Recognition programs can breed envy and cynicism — here's how one organization avoided those pitfalls
The lessons have been learned, said Megan Hall. Recognition programs can easily be derailed, breeding envy, gossip and cynicism. And they can act as a magnet, drawing out of the woodwork standing grievances and personality conflicts.
The way to handle them is listen, learn and be honest about mistakes, said Hall, manager of human resource at MKS Inc. “You have to admit your mistakes openly to regain the trust of your staff.”
Headquartered in Waterloo, Ont., MKS Inc. is a software company providing process management for large, multinational clients. The 250 employees at the company’s five offices in Canada, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom are about evenly split between software development and sales.
Recognition offerings
The company’s recognition programs are designed to “reward behaviour that drives bottom-line results,” said Hall. “It’s not for getting your job done between nine and five. It’s really more focused on the behaviour that goes above and beyond.”
Workers are eligible for quarterly bonuses for outstanding behaviour in the areas of ethics, teamwork, innovation and attitude. On an ad-hoc basis, managers can reach into the pool of bulk movie tickets as a way to thank someone for working on a weekend.
On a yearly basis, the company gives out around 10 Employee Excellence Awards to people who demonstrate “continuous improvement in terms of the positive behaviour we’re trying to reinforce,” said Hall. Winners receive a letter from the CEO and a statue of an “inukshuk,” the rock slabs piled in the shape of a human with outstretched arms that the Inuits use as markers. The company uses the figurine for its award because it’s a “sign of leadership,” said Hall.
‘Why did they win that?’
The Excellence Awards are now open to employee nominations, but it didn’t used to be.
“The first year that we did it, we wanted to have an element of surprise to them. So we asked the executive management team to think of someone they would nominate. There wasn’t a broad input,” said Hall.
And as a result, a number of people came up to Hall afterward and questioned the bases for the awards. They would typically ask, “What did the person do to get it?” and once given an answer, would reply, “Well, I did the same.”
In such instances, Hall would respond by asking if the complainants did all they could to bring their contributions to the attention of their managers. “The manager can’t watch them 24 hours a day, and typically our managers have a fair number of staff to look after. I think the employee should take ownership over their own recognition.”
She has had fewer queries of that kind since opening up the nomination process. And as the years passed, people became familiar with the award and what it takes to merit it.
Barbados trips made stay-at homes cold to recognition
But the worst that Hall had to deal with in terms of “what-about-me?” complaints had to do with an annual getaway program, in which about 30 employees and their spouses were flown to the Barbados for a week-long retreat.
The program was initially open to salespeople; those who went beyond their quotas for the year earned the reward. When the company extended the program to employees outside sales, however, the objective marker as to who qualified and who didn’t, no longer applied.
“It got to be a cliquey thing. People would go for a week and they would come back tanned and happy and chatting about why each other got to go. And the people who were pasty white in the middle of winter would feel pretty crappy about why they didn’t get to go,” said Hall.
“We didn’t do a good enough job of communicating the reasons each individual got to go. So there was a lot of skepticism and assumptions made about the reasons, and we never took the time to validate whether the assumptions were correct or not,” said Hall. It got to the point when even the salespeople on the trip wondered if their achievements were diminished because others got to enjoy the prize for more nebulous reasons.
People’s perception of the program became so poisoned that Hall had no choice but to cancel the whole program for three years. This past year, Hall’s team gingerly reintroduced the getaway program to the sales workforce, in a less ostentatious format. Instead of once a year, prizes would be doled out every quarter. And in lieu of the week-long retreat in Barbados where prizewinners hobnobbed and strengthened their network, the new program gives star employees a weekend getaway on their own schedules.
Hall also learned to pay attention to how she announced the prize and the prizewinners. “It becomes partly about what the employee did and how wonderful that was, but also partly about who the employee is and how his personal life was affected by what he did that quarter,” said Hall.
