ou know about awards and incentives programs that recognize productivity,
longevity, and safety. But the HR professionals who responded to the Workforce 2002 HR Trends Survey reported some innovative areas for recognition, including:
- Ability to manage or champion change
- Innovation
- Systems improvements
- Retention of clients
- Morale-building, "being able to recognize employees when they do
something right"
- Market diversification
- Technological advances
- Aggressive personal development
- Displaying company's core values
- Adding value to the company by building its knowledge
Nevertheless, some classic recognition categories don’t go out of style:
"We feel like companies are getting away from recognizing years of service,
and we want our employees to know how much we appreciate their days of service!"
wrote one respondent.
The need to reward is recognized widely by HR professionals, and so is the
need to find ways to recognize those achievements via something other than
raises. Nearly 90 percent of the HR professionals responding to the survey say
they are looking for ways -- other than salary -- to recognize performance.
"Awards and incentive programs are more important than ever before," said
one respondent. They don’t have to be expensive to be effective, the
respondent added.
When asked about the effectiveness of using awards to recognize performance
when cash is limited, 84 percent of the respondents to the Workforce 2002 HR
Trends Survey said awards were "effective or highly effective."
For 78 percent of the respondents, the number and frequency of their non-cash
awards had increased or stayed the same in the past two years.
"We just embarked on a brand new enterprise-wide recognition program last
year, with great results," explained one respondent.
Awards Recognize Bottom-line Results
Respondents said they use non-cash awards to recognize performance in
achieving these bottom-line results:
- Meeting Goals, 78 percent
- Productivity, 77
- Team Building, 53
- Contribution to Profit, 53
- Cost Reduction, 48
- Sales, 35
- Attendance, 31
- Safety, 29
- Other, 12
There’s "greater scrutiny of the alignment of the incentive payment with
shareholder value," added another respondent.
Uncertain Times Put More Emphasis on Rewards
The economic times put more emphasis on awards. With fewer raises -- or no
raises at all -- there is "more consideration to non-cash achievement and/or
longevity awards," said a respondent to the Workforce trends survey.
"Due to the various uncertainties related to the economy, the war, and
global concerns our employees are somewhat unsettled and morale is not as great,"
explained another respondent. "We look at this situation as an opportunity to
address these issues with an appropriate incentive and awards program."
Awards also can be used to build loyalty, another respondent said.
It’s "more important now than ever to recognize employee achievements and
contributions when some other employers are downsizing and cutting back.
[Awards] tell my people that we are a great employer!" said a survey
respondent.
"Because of the lower amount of cash available for bonus," explained one
respondent, "we instituted an award recognition program. The peer pressure
created positive turnaround in our productivity."
"People are getting creative," added another respondent. "Small tokens
of appreciation like paying for dinner at a nice restaurant for employee and
spouse, t-shirts, other small tokens."
Some companies are seeking ways to spread the recognition around:
This year there are "lower dollar amounts to a large population where as
before it was larger dollar amounts to a small number of people," said one
survey respondent. Another concurred that this year there were "awards of
smaller value, distributed over a wider number of employees."
Finally, words of praise carry tremendous value, even when they’re used to
deliver a small token of thanks.
"Recognition from key managers and supervisors creates a better bond for
the organization as a whole," explained one survey respondent.
Workforce Online, April 2002 -- Register Now!
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