subject: Motivating Employees With Awards, Rewards & Incentives [print this page] Awards, Rewards and Incentives are effective tools to motivate employees. However, if you're company is still employing an Employee of the Month (or quarter, or year) program, it's time to step into the 21st century. Back in the day, it seemed that every company used a cookie cutter of reward programs including:
Employee of the Month, Quarter and/or Year: These awards often came with a plaque or certificate, a monetary award and a parking space. Often, supervisors struggled with figuring out who they were going to select for the award. Employees were often at a loss to understand why the recipient was selected, often relying on the bosses petpresumption.
Employee Suggestion Program: The idea here was to reward employees for suggestions to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Often, these programs had the potential for significant monetary awards based on the anticipated savings. Unfortunately, they often lead to employees' infighting the source of an idea. Management spent an inordinate amount of time assessing suggestions and refereeing. The results of infighting often lingered long after awards were paid.
Service Awards: These awards were based on years of service and often came in the form of a Lapel Pins, potentially progressing to a larger award after 20 or 25 years of service. Back in the day, Service Awards usually started with the 5th anniversary of employment which means that many of today's employees would never have earned a service award since an increasing number of employees change jobs more frequently.
As times change, companies need to recognize that what motivated employees back when they worked for the same employer for 40+ years may not be effective motivators today. Unfortunately, the loyalty that existed between employee and companies (both directions, I might add) doesn't exist to the same extent today as it did then. This is evident by companies that never had lay-offs resorting to such measures in the recent recession as well as by employees changing jobs much more readily as they search for a more suitable position, greater opportunities or just greener grass. The stigma of frequent job changes has dissipated to and today's entrants to the workforce seem to care more about job satisfaction and opportunities than about longevity, tenacity and job security. Appreciation and acknowledgement of one's efforts can significantly influence job satisfaction. It is time to relook at Employee Incentive Programs.
Employers need to recognize that incentive programs are very effective tools to motivate employees when used appropriately. Some key attributes of an effective award program in today's society include:
Know What Deserves To Be Rewarded
Instead of arbitrary awards like service awards (which, tradition may preclude eliminating), the focus should be on identifying key attributes of a valued employee and rewarding those attributes. These attributes will vary depending on the role of the employee. For example, interpersonal skills may not be as important for a software developer as they are for a receptionist. In addition, companies need to recognize that they need to value different attributes even within similar roles. While it is great to have a high-profile barn burner on your team, you also need to the low-profile workhorse since not every effort is going to be in the spot light. Companies need to identify the employee attributes they value in the following areas:
Behavior - Yes, that friendly outgoing receptionist who greets every person who walks through the door and manages to do so with a smile and helpful disposition deserves to be rewarded for their behavior. You might say, it's their personality, their not doing anything special. The point is, you value that personality and want to retain it. Let them know you value their work!
Performance - There are some employees who do the work of 2, 3 or even 4 other employees. This is the customer service representative that steps up to the plate and get things done. They're on top of the work, proactive and highly productive. Okay, you might find some typos in the massive volume of work they put out but keep things in perspective. They may not be supporting the prestigious account but they are keeping the difficult client happy and putting out fires along the way. Often, they're the ones overlooked because they're too busy to hype themselves and because they keep things moving so smoothly that their contributions may be underestimated. They may be employees misclassified as workaholics, as if they like working 14 hour days. Reward them now, or pay the price later when you have to hire multiple people to replace them.
Potential - Some employee may not be star performers yet, but you can see that they have that potential. Maybe they just need more experience or to further refine some skills. You are willing and able to invest in their development through mentoring, training or just time. If you are willing to make that investment, be willing to reward them for the progress made along the way or risk losing your investment and their potential.
Results - These is the attributes that management can easily acknowledge as being worthy of rewards. The key is to not only follow through on those awards but to do so in a timely manner. These attributes are associated with employees that solve the big problems, develop new products, land new clients and make the sales. Don't be so caught up in the celebration of their results that you forget to reward them for their role in making it happen and don't let weeks or month pass before you do so.
Of course, employee's contributions don't typically fall into just one of these categories. An engineer who is performance driven may also be a great mentor which is a behavior that warrants acknowledgement. That receptionist who's behavior is essential to the image of your office may also step up to the plate in a pinch and deliver results on a special project.
