is experiencing low productivity levels or ineffective teamwork. This short story, Choosing an Effective Employee Recognition Program, is part of AlphaMeasure's compilation, Tales from the Corporate Frontlines. It tells the story of how one company found the right recognition program by paying attention to employee feedback. Anonymous Submission I am currently working as a human resources associate at a medium sized manufacturing firm. I was recently assigned a new project - to set up an employee recognition program and procure the prizes to be awarded. Top-level management recently conducted an employee satisfaction survey and decided that a new recognition program (there had been one years ago, but it faded due to lack of interest) would spur lagging productivity and boost morale. When given the task of program development, I asked questions - how do we determine which employees get recognition? What kinds of prizes do we want to award? You'll receive all the details in a memo, I was told. The next management meeting yielded a memo instructing me to implement a program that included the following prizes ---a reserved parking spot next to the building for one month, a framed certificate of excellence, and a "top performance" ribbon, to be awarded at each monthly employee meeting, on the basis of supervisor recommendation. After the first monthly meeting, I tried to gather employee feedback. The response to the first round of awards at the meeting was lukewarm to downright chilly, and I was curious as to why. I checked the company suggestion box later that day, and quickly discovered the reason for the cool reception. It was filled with slips of paper, their messages basically summed up by the following: " We feel underpaid and unappreciated. A parking space, plaque or ribbon just doesn't cut it. We need more money." I put aside a few of the more articulate messages and passed them on to management. Although the company was not in a position to alleviate the employees perceived wage inadequacy (which, by the way, was a valid complaint when comparing our wages to those of similar companies) it was clear that the recognition program needed to be changed. The new version offered---two paid days off, a $200 gift card for a local chain store, and some smaller cash bonuses. Response to the new program was great. Our employees understood that large scale increases in salary were just not possible at the time, and the effort to provide some monetary incentive for excellent performance made a huge difference in both productivity and morale. © 2005 AlphaMeasure, Inc. - All Rights Reserved This article may be reprinted, provided it is published in its entirety, includes the author bio information, and all links remain active. Measure. Report. Improve your organization with AlphaMeasure employee satisfaction surveys. Josh Greenberg is President of AlphaMeasure, Inc. AlphaMeasure provides organizations of all sizes a powerful web based method for measuring employee satisfaction, determining employee engagement, and increasing employee retention. Launch your employee satisfaction surveys with AlphaMeasure.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Get Down With OCP: Evaluating DBA Job Applicants in an OCP World
Not long ago, weeding through DBA applicants with a tech interview was a
straightforward process. You'd ask candidates 200 or so technical questions. If they
got 100 correct answers, you knew they'd been around the block; 150 or more and
you knew you were on to superior talent. But once the Oracle Certification Program
(OCP) became popular in the late 90s, the traditional tech interview lost its
effectiveness. These days, candidates can answer 180 questions correctly and you
still won't know whether they're talking from experience or simply regurgitating
what they memorized at OCP a few weeks earlier. Although it has become
increasingly difficult to determine whether you've found a seasoned, highly qualified
DBA or a newly minted OCP Graduate, there are ways.
A Rare Leadership Skill: Dealing With People Who Want Out By Offering Crowns For Convoy
As a leader, you'll inevitably be faced with people wanting to leave your team or organization. Dealing with the challenge is critical for your leadership success. Your response will have ramifications far beyond your immediate circumstances. One of the best ways to respond comes from Shakespeare's Henry V.
Innovation Management ? Flexibility
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
Preparation: Your Companys Best Defense in Case of Catastrophe
You've hung out your shingle and are ready for business. But what if something unforeseen were to occur? Is your business truly ready for all that being in business entails? It only takes one catastrophic event to adversely impact a once thriving business. Recent world events: 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, the tsunami in Asia, along with other natural disasters act as a constant reminder that being well-prepared is often our best line of defense.
Uncovering the Secrets to Effective Performance Management
In many ways there are no secrets to implementing effective performance management. Performance Management is a process and a process which if implemented effectively should ensure that both employees and managers remain both productive and motivated.
Knowledge Management - Capturing And Structuring Knowledge Into Reusable Assets
Many organizations have an approach for identifying and recording lessons learned, perhaps as part of a post-project review or similar process. Unfortunately, lessons learned reports have a tendency to end up on a shelf gathering dust, or lost in the un-chartered corner of a fileserver somewhere. Let's get real. How many people will really trawl diligently through a number of lessons learned documents in order to glean some key point? The reality is, if you can motivate employees to initiate any kind of "learning before doing" activity, then you?re doing pretty well.
Satisfied Employees, A Powerful Marketing Strategy
Even in today's still uncertain economic times, there are companies who are doing extraordinarily well. Why is it that some companies are thriving while others are barely making it? You can always blame the economy, but is that the only reason? The answer could be as simple as how respected and appreciated your staff feels.
