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Good Job!: Recognition Training
July 28, 2008
Recognizing excellent performance is the best way to encourage more of the same in the future. But like anything else, not everyone knows how to do it effectively, and that's where training comes in.
By Holly Dolezalek
Everyone has a job to do, so why is recognition necessary? For some, this is a serious question. Not everyone believes it's necessary to recognize a job well done. "Some managers don't know how to recognize good performance, and they don't feel comfortable doing it," says Roy Saunderson, president and founder of the Recognition Management Institute, a company with headquarters in New York and Montreal that consults on how to recognize employees. "They're also concerned that recognition actually will discourage good performance, that people will want more money or not work as hard after they're told they did a good job."
But when it's done right, recognition can have the opposite effect. Although organizations are famous for saying their people are their greatest asset, their actions often show they still view employees as a cost. "Recognition stems from the point of view that people are an investment-worthy core asset that achieves a high rate of return," says Judith Bardwick, a management consultant based in La Jolla, CA, and author of "One Foot Out the Door" (AMACOM, 2008). "Organizations can follow through on that point of view by responding to employees and their contributions, and recognizing them in a personal and spontaneous way."
Proper recognition can have several desirable effects. When their performance is recognized and rewarded, employees often are motivated to continue performing well. It also helps them to feel pride in being a part of their organization. Gallup polls consistently have shown that employee engagement and recognition of good performance are linked.
"Employees who are recognized and have a feeling of being valued and appreciated tend to be more engaged than those who aren't," says Rodger Stotz, vice president and managing consultant for Maritz, a sales and marketing service company in St. Louis, MO. That engagement can translate into less turnover from one of the biggest sources of turnover. "The No. 1 reason people give for leaving is 'My boss was a jerk,'" says Gord Green, executive vice president of recognition and rewards strategy for Rideau Recognition Solutions in New York and Montreal. "Building relationships, and that human element of recognition and tangible reward, are key to giving people a reason to stick around."
The Essential Difference
Although the terms often are used interchangeably, recognition, rewards, and incentives are very different. Recognition and incentives overlap at reward, but recognizing past performance is different from offering an incentive for future performance. A reward, obviously, is something pleasant employees receive when they do something good. An incentive is a reward that is guaranteed before the fact, while recognition acknowledges what happened after the fact. Incentives are predictable, and employees know what they can do to earn them. Recognition, on the other hand, is not a given; it can happen at any time.
"The value of recognition is psychic rather than financial, although the reward may be financial," says Stotz. "But an incentive, which is a straightforward 'if you do this, you will get that' proposition, tends to have more material value than psychic."
The relationship implied by each is also different. "Recognition is more relationship-based than incentives," Saunderson says. "It's less tangible and monetary and more personal. People often get locked into thinking about incentives and rewards, and they miss out on the face-to-face aspect of recognition." But both incentives and recognition are necessary.
The Role of Management
Without managers and leadership on board at all levels, recognition won't happen in the way it's supposed to. This area is where training can make the most difference in whether recognition boosts both employees' morale and the company's bottom line. But while much manager training includes information about what they should do in their role in practical terms, most of what they learn about soft situations tends to be negative. "They're taught it's inappropriate to make fun of someone, to talk about someone's race, or to physically hug employees, but they're not taught what's appropriate or positive, such as how you give someone an award or what's appropriate to reward," Green says. Training for managers in this area should answer three simple questions:
• Why should I do this? "Part of a successful recognition strategy is to link it to the organization's goals," says Tommy Lee Hayes-Brown, corporate recognition chairperson, MetLife in Hartford, CT. "If one of those goals is innovation, for example, then recognizing innovative behavior will communicate the message that that's the desired behavior."
Managers also must be taught the consequences of ignoring desired behavior and failing to recognize it. Both neglect and poor treatment can create a caustic environment that employees can't escape fast enough. "The person a manager snaps at already might be on the road to leaving the organization, and that means real dollars exiting the organization with him or her," says Green.
• What should I do? An effective employee recognition effort will have three important elements: customization, meaningfulness, and timeliness.
"Let's say you decide to reward an employee's great performance with a ham," says Hayes-Brown. "If he doesn't eat ham, it's not going to be all that meaningful." Clearly, if a manager rewards an employee with something that was chosen specifically for that employee (i.e., a gift certificate to a bookstore for an employee who enjoys reading), the impact will be all the greater.
