Recognize. Respond. Give. Receive.

How are employee happiness, motivation, loyalty and productivity influenced by recognition and reward?

An observation by Dilbert:

Recognize your employee’s needs. Reward them on their achievement. Give out Incentives.

Respond to them by accommodating their needs as much as possible.

Receive their loyalty and increased motivation and productivity as a reward.

Recognize. Respond. Give. Receive.

Employee Turnover and Incentives

Employee turnover can be expensive, especially for a small business with few employees. Some of the industries highly effected by high turnover rate in Malaysia are like the call centre industry, fast food industry, and customer service industry  Every time an employee leaves, there may be expenses for advertising the position and training the new employee. To decrease the employee turnover in any company, it's crucial to keep the employees happy where they are.

Here are some suggestion to the Human Resource Managers on what to do to reduce the turnover rate. The key point here is to keep the employees happy. 

• Offer them a fair working condition and above average pay. You can actually do a 'market research' on the pay and benefits your competitor are giving. Raise employees pay when necessary.
• Be a down-to-earth Boss. Get to know your employees. Understand their concern and be attentive to their complaints. Be accessible anytime an employee has a problem for you to solve. Accept suggestions even from low level employees.
• Think on incentives that will decrease the turnover. Offer unique incentives for specific level of productivity. Give incentives regularly when warranted apart from bonuses Be creative with the type of incentives that will excite your employees and you can be assured every employee will be interested in staying for the next round of incentives. 
• Allow promotional opportunities. Listen to employees who want to cross train for other skills or to be considered for promotions. Remember that employees will be more willing to stay if they have a future with the company.
• Start with quality employees with a good work history. Look for employees who have few or nonexistent gaps in their resumes. Hire employees with a history of company loyalty and job retention.
• Stay in communication with your employees. Stay ahead of any problems that might be brewing among the employees and try to keep the workplace pleasant. Make each employee feel like an important and irreplaceable part of the company.

Happy employees are productive employees

Remember, being unique from your competitor does not only appliy to the products, marketing gimmick or promotions. It also applies on keeping employees loyal and happy working with you.

What gets Rewarded, Gets Repeated!

This very blunt, yet humorous video targeted to all the Bosses, Employers and Business Owners out there! The actor conveyed a brilliant message across to all the ignorant employers who are so focused on catching their employees doing the wrong thing instead of praising them for the right things they did. This scenario is actually very common in Malaysia. Employers cultivated the idea - 'Don't Do Mistake', and this actually creates a fear in the mind of the employees and the focus on not doing any mistake. And guess what will the result be? More Mistakes! More Errors! And Less Confidence to handle the work assigned to them!

Instead, when employers focus on the idea of praising or even a friendly tap on the shoulder can make a lot of difference to the employees. Rewarding employees is always seen as a tonic to improve performance of the employees. Their confidence gets a boost, they are willing to try new things and eventually all this will contribute in the growth of the company! More importantly the cultivate a healthy working life!

Happy Employees = Better Business

I came across this humorous video about the efforts Google puts in to make their employees happy. I was wondering, how many of us wish to be an employee of Google. But then, there is surely a way to bring out the 'Google in the company you are working in  - only if the Bosses see the potential of having happy employees.

I particularly like what Alexa said -Honey attracts more bees than vinegar.. Treat us well and we work better for you!

Enjoy the video.

Understanding the Pros and Cons of Employee Incentive Programmes

Sometime back, I met a friend of mine, who is also a HR Manager. It was really an interesting conversation as he shared about the challenges he faced when he decided to give incentives to his employees. 

He mentioned that problems arise among his employees when the Employee Of The Month  was chosen and the management gives him an incentive for his achievement. The co-workers  express their dissatisfaction as they fell like there is 'favoring factor' involved when selecting the Employee Of The Month ( some how, the same person was nominated for 3 months in a row).  They felt that since the workload is been shared equally, the incentive should be given to all to make it fair.

So, the management decided to introduce Group Incentives instead. Yet, another problem crop up. Team members feel that not all the members should be entitled for the incentives as there are some 'lazy' ones in the team who does not contribute to the team's success.

This is just one scenario out of thousands of challenges faced by the HR Department. Discussing about the pros and cons about employee recognition problems draws the question whether these system are outdated. 

Since the modern day job descriptions outline in details the employers's expectation and employees are briefed about the disciplinary action for workers failing to perform, is it really necessary for employee reward programs? Is there really a need if it only causes dissatisfaction and ill feelings? The short answer is- YES!

Recognizing efforts and superior accomplishments serve to motivate the employees. Employee recognition programmes provide the formal 'pat on the back' for job well done.

Lets look into the pros and cons of employee recognition progammes.