“So if someone worked his butt off for a quarter and doubled his quota, having a weekend away with his family ties it back to why he did it in the first place, and what motivated the individual to work so hard. And that it’s not all about the almighty dollar.”
The way to handle them is listen, learn and be honest about mistakes, said Hall, manager of human resource at MKS Inc. “You have to admit your mistakes openly to regain the trust of your staff.”
Headquartered in Waterloo, Ont., MKS Inc. is a software company providing process management for large, multinational clients. The 250 employees at the company’s five offices in Canada, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom are about evenly split between software development and sales.
Recognition offerings
The company’s recognition programs are designed to “reward behaviour that drives bottom-line results,” said Hall. “It’s not for getting your job done between nine and five. It’s really more focused on the behaviour that goes above and beyond.”
Workers are eligible for quarterly bonuses for outstanding behaviour in the areas of ethics, teamwork, innovation and attitude. On an ad-hoc basis, managers can reach into the pool of bulk movie tickets as a way to thank someone for working on a weekend.
On a yearly basis, the company gives out around 10 Employee Excellence Awards to people who demonstrate “continuous improvement in terms of the positive behaviour we’re trying to reinforce,” said Hall. Winners receive a letter from the CEO and a statue of an “inukshuk,” the rock slabs piled in the shape of a human with outstretched arms that the Inuits use as markers. The company uses the figurine for its award because it’s a “sign of leadership,” said Hall.
‘Why did they win that?’
The Excellence Awards are now open to employee nominations, but it didn’t used to be.
“The first year that we did it, we wanted to have an element of surprise to them. So we asked the executive management team to think of someone they would nominate. There wasn’t a broad input,” said Hall.
And as a result, a number of people came up to Hall afterward and questioned the bases for the awards. They would typically ask, “What did the person do to get it?” and once given an answer, would reply, “Well, I did the same.”
In such instances, Hall would respond by asking if the complainants did all they could to bring their contributions to the attention of their managers. “The manager can’t watch them 24 hours a day, and typically our managers have a fair number of staff to look after. I think the employee should take ownership over their own recognition.”
She has had fewer queries of that kind since opening up the nomination process. And as the years passed, people became familiar with the award and what it takes to merit it.
Barbados trips made stay-at homes cold to recognition
But the worst that Hall had to deal with in terms of “what-about-me?” complaints had to do with an annual getaway program, in which about 30 employees and their spouses were flown to the Barbados for a week-long retreat.
The program was initially open to salespeople; those who went beyond their quotas for the year earned the reward. When the company extended the program to employees outside sales, however, the objective marker as to who qualified and who didn’t, no longer applied.
“It got to be a cliquey thing. People would go for a week and they would come back tanned and happy and chatting about why each other got to go. And the people who were pasty white in the middle of winter would feel pretty crappy about why they didn’t get to go,” said Hall.
“We didn’t do a good enough job of communicating the reasons each individual got to go. So there was a lot of skepticism and assumptions made about the reasons, and we never took the time to validate whether the assumptions were correct or not,” said Hall. It got to the point when even the salespeople on the trip wondered if their achievements were diminished because others got to enjoy the prize for more nebulous reasons.
People’s perception of the program became so poisoned that Hall had no choice but to cancel the whole program for three years. This past year, Hall’s team gingerly reintroduced the getaway program to the sales workforce, in a less ostentatious format. Instead of once a year, prizes would be doled out every quarter. And in lieu of the week-long retreat in Barbados where prizewinners hobnobbed and strengthened their network, the new program gives star employees a weekend getaway on their own schedules.
Hall also learned to pay attention to how she announced the prize and the prizewinners. “It becomes partly about what the employee did and how wonderful that was, but also partly about who the employee is and how his personal life was affected by what he did that quarter,” said Hall.
“So if someone worked his butt off for a quarter and doubled his quota, having a weekend away with his family ties it back to why he did it in the first place, and what motivated the individual to work so hard. And that it’s not all about the almighty dollar.”
