The three P’s of reward and recognition
Are reward and recognition programs important in a business environment? Studies have shown that rewards and recognition motivate people to do better work because they know they are valued and increasingly realize how important they are to the business. Motivated people offer great potential for success in business projects, teamwork, and job performance. A rewards and recognition program helps to better motivate people when it offers everyone in the organization the opportunity to be recognized and the people involved are openly recognized as valuable to the business.
Most business managers realize that there are two types of rewards, monetary and non-monetary. Monetary includes hard dollar incentives in the form of bonuses or raises that individuals or groups may receive for satisfactory or better job performance. Non-monetary rewards are what many managers think of in connection with promotions, high-profile job assignments, or some other form of soft recognition. Whether the reward is monetary or not soft or hard, it must be tailored to the individual or group by determining what would be personally and proportionally best, as well as providing pleasure to the recipients.
Rewards must be:
- Staff determining whether they prefer private or public recognition and reaching out to the people involved to see what they prefer, whether it be a prize, gift, free time, or money.
- proportional balancing the size or type of reward with individual or group contribution and achievement in relation to organizational goals.
- Pleasant it means making things fun and entertaining through the event where rewards are given or by selecting a creative reward.
When analyzing recognition, managers must consider the internal and external benefits to the recipients. Internal benefits include the feeling of pride and satisfaction that a person or team can gain from a job well done and their personal motivators to continue doing well. External benefits would be related to what the individual or team can see, touch or use. These types of recognition are used to reinforce a particular behavior in recipients. They can also provide a short-term benefit to the manager by increasing the level of motivation or good behavior of the recipients of recognition. Both internal and external recognition must be given promptly with accurate and principled acknowledgment of why it is given.
The recognition must be:
- Accurate giving individual or group detailed information about the relevance of what was done, as well as recognizing when, where, why and how it was done.
- early showing sincere and honest appreciation of an individual or group that supports organizational beliefs and values through their commitment and achievements.
- Immediate giving timely acknowledgment as soon as possible after the event has occurred or the action has been completed.
Rewards and recognition are used to motivate people to do better work. Motivated people are important to the success of a company through its projects and teams. A rewards and recognition program that helps motivate people should be an important and highly valued part of doing business.