Know When to Give Rewards
Rewards and awards don't have to be high dollar items but they do need to be timely. If your company has a lengthy approval process to give an employee a reward, then it is time to change your processes. To motivate employees, the acknowledgement of their contributions needs to occur close to the timing of those contributions warranting the award. It will then be clear to both the recipient as well as other employees why the award was given. If it happens two months later, the opportunity will be lost. It is like hearing a hilarious joke during happy hour and then waiting two weeks to roar with laughter in a business meeting. It almost seems inappropriate and looses its effect!
So, when do you acknowledge employees efforts with an award or reward? While it can be obvious when an event occurs that warrants a Results driven award, it may not be so clear for the other categories unless you're looking for it.
Behavior: When you see an employee conduct themselves in an exceptional manner that you wish everyone would mimic, reward it! This is especially true for when an employee handles a difficult situation exceptionally well - like the employee who not only maintains composure dealing with a difficult customer but who can bring that customer around. Do it on the spot, not days later.
Performance: When employees are pushed to work long days or weekends in support of a key deadline or to cope with an exceptional workload, acknowledge their effort with an award as soon as the deadline is met.
Potential: If you want people to build on their potential, reward them when they demonstrate progress by completing a course, mastering a new skill or completing a challenging assignment. This should go beyond a certificate of completion that will end up in a drawer somewhere and should coincide with each course or milestone completed.
Results: While it may seem obvious, reward employees' results within days of their accomplishment not the next month or quarter.
Know What To Give As A Reward
Aside from having a process that avoids a lengthy approval process for incentives, you have to have to awards and rewards readily available to provide timely acknowledgements. What type of timely awards, reward and incentives are appropriate for a time-sensitive, 21st Century Employee Motivation Program? Here are some considerations:
The old stand-bys:
Certificates: As a primary form of acknowledgement, forget it. Look around your employees' offices and cubicles and see just how many of them display all their certificates. Save a tree and the plastic frame.
Plaques: Avoid the standard wood plaque with an engraved metal plate. There are more up-to-date, trendy, and eye-catching plaques that employees will be proud to display. Get something bold, trendy and intriguing.
Awards: Gone are the days of the little metal figure standing on a pedestal or, at least, they've all been stuck in the back of a file drawer somewhere. There are now some really great Artistic Awards that are more like works of art than awards. These are pieces employees will be proud to display.
Money: Money is always welcome by employees but be careful. It attaches a monetary value to the award which is immediately comparable to other awards. Financial awards can become a greater source of contention among employees than an equivalent value incentive type award. Keep the money in the bonus program instead.
Newer options:
Music Download Cards: These days, nearly everyone has an iPod or MP3 player. For a quick award, why not have a stack of music download cards on hand. The number of downloads per card can be specified by the company.
Movie, Event and Venue Tickets: Like the music downloads, movie tickets and sporting event or amusement park admissions can be purchased in bulk and kept on hand. Distribute them in packs of at least 2 or 4 tickets to allow for employees to bring family or friends.
Corporate Logo Items: Employees can be rewarded with various Corporate Gifts featuring the company's logo ranging from imprinted sports bottles and customized travel cups to custom logo computer bags and embroidered jackets. Of course, do not reward them with something you are readily handing out at the receptionist desk.
Gift Baskets: Gift baskets are great options because they can be customized rather quickly to suite the specific circumstances. Gift baskets can include both food and non-food products, including company logo products.
Gift Cards: Like downloads and movie tickets, gift cards can be kept on-hand in varying amounts and can be redeemed for a variety of things from dinner to electronics. Because the monetary value of a gift card is obvious, gift cards present the same potential issues as giving money.
Corporate Awards Program: Corporate Awards Programsprovide employees with a merchandise catalog from which to select an award. Catalogs are available at varying levels corresponding to an undisclosed value thereby avoiding issues associated with the monetization of awards.
Company Points Program: Companies can create a custom reward program providing employees with customized redemption cards or custom coins worth a specific point value redeemable through an on-line Company Store. Employees may redeem points immediately or save and combine for a higher level award. Company's can specify the awards available on their company store. These may include logo products as well as brand name merchandise.
Reward Scratchers: For a fun and unique option, custom scratch off cards could be used as part of a rewards program. Supervisors could reward employee with the scratchers. Cards could include prizes ranging from free music downloads to a large screen television as a grand prize. As an alternative, the Reward Scratcher could be used in conjunction with a Company Point Program.
