I was watching an episode of one of my favorite sitcoms the other day and it involved an interesting bit about employee recognition awards. A group of secretaries were given baskets filled with various toiletries as a bonus for closing an important real estate transaction. All of the overtime and effort that was put into closing a multi-million dollar allowed the management of the company to purchase new cars, second homes and other big ticket items while the lower level employees received shampoos, conditioners, soaps and lotions which were obtained for free at a hotel the firm had recently purchased. Although this disparate situation makes for funny television, it does not necessarily make for a rewarding recognition program.
Employee award programs are most successful when an organization takes the time to gather feedback from the people who will receive the rewards. There are at least four different questions a company should ask employees or for a larger organization a sample of employees to determine how to reward and recognize staff members.
1) What types of recognition awards would you like to receive?
Offering employees a good selection of tangible employee awards such as name brand, lifestyle merchandise, is often the best option for pleasing diverse groups of employees. Sometimes employees will tell my contacts they are looking for particular types of rewards to be included in the reward program. For example, if a client has a wellness incentive program, then including health and wellness rewards such as exercise equipment as part of the reward selection is a common request.
2) How would you like to select your reward?
Depending on employee demographics, staff members may want to select a reward online, from a print catalog or even fax in an order. A company can maximize its redemption rates by finding out if there are any preferences for award redemption.
3) How should your reward and recognition be presented to you?
Sometimes employees love to shine in the lime light while other times public recognition can be an employee’s worst nightmare. If possible, managers should determine how each employee would like to be rewarded and recognized. Sometimes companies include this question in the new hire’s initial paperwork to prevent any reward and recognition mishaps.
4) Who would you like to contact and how would you like to customer service support?
Many of my clients allow employees to contact our company directly for questions about items and customer service support. Others prefer to have all customer service inquiries go directly through the local Human Resources department. 95% of all customer service inquiries I receive are by email, regardless if the inquiry comes from the end recipient or a client.
At the end of the episode I spoke about at the beginning of this post, only one employee came forward to her boss and informed the manager of how disappointed she was with her recognition award. In reality, most employees are not going to confront management about a disheartening recognition program. After all, who wants to look a gift horse in the mouth? By gathering employee feedback at the start of an employee recognition or incentive program and throughout the award program, employee expectations will be met and the program will be more successful as a result. When employers do not gather feedback and instead rely on one person to make all of the reward program decisions, a recognition program can fail to engage employees and could have a negative impact on retention.
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