Improving Employee Performance through Recognition

Do Recognition Programs Motivate the Majority?

Do employee recognition programs really drive the performance of the majority of your employees? Or do they merely recognize and reward those employees who work above and beyond the norm? If you want improved performance should you structure a simple recognition program that allows peers and front line managers to say thanks with a periodic reward? Or should you design a program that has real objectives, communications, measurement and feedback mechanisms with an appropriate award system to drive the performance?

What Incentive Award Company to Use?

In 2003, the International Society for Performance Improvement conducted the most comprehensive study ever on the effectiveness of the incentive industry. It researched the usefulness of incentives to employers in determining the relationship of incentives, motivation and performance in the workplace. They concluded that when an incentive program is properly implemented, you can improve performance in individuals by 27% on average and team performance by as much as 45%!

The results of the above study did not surprise some of us in the incentive industry. The full service performance improvement incentive companies have seen these outcomes for years. In fact they have seen results far greater than these. If you could search through the archives of successful incentive companies you would find literally hundreds of unbelievably successful programs. Unfortunately for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which are proprietary information and confidentiality, these findings rarely reach the eyes of people in their own companies, much less the industry in general. And that’s a shame.

The incentive industry is loaded with companies that say they can design and implement performance improvement systems. Unfortunately many do not have the expertise to do it. Recognizing performance is a whole lot easier than designing and imlementing a program to drive improved performance. You wouldn't schedule an appointment for a heart ailment with a foot doctor, would you? Then don't ask an award company that specializes in giving grandfather clocks to someone who has been on the job for thirty years to change an employees behavior through a well designed system that includes all the pieces mentioned above.

You Own the Tools

The tools to change employee behavior and improve performance are already in your hands. It is often not much more complex than telling your employees what you want them to do, teaching them how to do it, measuring their performance, telling them how they did and then positively reinforcing them for their results. If you want to look to the incentive industry for the expertise to help you construct and implement a program that will drive results, not just recognize the performance of a few, seek out the professionals who have done this for years.

If done correctly your incentive award program will drive the results you want.

Be Well, Be Happy, Hug Someone!