Rewarding and recognizing good employee performance is fundamental to an organization’s ability to maintain good spirits and morale.
An inclusive employee rewards program keeps workers engaged in their work and motivated to do well on behalf of the company. However, it’s crucial to ensure your rewards and recognition program is perceived to treat everyone equally. If employees suspect your program plays favorites, it can have the opposite effect.
Scott Crockett Everest Business Funding’s CEO discusses how you can make sure your employees see your rewards and recognition program as even-handed.
Align the Program with Company Values
An easy way to ensure your rewards program isn’t seen as playing favorites is to align its goals with your company values. Programs prove to be the most successful if they align with your company’s values, vision, mission, and goals.
Employees can see this consistency and know that you’re not playing any favorites when you reward people for their work.
Align Rewards with Achievements
In the same vein, you want to ensure that the rewards you are giving match up with the achievements you’re recognizing. Over-rewarding an achievement can make it seem like you are playing favorites. Under-rewarding can make it seem like you’re trivializing certain work.
When your rewards align with the achievements, the program will seem much more objective than subjective.
Reward Performance in a Timely Fashion
Scott Crockett suggests business owners reward performance on a semi-regular basis. No matter when the recognition is given throughout the year, the important thing is to do so in a timely fashion.
In other words, don’t wait too long from the actual achievement to reward and recognize the employee. When recognition is given out only once a year, it can be more difficult to remember specific achievements that deserve recognition. As a result, it’s easy to fall back on rewarding the same people time and time again.
Reward Specific Achievements
Another way to ensure your employee rewards program is inclusive is to make it specific. Instead of generic recognition such as “employee of the month,” reward particular achievements.
This can be anything from the highest number of customers helped to the most positive comments from customers. The more specific the achievements you reward, the more inclusive your program will be.
Give Rewards Frequently
When you reward and recognize employees regularly, you’ll be ensuring they stay motivated throughout the year. When they have something tangible to work toward, employees are more likely to put in a better effort.
Another side effect of giving awards often is forcing the rewards committee to recognize multiple people. And when you do that, it’ll be less likely to be perceived as playing favorites.
Be Transparent
Make at least some of your rewards categories measurable. For sales teams, this could mean the newest accounts opened in a month, for example. When you create quantifiable action items, Scott Crockett says you can easily track employee progress positively and transparently.
About Scott Crockett
Scott Crockett is the founder and CEO of Everest Business Funding. He is a seasoned professional with 20 years of experience in the finance industry. Mr. Crockett’s track record includes raising more than $250 million in capital and creating thousands of jobs. Scott has founded, built, and managed several finance companies in the consumer and commercial finance sectors.
