One of the ways companies try (and fail) to raise employee morale is by something called an Employee Recognition Program. The idea behind this simple premise is to single out hard-working stiffs and give them some sort of prize, which in turn encourages them to work harder for the same rate of menial pay. Seems pretty simple, right? A low cost, low risk, high reward solution that makes employees feel like their contributions are "valued" and that their work is "meaningful."
So how does a company screw this up? One way is to make the prize worthless. For example, any reward that results in a certificate of appreciation will result in reduced employee morale. A plaque is nicer, but ultimately still has the same result. But why?
The reason that 99.9 % of us go to work is because we need to make money. That's why employers have to pay us - why else would we be there? There is the .1% that is the exception to the rule. These are usually retirees who have nothing else to do, or people sentenced to community service. So our ultimate goal when we go to work is to make as much money as possible, and hopefully make enough so we can retire early and never have to work again.
I don't know about you, but if I win an award, I'd rather have a cash prize over anything else. If a company wants to show me that they value my work, then show me the money. That's why I'm there. When a company gives you an award, and all you get is a piece of paper and a pat on the back, what kind of reward is that? I'm not saying they should double my salary for doing something right, but an extra few bucks in my paycheck would be a nice gesture.
I know of one company that takes the step of killing employee morale one step further. They have a recognition program set up where co-workers can nominate each other for cashless awards, sort of a peer-to-peer award (this is a paper award, as discussed above). This allows co-workers to show each other that they are appreciated. At the end of each quarter, the company takes all the awards and randomly selects one of the nominees, who in turn wins a prize. What is the prize, you ask? A $25 gift certificate... to the corporate store. That's right, as a way of rewarding its employees, the company let's them spend up to 25 bucks on hats or t-shirts or a sweatshirt with the company logo on it (and if you pick something over $25, like I imagine a sweatshirt would be, you get to pay for the rest of it with your own money! What an incentive program!). And to top it off, this company recently changed its name, so you get to buy corporate merchandise with the OLD LOGO ON IT, because the new logo isn't ready yet! And this is somehow supposed to be a reward? You're telling me there's even one person in that company that would rather have that prize than have an extra 25 bucks in their next paycheck?
Bottom line, if a company wants to show its employees that the employees are valued, the most effective way to do that is to toss them an extra few bucks. Certificates, plaques, corporate gift cards, all those other things may seem nice, but in reality, we would rather you take the money you spend on those things and just share a little more money with us.
As you can see, even when companies get the right idea on how to increase employee morale, it's so poorly executed that it can actually have the opposite effect. Does your company do something like this? Share your examples of Employee Recognition Programs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I work in management for a major corporation where you are expected to meet productivity requirements, bring new ideas to the table, satisfy customers, and save time and money. Our benefits this year have been greatly reduced due to recent mergers, and our workload has more than doubled. Our hours of operation have been increasing, including weekends, and we are staffing up to go 24/7. Our morale is down, yet we are expected to give more. I recently attended a meeting in which I suggested a way to save valuable time, increase productivity, satisfy the customer, reduce errors and oversights, and save money on supplies and expenses. This would impact workload at our 17 locations in the US. It was approved and implemented the same week. However, the "new policy" had no mention of my name or group, or award associated with it. It would be nice to simply get an e-mail of thanks, and a memo in my folder for raise time!
Employee recognition is usually given to a select few. Just imagine if management was to step out of their box and allow an impartial jury to review and recognize those who are the real foundation of the company. The employee who actually discovers issues and takes the time to correct them. Recognition is human nature. Most of us want the bonus, a trip, a raise and the promotion. It is about financial reward. If it was only about doing a great job and being recognized, we would volunteer.
Post a Comment