Dig Deeper: Building a Culture of Employee Appreciation
Rewarding Employees on a Budget: Pitfalls to Avoid
There are both legal and moral minefields to try to avoid when starting an employee rewards program. You need to really think this through, understand your motivation, and communicate to managers how to distribute rewards so that every employee has an equal chance.
"It is important to be consistent in how the rewards and recognition are handled," Cooper says. "Be sure you train your managers to not give the award to the same person time after time. Develop guidelines that outline how often rewards or perks are given out, and the value of them. Be sure that the system does not just turn into a popularity contest." Here are some of the do's and don'ts when starting an employee rewards program:
- Don't let it become a popularity contest. If co-workers are able to nominate each other, you need to take steps to make sure that the same clique of friends isn't just always nominating each other. You want to take steps to make sure any recognition is actually being given based on merit. Some possible steps might be to make nomination forms include a description of the meritorious behavior and make co-workers sign the forms so that managers at least know who is nominating whom
- Don't give the perception of playing favorites. If the nominations are coming from management, be careful to spread the joy around. "There is a danger of giving the perception that the same group of people is being rewarded all the time or that only favorites are rewarded and that there is no real chance for anybody else to be considered," Ventrice says. If an employee is prone to think they are being treated differently based on some factor other than work performance, this may feed that insecurity and suspicion.
- Do communicate the criteria. When advertising the program to employees make sure you spell out very clearly what the rewards are based on, what criteria is used to choose winners, and how everyone in the company is eligible.
- Do your homework when building the program. Put together a recognition team made up of managers and supervisors in different roles throughout the company. Get the team to come up with ideas, survey employees, and monitor how the program is working. Make sure managers are trained in how to administer the awards so the program works to improve overall performance.
- Do start small with gift cards or a program to reward a specific behavior or goal. The safest types of programs that don't get a company into trouble are programs that start small, such as distributing gift cards worth $5 or $10 attached to them as spot awards. You may want to focus on one goal initially, such as boosting service, and reinforce when rewarding employees that they helped the business meet this goal.
Employee rewards don't only have to single out the individual either, Ventrice says. You can set team goals for certain groups or the entire company and when you achieve those have some type of celebration. "I know some manufacturing companies that set goals and called everyone out to the front lawn and made the announcement that they had met the goal," Ventrice says. "They had a big pizza delivery and everyone celebrated. It doesn't have to be anything big or anything that they know is coming. It's about putting fun and excitement into meeting the types of challenges we need to meet to be successful in the current economy."
Dig Deeper: Employee Recognition and Reward Programs
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Additional Resources
How to Reward Employees –– Without Raises or Promotions
HR.com is a business that helps spread HR best practices.
How to Give Effective Praise
Nelson Motivation is the website for Bob Nelson, a columnist and author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees.
The Carrot Principle
Blog by Adrian Gostick, co-author of A Carrot a Day: A Daily Dose of Recognition for Your Employees with Chester Elton .
25 Ways to Reward Employees without Spending a Dime
The consummate list by HRworld.com.
