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By Shari Lifland
In today's uncertain economy and workplace, many people are working
harder and with fewer resources. Due to widespread downsizing, many
employees have become overburdened by taking on responsibilities
once handled by others. To make things even worse, they're worried
that due to circumstances beyond their control, they may soon find
their own names on the laid-off list.
Now, more than ever, it is essential for managers and organizations
to reward their employees for a job well done. While monetary rewards
remain an important component of any company's system of recognition
and rewards, in today's lean times, managers have to find creative,
low-cost or no-cost ways of making their people feel valued and
rewarded.
According to "How to Recognize & Reward Employees," (AMACOM
1994) by Donna Deeprose, "Pay is not the only thing people work
for. They are looking for a number of other returns to justify the
time, energy, and mental and emotional effort they devote to the
organization. Equity requires that the organization contribute to
meeting employees' needs for esteem, creative challenge, professional
growth, and socialization to the same degree that employees contribute
to meeting the objectives of the organization."
Deeprose recommends that managers who wisely choose to keep their
employees motivated and engaged through a simple, yet critical system
of recognition and rewards, learn to determine which behaviors should
be recognized and how they might be rewarded:
Behaviors Worth Recognizing:
- Learning new skills
- Pitching in to help a co-worker
- Mediating a conflict
- Volunteering for grunge work
- Giving a customer extra attention
- Mentoring a new employee
- Tackling a problem in a fresh way
- Making people laugh in a stressful situation
- Sharing information
- Taking notes in a meetin
- Perfect attendance
- Adapting willingly to change
- Cross-training another employee
Non-Monetary Ways to Reward Employees
In Deeprose's words, "The best thing about non-monetary rewards
is that they are always available. Use them as frequently as you can,
being especially generous – but always sincere – with
thank-you's, warm praise, and exposure to upper management."
Try a grab bag of privileges. Print each privilege on a slip of paper
and have the reward recipient draw or select one:
- A manager will do the employee's job for a
day
- Morning coffee & bagel for a day or a week,
delivered by a manager
- Three-hour lunch break for one day
- Choice of late arrival or early leave-taking
for one day
- A day off
- Casual dress (if the policy doesn't already
exist)
- A work-at-home day
Reward stellar performers with one or more
of these "work adjustments:"
- Increased authority. Empower the employee to
make monetary decisions, take actions without your signature,
or supervise others
- Designate the person as a project leader, with
the opportunity to select other members of the team
- "Pick your project." Allow the person to determine
the next assignment he will work on, within a predefined budget.
- Swap a task. Reward a co-worker with an offer
to trade for a day (or a week) a task of yours she covets for
one of hers she dislikes.
- A day to work solely on a favorite task. Arrange
for coverage of the employee's other tasks so that he doesn't
return to a backlog the next day.
- Recognize a team accomplishment by designating
that team a consultant to other teams. Team members get the honor
and others get the benefit of their skills. You may want to provide
them with some training in internal consulting skills.
- "How Can We Help?" Day. A way for a team to
show esteem for an overburdened, under-recognized worker. Each
person offers to assume one task for the person being recognized.
Formal Recognition:
- Write a letter to the employee's family expressing
appreciation for extra hours the employee has given to the job,
and explaining specifically what he has done and what it means
to the company.
- Arrange for a thank-you call from the president
of the organization.
- Arrange for a visit from the president to acknowledge
the contributions of an individual or a team.
- Put together a thank-you letter signed by everyone
in the work unit, framed if you wish.
- "World's Best…." certificate, elegantly
produced on the computer.
- Ring a bell and make an announcement when someone
accomplishes a personal goal.
It is important to remember that both top and
poor performers need recognition. It's easy for managers to take the
top performers for granted, with the assumption that they don't really
need external motivation. Poor performers need to be recognized for
any small, positive improvements they make, so that good behaviors
are encouraged and reinforced.
To find out more about "How to Recognize & Reward Employees" and
other AMACOM business titles, go to www.amanet.org
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