Why (not) have an “employee of the month”?
Motivation required
“Employee of the month schemes” were originally an American concept. They’ve been around for some time, but weren’t too fashionable in recent years. However, with many businesses facing financial pressures, they’re re-gaining popularity. The process recognises the efforts of individual employees, usually via a monthly presentation that’s accompanied by some form of small reward or prize. Yet whilst this may sound appealing on paper, are they really a good idea? To answer this question we first need to look at how they work.
Scheme criteria
Such a scheme usually applies to all staff, regardless of their role. Its purpose is not to reward them for doing their job to an acceptable standard but for going over and above what’s expected of them. Some examples of qualifying activities may include designing a better working procedure, offering exceptional customer service or willingly taking on and completing a new project.
Selection process
When it comes to the selection process, the most common option is that staff nominate co-workers and a team of managers then make the final decision on the overall winner. Alternatively, some companies announce a list of candidates and staff vote for them in a secret ballot.
What’s the reward? The reward or prize is up to you and it doesn’t have to be financial. For example, the winner could be allowed to leave a few hours early on a day of their choice.
What are the risks?
This probably sounds like a cost effective idea, doesn’t it? However, two recent experiments have revealed that these schemes may actually be more trouble than they’re worth. Researchers found that not only can they fail to sustain improved performance across the workforce, they may have a detrimental effect on employee performance and engagement in the long-term.
Why? This is because: (1) they generallyonly recognise and reward one person at time; and (2) runners-up usually don’t get anything. That ends up causing resentment and bad feeling.
Avoiding the problems
So you might be thinking it’s safer to ignore these schemes altogether. Well, don’t write them off just yet. One of the main problem factors identified in the research was “frequency of award”, which tended to be more significant for smaller business. It’s thought that because they had fewer staff to choose from awards were often made for the sake of it, i.e. the scheme was devalued.
Tip 1. This can be avoided. If you have a small number of employees, consider running a scheme on a quarterly or half-yearly basis. Provided that it’s properly set up, staff won’t tire of the reward on offer.
Tip 2. You can create a workable employee of the month scheme by using our free checklist.
For a free sample checklist on how to create an employee of the month scheme, visit http://personnel.indicator.co.uk (PS 13.15.07).
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