But how is a manager to know what will be a meaningful reward? "Ask questions," Bardwick says. "You have to take the time to find out what might be meaningful, so your reward shows you've paid attention to that person."
"That's where training comes in," says Hayes-Brown. "Managers can be taught that this kind of attention matters, and that if they engage recognition strategically by knowing more about their employees, they'll succeed more."
However well-chosen it is, a reward that comes six months after a good performance is much less meaningful than one that comes three days later. One company Saunderson worked with had a complex process of recognition, in which nominations had to be approved by the manager at the next level before any reward could be given. "It could be three weeks to three months before employees were rewarded, and by that time they might have forgotten all about what they'd done," he says. "Companies that reward more swiftly make it clear the employee's performance matters and has been noticed."
Ultimately, managers should learn how they can integrate recognition with coaching and mentoring for the employee's overall performance.
• What should I NOT do? "Effective recognition is impossible when acknowledgement is either too frequent or too rare," says Bardwick. "Something significant has to be accomplished so the recognition clearly was earned and not just a given."
Many organizations, out of a fear that someone's feelings will be hurt, rig their recognition programs so every employee is recognized in some way. But that only debases the coinage of recognition. The point is to single out a desirable behavior or action, and to acknowledge its value not only to the employee but to the rest of the organization.
Managers' personal feelings about recognition of their own performance should be explored in training, as well. A discussion of what motivates others helps managers to avoid assuming that others see recognition in the same way they do. "Some managers have said they don't recognize others' performance because they themselves don't need it, and, therefore, nobody else should need it either," Bardwick says. "Others think fairness requires everyone to be recognized with the same kind of award."
Recognition Training
In "Trends in Employee Recognition 2008," Scottsdale, AZ-based human resources association WorldAtWork documented the current state of employee recognition. The survey findings were based on the responses of 554 WorldAtWork members. A whopping 81 percent of organizations that responded to the survey did not have a formal training program to educate its managers about the organization's recognition programs. More than half (52 percent) said their recognition programs did not have a written strategy behind them.
Compounding the problem is a tendency for many leaders to see recognition as "just something HR does" and as a cost center rather than an investment. This means many training organizations that suggest training to make employee recognition more successful are waging an uphill battle.
One weapon for that battle, of course, is measurement. "Correlations between performance metrics, turnover numbers, and employee recognition can be a powerful argument for training that helps managers to recognize more effectively," Saunderson says. Once the training is in place, those same measurements can be used to evaluate its impact and to reinforce the behaviors taught in training.
"I often recommend the 24-7-30 approach," says Stotz. "After the education, within 24 hours, you can send a survey or some content that reviews the learning. Then after seven days, you survey them to ask whether they've implemented the actions the training explained. After 30 days, you do some other type of follow-up. This helps management and the organization to see that recognition is important."
Employees also can recognize their peers' actions, and they may need training in how to do it properly. But they also may need instruction on how to accept recognition. "People may interrupt the manager who is trying to praise them, and say, 'Oh, it's no big deal,'" Green says. "They might just be nervous, but the signal the manager gets might be 'Don't do this again.' So it doesn't hurt to educate employees—and managers, for that matter—in how to accept recognition and acknowledge it gracefully."
Sidebar: Certified to Rcognize
One way to learn more about best practices in employee recognition (and pass them on to managers in your own organization) might be to earn certification in the topic. Recognition Professionals International, an association for recognition professionals in Naperville, IL, offers a Certified Recognition Professional (CRP) designation. Participants must take four courses and pass tests to earn the designation. The courses cover the structuring, planning, measurement, maintenance, and application of employee recognition programs.
CRP graduates also must recertify every three years, either by passing a 100-point exam or by completing a combination of certain professional activities or development. For example, participants might deliver recognition training or write an article about a topic related to recognition, and attend a conference or Web seminar on the subject.
For more information about the CRP designation, go to www.recognition.org and click on Education/Events.
Editor's Note: To learn about overcoming resistance to recognition and managerial empathy's role in recognition, visit www.trainingmag.com/recognition. Check out www.trainingmag.com/praise for an article by Recognition Professionals International's Christi L. Gibson.
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