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The Rewards of Recognizing Top Performers
We all work for money, from senior management
to junior team members. It pays the bills and purchases the necessities
of life. However surveys consistently show that we also work for many
intangible rewards that include being recognized for doing a good job.
There are sound commercial reasons why owners should put in the effort
to reward their top performers. Team members will make a greater
contribution to the business if they feel that their contributions are
being recognized. You can create a happier and more productive workplace
where everyone gets more out of their job than just a paycheck.
Recognition can take place anytime. It can be at an annual performance
review or a weekly team meeting. It can be given as praise, or perhaps
an additional financial reward, or even a promotion to higher levels of
responsibility. Care needs to be taken however to make sure the
recognition is done in the most effective way.
It’s important that this recognition comes from management personally
and is seen as something special rather than just a function of time
like an award for so many years of service. It’s not that
years-of-service awards are a bad idea, but the two forms of recognition
should be kept separate.
Having too many awards for relatively unimportant reasons can create a
culture of expectation where everybody expects his or her award to come
up in the near future. The performance being recognized needs to be seen
as outstanding by all members of the team and the reward as something
that’s been earned.
If a reward event such as giving team members doughnuts and coffee
become a regular occurrence it loses its ‘special’ nature and becomes
just an expected consequence of showing up for work.
Recognition should be timely and given as soon as possible after the
outstanding performance is noticed. The sooner recognition is given the
more the recipient and other team members will get the message about how
to perform and the benefits it can deliver.
Recognition can be delivered by management in many ways. One of the most
effective is personal recognition – an informal talk with the person in
which you detail the performance being rewarded and express your
appreciation. If you’re straightforward and make the other person aware
that you’re sincerely grateful for their contribution you’ll encourage
them to higher levels of performance.
Public recognition can also be useful, but is often best used after the
personal recognition has been given. This can be as simple as gathering
the team together and making a presentation of a small gift with a short
speech, or as involved as having an annual team night out where everyone
knows that the ‘Outstanding Team Member’ will be recognized.
Sadly, most people feel they work pretty hard and make a meaningful
contribution to the enterprise so noses can often be put out of joint by
singling one person out as ‘outstanding’.
Many people don’t want to be the center of attention when it comes to
relationships with their colleagues. Be aware that sometimes recognition
is best left on a one-to-one level to avoid embarrassing the person you
hope to impress.
A survey conducted by the National Association for Employee Recognition
in October 2002 found that 84% of the 391 organizations surveyed had an
active employee recognition program. This means they have some kind of
system in place to appraise performance and reward those who are
performing well.
Interestingly, businesses with recognition and reward programs feel that
they achieve better performance from all their people and not just those
that have been rewarded. Recognition becomes part of the firm’s culture
and even those who haven’t yet received any rewards know that if they do
become outstanding performers their work will be recognized.
To construct an effective recognition program requires a bit of care.
Most firms already have a performance management process that outlines
job duties and performance standards for all positions. The recognition
and reward program should be linked to the existing process for
consistency.
It would be a mistake to think only about money – both as a factor for
recognition and as a basis for rewards. To be fair and work for all team
members, many of whom would be in a position where their financial
contribution might be difficult to ascertain, standards of performance
need to encompass all positions in the firm.
Start developing the program by talking with your team. Explain the
reasoning behind the program and why you feel it would be good for the
team members and the business. Get their feedback and let them tell you
what they think would be the best ways to recognize and reward
outstanding performance.
Talk it over with other employers and see what they’re doing, especially
those in the accounting or consulting areas. It could save you
‘reinventing the wheel’ for your own business if you can adopt another
firm’s program that’s already working.
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