“If you talk about change but don’t change the reward and recognition system, nothing changes.“ ~ Paul Allaire
While money is important to employees, what tends to motivate them to perform and to perform at higher levels is the personalised kind of recognition that signifies genuine appreciation for a job well done. The recognition and rewards could be formal and informal. By formal,we mean a predetermined programs. Informal, here, means spontaneous, impromptu, and sometimes recognizing instantly.
The guidelines for effectively rewarding and recognising employees are simple:
- Match the reward to the person
- Match the reward to the achievement
- Be timely and specific (tell what they did well)
- Match rewards to the needs
- Ensure the rewards’ fairness
- Talk about the value of rewards
- Don’t camouflage rewards
- Present rewards in a public forum
- Don’t oversell rewards
Well, here is a thumb rule: for every four informal rewards (e.g. a sincere word of thanks or a pat on the back or good job or keep it up or bravo card or congratulations or well done etc), there should be a more formal acknowledgement (e.g. dayoff from work or hall of fame wall with photos of outstanding employees* etc)and for every four of those, there should be a furthermore formal reward (e.g. a plaque or a formal praise at a company townhall or holiday coupon etc), leading ultimately to such rewards as promotions, pay hikes, special flagship assignments and so on.
The reward programme should reflect the company’s values and business strategy. Employees should participate in the development and execution of the programmes. The programmes can involve cash, kind, or both.
The managers and leaders must be accountable for effectively recognising employees and organisations must avoid using a blanket or “Silver bullet” approach towards motivation. “Jellybean” motivation i.e., giving the same reward to every employee might damage performance as top achievers do not see any special acknowledgement of theirnoteworthy achievement.
Examples of rewards in various forms depending on the achievements:
- Make a photo collage about a successful project that shows the people who worked on it, it’s stages of development, and its completion and presentation
- Create a “yearbook” that contains everybody’s photographs, along with his or her best achievement of the year
- Establish a place to display posters, photos and so on recognising progress towards goals and thanking individual employees for their help
- Ask five people in your department or company to go up to the person sometime during the day and say, “(your name) asked me to thank you for (the task or achievement). Good job!”
- Write five or more post-it notes thanking the person for a job well done and paste it on his or her desk
All these activities cost little or no money. Employees’ morale, excitement, pride, and energy willskyrocket, and they will put in more hours needed to get their jobs done.
- say thanks to your boss, peers, employees when they have performed a task well or have done something to help you
- name a parking space after an employee and put up a sign
- develop a “Behind the Scenes” award specifically for those whose actions are not usually in the limelight
- conduct an outdoor dinner programme for two for doing something special
- arrange for the employee to have lunch with the company president
- allot a parking space for top sales representative of the month
- make a thank you card by hand
- give free subscriptions
- find out the persons hobby and give an appropriate gift
- buy the person something to use in his or her hobby
- buy the person something for his or her child
- cover the person’s desk with balloons
- make a delivery of a fruit basket to the person
- email recognition
- birthday cake,gift, and card
- award pins (silver, bronze, gold etc)
- sales representative of the month / quarter / year award
- sponsor tickets to conferences or events
- articles about staff in company’s newsletters
- invitation of staff to home for a special celebration and recognise them in front of their colleagues and family
- champagne brunch
- gift certificates
- upgrading of company car
- cruise ride
- limousine ride to lunch or dinner
- hot air balloon ride
- dinner with managing director
- computer and printer for home office
- rounds of golf
- self-care like massage, facial or manicure
- personalized sports jacket or suit
- overseas training trip
- training session at location of choice
- chance to represent company at an industry event
- club membership
- flowers or bouquet
- bulletin board notice
- sponsoring contribution to favourite charity
- increased territory of operation
- plum assignment
- leader of the month award
- letters of recognition
- tour on West Coast
- international trip for three days
- rent a sports car for the employee to drive for a week
- rent a billboard and put up a message featuring his or her picture and name
- take the person to a midday movie and lunch
- sponsor for a stay at a bed and breakfast
- weekend trip to an exotic location
- train ride on Konkan railway
- a basketball night for all employees
- an employees’ lunch served by managers
- offer a deserving employee a change in job title
- give the person a better office: larger, in a better location, better furnishings etc
- nominate for any of the company’s formal award programmes
- provide an extra break time
- provide the person two-hour lunch and pay for dessert
- granttwo-hour lunches for one whole week or for one day a week for one month
- give the person at three-day weekend
- give spontaneous time off for specific accomplishments
- give the person a week off and arrange to have his or her work done
- mark attendance if those employees are attending outside seminars or conferences
- give goodies with company logo on them (diary, shirts, T shirts gymbags, coffee mugs, pen and pencil sets, jackets, chairs, umbrellas,thermo jugs, paperweights, desk pen sets, leather goods etc)
- offer unexpected cash bonus
- choose an outstanding employee to receive a small pay hike
- offer a cash bonus with taxes prepaid
- pay for tutoring of an employee’s child
- pay an employee’s parking or traffic ticket
- pay an employee’s mortgage for one month
- pay for a house cleaning service at employee’s home
- pay for one year membership to say, Four Seasons health spa
- arrange for two lobstersto be flown in for an employee +1
- introduce profit sharing bonuses and ESOPs
- create a special award for specific major accomplishments and name it (e.g. spot award, above and beyond award, ABCD – Above and Beyond Call of Duty award etc)
- have employees vote for top manager, supervisor, employee, rookie of year
- hold informal retreats for high performers to foster communication and set goals
- pay membership dues for a professional organisation
- give special assignments to people who have shown initiatives
- allow the employees to serve on a task force with the president of the company
- give all employees one rose for each year of employment on the anniversary of their hiring
- present unexpected awards or appreciation dinners
- engrave on a plaque the names of employees who have reached 5, 10, 15, 20 or more years of service. Acknowledge individual achievements during a company meeting each quarter
- free taxi ride home
- free saturday night movies
- first class air travel
- free airline passes
- friday offs say, in the month of May
- paid week off during Christmas and new year
- free home computer
- leased automobile
- give a department a day off to work in a charity or help clean up a local park
- give employees time off to donate blood
- match donations to employee’s charity of choice
People love to own latest gadgets. Give the person choice among several rewards. Buy the person something from a catalogue of his or her choice. Award coupons redeemable for a gift of his or her choice. (e.g. digital audio tapes / VCR/ video camera / compact disc player / cell phone / laptop / washers and dryers / TVs and radios / house cleaner or unique personalized customized gifts.
Hence, the top ten ways to reward good work are:
- Money
- Recognition
- Time off
- A piece of action
- Favourite work
- Advancement in role
- Freedom
- Personal growth
- Fun at work
- Prizes
