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, was part of EngagedMetrics' 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 EngagedMetrics, Inc. - All Rights Reserved

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Josh Greenberg is President of EngagedMetrics, Inc.

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