The Pros of Employee Incentives Programmes would be :

• Employee recognition programmes reward employees who achieve the business goals. This opens door to rewards for hard work, creativity, loss prevention and initiative by employees at all levels.
• Increases employee loyalty and retains good employees.
• Promotes good relationship between the management and the employees.
• Motivate employees to perform to their potential, for the higher and better their performance, the higher their rewards. It helps in establishing a competitive performance oriented work culture and an environment of continuous learning, improvement, and innovation where employees take responsibility for the outcome of their work

The cons of Employee Incentives Programmes :

• Management selection of employees leads to allegations (or actual cases) of favoritism.
• Limiting recognition of an employee to only one occurrence per calendar year supress the continued willingness of the employees to excel.
• Unrealistic incentives will de-motivate employees- for example an employee who just invented a way to prevent some computer virus which can save thousands of ringgit,should get more than merely a computer-generated certificate and a mug with the corporate logo.

However it is, at the end of the day, the overall success or failure of a recognition programmes is determined by the way it is structured and administered.

The discussion over the pros and cons of employees recognition programs should never been an issue at all as its clearly the way to move forward to have a strong corporate culture and happy employees.

The Carrot Culture : Power of Employee Recognation

When we talk about employee benefits, the one  most important thing that comes to my mind is the Carrot Culture, which is getting  popular among the employers and seen as an effective ways of employee recognition method.

For those who are new to Carrot Culture, let me explain to you what is it all about.

A Carrot Culture is an environment where employees are valued and appreciated for their contributions - creating passion and performance. Every major workplace survey conducted in the last twenty years has shown the need for praise and recognition in driving business results. In fact, long-term success is almost impossible without effective recognition.

A lot of organization is opting to the methods of recognition of Carrot Culture and sure enough it is doing miracles to them and definitely increasing the performance of their staff.

Now, what are the ways to implement recognition programs in the most effective way?

These are the areas to consider to have a win-win environment with your staffs. 

Positive - managers sometimes use a recognition presentation as a time to talk about how far someone has come, or how they could have done even better. This is not the time or place. Comments must be positive and upbeat.

Immediate - too often by the time an employee is recognized for a job well done, weeks if not months have passed. Obviously the closer the recognition to the actual performance the better.

Close - recognition is best presented in the employee's work environment among peers. Invite the person's team members and work friends to attend.

Specific - a great presentation is a time to point out specific behaviors that reinforces key values.

Shared - typically, recognition comes from the top down; however, recognition that means the most often comes from peers who best understand the circumstances surrounding the employee's performance. Peers, as well as managers and supervisors, should be able to comment during the presentation.


Put these suggestions into action and see the wonders that the culture will do. Good luck! 

Why Are Employee Benefits So Important?

Joe Dunlop is a business consultant and an adjunct professor at Steven Henegars College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Understand why employee benefits are so important and how it encourage employees to stay on the job even when there are higher-paying job opportunities.

Why Does Everyone Hate HR? What Went Wrong?

 Every leader knows that people are a firm’s most precious asset. Every leader should know that investing in people is more efficient than investing in technology. And seven percent of CEOs say they don’t have the talent they need to execute their strategy effectively.

So why is HR always the least important voice at the table? And why does everyone hate them?

In most companies, HR lacks organizational clout because it doesn’t have its own P&L. No revenue = no influence. That some firms have outsourced their HR function goes to show just how low it can fall within the corporate power structure. Others claim that HR doesn’t exist to do anything — it’s just there to prevent lawsuits. Focused on compliance, it has neither the mandate nor the will to go beyond mild-mannered policing, which just annoys everyone. And the poor naïve employees who think that HR is “on their side” soon discover the opposite: that HR exists to make bosses’ lives easier when they want to get rid of someone.

No wonder HR professionals are frustrated. They know how important they could be. Often, intellectually and professionally, they are light years ahead of the departments they service. They can see clearly many of the issues that bedevil their organizations and would like the authority to direct change. But they almost never get it. Instead, they’re forced to witness countless executions, insuring that terminations are conducted appropriately and desks cleared without a fuss. It’s enough to make anyone hard and defeatist.

There is another way. The firms that think most seriously about this problem are professional services firms, because they rarely have any assets except people. They’re innovative because they have to be. And their most recent innovation could change the HR game. It’s a rule, within some firms, that no one can be considered for senior partner without serving at least one year in HR. If you want to lead your firm, you have to have first-hand experience overseeing the assets. You may know a lot about money, but you get nowhere if you don’t know a lot about people, too.

