One concern that many of my clients vocalize when setting up a reward program is “how can I make sure everyone is involved and interested?” This is an important consideration and so I decided to elaborate on this issue in an article for all of our clients.
There are steps that an organization can take to ensure that the reward program is relevant and inspires participants to get involved. Be it an incentive program or a recognition program, all reward programs should be fair for all participants, have goals that will be attainable while providing tangible rewards and communicate the program on an ongoing basis.
Let’s start with the number one component of every relevant and successful reward program-fairness for all. Programs that reward only selected employees will leave the others, who worked just as hard, in the dust. According to an article by Paul Shearstone posted on about.com, the top 20% of performers in organizations are generally already motivated. Primarily targeting this group not only isolates other departments but will increase performance minimally. Instead, by including everyone in a sales incentive program, a company can target all employees and double the results. Furthermore, incentive and recognition programs that target every employee will result in an improvement in ROI.
Participants are motivated when they can see a direct correlation between their efforts and the rewards that they gain because of these efforts. Positive reinforcement can help a company to increase productivity, attendance and many other factors. Several of my clients have numerous goals that they strive to achieve by instituting a reward program. As long as each employee is informed of the goal(s) and each employee is eligible to participate, a positive culture will exist around the relevancy of the reward program.
But I’d like to take a moment and digress…I am not trying to say that companies should stay away from rewards that are given monthly or quarterly to recognize a couple individuals for a particular reason. One client of mine has recently chosen to add a “safety award winner” each month in addition to their quarterly attendance reward program. Their goal is to not only increase their employee attendance rate but also to reward safe behavior and develop stronger safety awareness at their plants. What I suggest is that supplementary programs should be run concurrently with a program that will recognize everyone. Fair rewards programs are perceived by employees as open to all employees and help to keep it relevant and important to all.
Another component to relevant rewards programs is that the goals are both significant and attainable for everyone. Participants in incentive programs need to know what behaviors will apply to their particular job and how many points they can earn. In addition, objectives should be realistic to achieve by most employees. Relevant reward programs will allow employees to earn rewards in both short and long term periods. I prefer to design an incentive program, for example, where employees could choose to redeem points within the first 3 months. This gift may be for the first level of merchandise, but it is important to keep the reward program fresh each employee’s mind. This will help to improve the relevancy of the recognition or incentive program for everyone involved.
Lastly, a main component in maintaining a relevant reward program is communication. Employees will understand recognition and incentive programs better and feel reassured when they are openly discussed both at the inception and throughout the reward program. Email communications for online programs and individually mailed statements for paper-based programs are available in any reward program. These tools in addition to posters, kickoff cards and other creative ideas can help to ensure that each participant is aware of the recognition or incentive program and more importantly, each participant will become involved in the reward program. These forms of communication will ensure that the program stays relevant to employees and fresh in their minds.
So there you have it, three main components to keeping everyone involved and interested in a reward program: equal opportunity for all, establishing goals that are significant and attainable for all and maintaining a good flow of communication to everyone. Keep this information in mind when setting up a recognition or incentive program and it is more likely to be relevant and effective.