Some Do’s and Don’ts on Recognition

Don’t expect a rewards and recognition strategy to succeed if the day-to-day management style is punitive.
“If management pushes, pushes, and pushes and can’t be happy or satisfied with anything, and then all of sudden when you reach your goal they are happy, it’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” says psychologist Aubrey Daniels, president of Aubrey Daniels International. “You’re not ready to be happy because you are not over the beating that you just took.”

Determine what you are trying to accomplish.
“Is it improvement in quality?” Daniels asks. “Is it an improvement in productivity? Be precise.”

Understand that cash is not king.
“Cash gets confused with compensation,” says John Putzier, author of "Get Weird! 101 Innovative Way to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work," “Suddenly it becomes ‘Gee, I got that last month, but I’m not getting it this month.’ It becomes a negative.”

Broaden what you consider to be rewards and recognition.
“If you thought of it as the trophy and the plaque and the certificate, it is,” says Bob Nelson, president of Nelson Motivation Inc. “But that’s a small piece of it, and that’s a shrinking piece of it. The bigger piece of it is the intangible, the interpersonal.”

Ask your employees what types of recognition they prefer.
”What you think employees might value can be very different from what employees really value,” says Elaine Weinstein, senior vice president of human resources and chief diversity officer of KeySpan.

Remember that timing is important.
“Timeliness is so essential in recognition,” says Lynne Eskil, a recognition and service award adviser for the Boeing Co. “If it’s delayed, people feel it’s not at all meaningful.”

Set up programs so everyone who merits recognition gets it.
“They say it’s an honour to be nominated, but those inverted-pyramid types of reward and recognition are in many ways counterproductive to morale,” says Matt Weinstein, founding president of Playfair Inc.

Get managers involved.
“Employees want the recognition coming from the people who are impressed with them,” says management consultant Cindy Ventrice, founder of Potential Unlimited. “Having HR impressed with you doesn’t have quite the same impact than if it’s the CEO or the general manager.”

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