Making Your Workers Your Partners
There is an inherent conflict between owners and managers of companies. The former want, for instance, to minimize costs - the latter to draw huge salaries as long as they are in power (who knows what will transpire tomorrow). For companies traded in the stock exchanges, the former wish to maximize the value of the stocks (short term), the latter might have a longer term view of things. In the USA, shareholders place emphasis on the appreciation of the stocks (the result of quarterly and annual profit figures). This leaves little room for technological innovation, investment in research and development and in infrastructure. The theory is that workers who are also own stocks will avoid these cancerous conflicts which, at times, bring companies to ruin and, in many cases, dilapidate them financially and technologically. Whether reality leaves up to theory, is an altogether different question to which we will dedicate a separate article.
Planning Your Recruiting Efforts Can Help You Find Great Employees
Today, companies have an ever-expanding list of options available to them when it comes to sourcing new employees, from advertising in newspapers and trade journals to powerful, cost-effective recruiting options available through the Internet. Unfortunately, the growth in the number of recruiting options available has made the competition for top candidates even more fierce.
A Sense of Humor in the Workplace ... Is it Me? Or, was that not funny?
When I was first initiated into Corporate America, I had a sense of humor that went unmatched by any mortal soul. I was quick-witted, smart, sharp, and knew every gag and joke available to humanity. Most of it, I learned in college. But, college never really did teach the fact that having a sense of humor in the workplace is different than 'jocularity.' After a few brushes with career-chaos, I realized that the definition of 'corporate humor' deals with how one handles oneself and not how one can elicit laughter.
The 10 Realities of Change
I've seen several articles that begin with lines like "the only constant today is change." I assert that change that is constant can't really be called change. It's simply a new reality. It's time that we accept that things simply don't stay the same and speed to change is the new reality of business. Like any other new reality it requires new responses.
Integrity... Should It Matter?
In our fast paced work culture, manned by technology savvy generation in a globally competitive environment, quality and productivity became the battle cry of corporations to stay in business. Though this is not necessarily bad, an equally important ingredient to succeed is seemingly taking the back seat.
Instantly Uncover Your Corporate Culture
Best Definition of "Corporate Culture"
Goodwill is an Intangible Asset
'Goodwill' is regarded as an intangible asset in a business. Goodwill carries a value over and above the tangible assets of a business, and representing all benefits derived from the distinctive location, trade and brand names, credit rating, reputation, cusotmers and patronage of the business. When a business is sold, a charge is usually applied for the goodwill as one of the assets.
The Supervisors 14 Essential Truths For Communicating With Direct Reports
One amazing, but sadly true, fact of today's advances in communication tools is that we really don't communicate much better than in the past.
Think Before You Talk
What you say to other people can make or break you and it can happen without you even knowing about it. That old saying "loose lips sink ships" is oh so true in business. If you like to gossip as most people do, learn to listen rather than participate. Oh, you're saying to yourself that yes maybe you do talk about the job or your co workers, but never to anyone who's involved outside your work.
Do You Hear That?
I read a report in the Toronto Star stated that 70% of workplace errors happen because of communication breakdown and that many of them directly relate to a lack of listening skills.
Innovation Management ? Diversity Can Make All The Difference
Companies are welcoming a diverse range of employees (The Sunday Times, April 10 2005). Doh!
Customer Focus - Just 5 SimpleThings You Need to Think About
You can boil down the difference between successful businesses and the rest in how they work with their customers, in just five areas.So, what does this mean?
What They WantSelling what your customers really want is just critical.
Being on good enough terms with your customers to research, (hey maybe just by
chatting with them - radical idea, huh?), helps you find out how you can best
serve their needs.
Price is RightBy balancing the kind of pricing you want to offer
with exceptional service levels, there is a fascinating calculation to be made.
Prices rock-bottom with inadequate attention to item 5 are not likely to bring profitable
consumers rushing to your door. Providers have an ongoing dance between price
and service - be aware of it. It is not possible to sustain your business with
lowest prices and poor service.
When They Want ItIn the internet world, availability of your
goods and services is measured critically far more than ever before. You may
not need to be 24/7, but you certainly need to be aware of it. More traditional
customers are also becoming more demanding. So businesses need to be especially
sensitive to the hours they trade, whether they sell goods or services, by stores
and/or phone.
Easy To BuyWith the advent of the internet, making it easy to
purchase is vital. Why not make purchases from the comfort of your home study
or workplace office? So having your people who are available, exactly when your
customer wants them, to make payment for goods and services relly easy is a
serious point worth considering. Even in shops, the sensitivity of simply having
staff focused on delivering the very best of attention is critical. Every day
there may be threats to different shopping channels, so the adage that you 'only
have one chance to make a first impression' is becoming ever more important.
Trusted Follow UpBy ensuring that you have all your ducks in a
row so far, sustainably building whatever business you are in, is vitally dependent
on how you handle ongoing customer service. Indeed if you are only focusing on
a one-time purchase, then, frankly, you are not going to have much of a future.
Repeat business is very inexpensive for you, so an investment of post-purchase
excellence is very worthwhile.By focusing on these five elements,
teasing out the consequences with your management teams, you will have a great
chance of making business progress. If you choose not to take the time to
analyse what you truly need to do, there will be a jeopardy for you in the not
to distant future.
Managing Creativity
Creativity Starts Here!
|
