Use the Tabula Rasa to Build Your Recognition Program

Tabula Rasa, literally translated into “Blank slate” or for our purposes here we feel that you are better off designing your employee recognition program starting with a blank piece of paper. We recently visited my Google Reader to check up on what’s been happening in and around the incentive and recognition award industry. I was absolutely overwhelmed by then hundreds and hundreds of articles I found.


Hiam (2002) suggests, "If you recognize and make a bit of a fuss about the good things employees do, then you will find yourself spending a lot less time worrying about the bad things they do. They will do less of the negative, and they will strive to do more of the positive things you are recognizing. It is far, far easier to lead people to improved performances by thanking them when they do it right than giving them "grief" when they do it wrong". Hiam (2002) further incorporates that employers must "praise and recognize" their "star performers", and "recognize good effort, not just results".

Hiam, Alex. Employee Recognition: Why It Matters. Rewarding employees for a job well-done will do wonders for their performance--and your bottom line, 2002

It seems by the number of articles on the subject that employee recognition, by itself or within the context of the employee engagement discussion is a hot topic again this year, maybe more so. Of course it’s the beginning of the year when tons of year end recognition takes place (person of the year, of the decade, of the millennium, or of the moment) when many HR managers are revisiting their current programs. So you do see a lot of articles. And once again, everyone’s an expert and everyone has the award du jour that is the best of the best, and everyone wants to tell you how to do it.


Most HR folks in charge of incentives or recognition programs know that to keep them effective they should look at it every once in a while to make the perceived necessary changes. Of course if there wasn’t much thought put into it in the first place, you may need to scrap the whole thing and start all over.

That’s where the entire awards industry will come to your rescue, and this process creates a mass confusion of recommendations that may do nothing but muddle up your original thoughts and delay your program launch even further than last year. If you have multiple vendors vying for your budget, you will no doubt see every conceivable type of award and an electronic platform from which to administer them. The end result of all this could easily be throwing your hands up in the air and postponing everything until the spring after the next new culture idea, or management change, or the launch of a new product, or whatever. Or as so many are apt to do, just do what you’ve been doing since the beginning of time and run the same program that was in place when our fathers and grandfathers were in the workforce. Heck that will at least get you another 12 months until you have to think about it again.

May we I offer a suggestion? Just forget the entire hoopla surrounding employee engagement and employee recognition programs and use the KISS principle. Re-communicate your values; tell your managers to thank anyone and everyone who displays actions in support of that culture. Give them the means to provide a tangible award like the Awardofchoice as thanks if the actions warrant it. Once in a while add one of those little chotskies to your communications list and then have fun throughout the year thinking of different things to do to support the message. Start with something as easy as saying Thanks! That alone may get you further than you’ve ever gone before!