Employee Rewards, Recognition, Engagement
Organizations need to invest time and effort to come up with innovative names for employee recognition programs as one of the first steps towards developing an effective employee recognition program. A unique, innovative, and relevant program name is likely to generate more interest and engagement in the program from the employees.
Hence it is our recommendation that awards especially those in the category of spot awards should be given based on the immediate achievements and not the past track record of the employees. Awards should be treated as awards – it absolutely okay to reward underperformers for their achievements if they meet the criteria!
These are just a few of the top reasons why employee rewards and recognition programs fail. Leaders and HR must avoid these pitfalls to keep the programs alive and kicking, to keep employees motivate and productive at the workplace. And honestly, this is hardly rocket science.
Employee rewards in modern-day organizations have been evolving over the years – it has become more of an art than a science.Organizations have tried everything from trophies, company branded merchandize, durables, electronics, holiday packages, gift vouchers, and even cash. What is the best form of employee rewards?
Whether the winner takes all phenomenon is fair or not is the question to be asked. It seems only logical that the highest performing employees would end up getting the maximum recognition and rewards. The caveat to this is that it might demotivate other employees who are possibly average performers or borderline cases.
Organizations that have a deep understanding of how employee recognition impacts business can develop relevant programs that are aligned to their business objectives, organizational culture and workforce profile and get the desired results.
These creative and impactful ideas for startups to recognize their employees should help them energize and drive them to even higher levels of performance despite the challenging, unstructured and often chaotic work environments.
All said and done, recognition plays an integral part in employee engagement no matter how it is executed. At the end of the day, employees feeling happy is what matters most whether is a pat on the back, a trophy, a shopping voucher or a trip to the Bahamas!
In fact, our view is that employee rewards and recognition can play a pivotal role in initiating a change in the organization’s culture. It is really basic human nature to gravitate towards behaviours than giving them the maximum benefits. Organizations should include behaviour or value-based recognition in their employee programs in addition to the general outcome based recognition – that’s our recommendation.
Selecting an employee rewards system is a high-involvement decision just like buying a car. Hence, organizations need to proceed step-by-step with the decision-making by considering all possible factors to ensure that they select a system that best fits their requirements and budgets.