Motivating Employees _ Bringing Out the Best in Your People - Barry Silverstein [21]
Match Recognition to Objectives
Consensus does seem to exist about the need to link recognition programs to organizational priorities. Tying acknowledgement of an individual’s achievement to specific objectives or performance goals is more effective than generalized recognition.
Involving employees in incentive programs matters as well. The most motivated employees are found in organizations that offer rewards in which the employees themselves have expressed interest, via opinion surveys, focus groups, or company votes. Such programs are far better received than those in companies that assume they know best what their employees want.
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CASE FILE
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OPPORTUNITIES YIELD PROFITS
When 29-year-old Tom Tiller was appointed head of GE Appliances’ kitchen-range plant in Louisville, Kentucky, the situation was not a pretty one. No new products had been introduced in years, and plant employment had dropped from a high of 23,000 to 9,000. Tiller was faced with the need to lay off another 400 employees.
To counterbalance the negative effect of this action, he pulled 40 people from all areas of the company and put them on a bus to the Atlanta Kitchen and Bath Show. There, they carefully studied the competition and came back to the plant with a score of new ideas that yielded three new product introductions within 18 months and changed the bottom-line loss to a $10 million profit.
SOURCE: The Leadership Engine by Noel M. Tichy (HarperCollins, 1997).
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Finally, it is crucial to recognize not only the big things, but also the little ones. Although exceptional performance deserves praise, only top performers are likely to receive it. In fact, an organization’s success is the product of the modest but consistent achievements of the entire staff. These individuals merit recognition as well, if not on the same scale.
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“The purpose of a compensation system should not be to get the right behaviors from the wrong people, but to get the right people on the bus in the first place, and to keep them there.”
—Jim Collins
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BARRIERS TO REWARDS SYSTEMS
Despite the fact that employee productivity reflects motivation, which rises and falls with recognition, organizations tend to throw up barriers that make it difficult to institutionalize the best practices of the company’s most motivational managers. Each particular type of barrier is wrong in a different way.
Management by Exception
In high-stress environments, it is all too common for managers to claim that they only have time to deal with crises. During a crunch, they reserve their attention for employees who are having a problem or underperforming, at which time they swoop in and take decisive, corrective action. The basic attitude is, “If you haven’t heard from me, it’s because you’re doing well.”
Unfortunately, by making problem situations their priority, they completely ignore employees who are doing good work. It is almost impossible to build a rewards system in an organization whose managers do not take the time to recognize strong efforts.
“Throw Money at It”
In an organization with a money-solves-everything mentality, managers are encouraged to resolve every motivational or performance issue with money. Money, however, although a powerful motivator, cannot resolve fundamental and deep-seated problems—when, say, employees are always being asked to work overtime without compensation, or they clash with managers who are insensitive. In such situations, no added compensation can make up for the absence of job satisfaction.
“It’s Not for Everyone”
Instituting a rewards system for a few star performers, or for a single department, is usually not wise. Your success rests on the shoulders of everyone in your company—not just the star performers. It is better to have a rewards system that is broad and all-inclusive and that uses levels of rewards to recognize levels of achievement. Similarly, a rewards system