A year is not enough to turn a number cruncher into a people person, but it is long enough for them to absorb the economic importance of developing talent. Institutionally, the fact that any serious player sooner or later must work in HR means that all aspirants have to treat the function with at least a semblance of respect. And when people issues are discussed at board level, it means that even executives with massive P&L responsibilities have some concept of human beings. It’s a cheap, effective game changer.

Are you really helping your employees to bring out their full potential?

Source : Margaret Heffernan,BNET

The Motivation Show

Companies in the US are finding out that offering incentives to increase sales does wonders. Companies spend almost 30 Billion Dollars every year on incentives with the hope to give their employees a reason to go the extra mile and bring in the big sale! 

Is this an idea of Employee of The Week?

Does it really pays being Wally? What is stopping your employees from doing their level best?

STICKY REWARDS OR SLIPPERY REWARDS?

Why do noncash rewards motivate better than cash?

In today's business environment, two types of rewards exist - "sticky" and "slippery." Sticky rewards are memorable or, in other words, they "stick" in the recipient's mind and reinforce the relationship between the reward earner and the reward provider.

Slippery rewards, on the other hand, have a fleeting impact and often "slip" the recipient's mind. Cash - unfortunately for those companies that attempt to motivate employees and distribution partners using this commodity - is the most "slippery" type of reward because it's typically confused with other compensation and therefore forgotten.

That said, let us recap additional reasons why "sticky" noncash rewards motivate individuals to higher levels of performance than "slippery" cash rewards ...

Noncash rewards have significant "trophy value"
Non Cash Rewards	Cash Rewards
Provide tangible symbol of achievement	Intangible … disappear into wallet
Provide something physical to show off	Difficult to show off to friends, etc.
Provide lasting reminder of achievement	Recipients often can't recall what they purchased with cash reward
Are socially acceptable to "brag" about	Boorish to brag about
Reinforce association with sponsor company	Minimal association with sponsor company company due to minimal trophy value of reward

Noncash rewards fulfill recipient needs
Non Cash Rewards	Cash Rewards
Appeal to recipient's need for psychic income (social acceptance, increased self- esteem, self-realization)	Used to satisfy basic needs (car payments, groceries, etc.)
Provide guilt-free enjoyment of reward	Participant feels guilty for not spending award on necessities

Noncash rewards provide opportunities for effective promotions
Non Cash Rewards	Cash Rewards
Provide strong emotional appeal to participants' personal wants and interests	No "warm fuzzies" attached to cold currency
Deliver a higher perceived value; actual dollar value becomes secondary	A dollar is a dollar; participant attaches no greater emotional or aspirational value to cash

Oprah : Thank you for their hard work and dedication!

What type of incentive will excite your employees and gain their loyalty?

Oprah had a surprise for the 276 members of her studio audience when she opened the latest season of her daytime talk show  — she gave them all new cars. 

Human Resource - On Compensation and Incentives

Tips to make your employee incentive programs work

Employee incentive programs can do wonders for any company, but they have to be used right in order to be effective. Some companies have tried to use these incentive programs but they have found them to be ineffective, mainly because they did not take enough time to create a good program that worked well with their employees. When you start a good incentive program for your employees, you want to make sure that you relate all of it with the company and how it works. So, here are a few tips that can help you make sure that your employee incentive programs really work well.

Tip #1 - Have Goals for Employees

First of all, if you want to make sure that your employee incentive programs really work, it is important that you come up with goals for your employees. Make sure that you look at your mission statement and goals for your company. Remember, rewarding your employees is not just about making more profit. Make sure that you let your employees know that it is more than just about making money, but by making sure that they are cooperative and work well with the company as well. Make these goals for your employees and then you can reward them with incentives when they do well. Don't make the mistake of just rewarding for productivity and profit.

Tip #2 - Make Incentives Exciting and Worth Working For

Of course if you are trying to make sure that your employee incentive program is going to work, it is important that you make sure that you have incentives that are exciting and worth working hard for as well. Make sure that you make the incentives sound like they are very exciting, just as you would when you are advertising a product. While the incentives alone are very powerful, making them sound tantalizing can do wonders for making your program work as it should. Of course the incentives should be attainable as well. If employees don't feel that they can work to actually get an incentive, they may give up and you won't get the results that you really want.

Tip #3 - Provide Employees with Options

Providing your employees with options is a great idea as well when you are trying to make sure that you come up with employee incentive programs that work. Make sure that the program is flexible and come up with some different options. Remember, everyone is different and some employees may have different priorities and ideas than others do, so make sure that your program has a variety of different options.

Tip #4 - Turn Winners into Program Models

Once you get some winners using your employee incentive programs, take those winners and turn them into program models. Be sure to make it a public event when you give out the incentive and take pictures and really celebrate. You want the other employees to see how thrilled the winners are so they will be motivated to start working harder to achieve the incentives as well.