motivation

Lola815

How many of you have some kind of motivational program where you work (i.e. employee of the month, etc)? If you do, does it work well? and how do you go about choosing employees? We would love to do something, but everything we have tried in the past hasn't really worked out as we had planned. There are always those employees who complain about things not being fair. I would love to hear any suggestions. Thanks!

SWilkie

At my last company we had "an employee of the month" program. It became very unpleasant at times. Why? Because employees thought it wasn't fair. We established a committee with a combination of managers and co-workers. All employees had an opprotunity to nominate an employee (with an explanation of why they thought this employee should be employee of the month). These nominations were then talked about at the meeting each month and all the employees on the committee would pick from the list of nominees. We thought if the employee knew their peers where selecting the employee of the month it would mean more to the employees. This wasn't the case most of the time. The employee who received the employee of the month received a $200.00 check plus a cake party that all the employees were invited to (all shifts).

It's hard to keep moral up when there are so many employees with negative attitudes, but it's worth trying in my opinion.

Good Luck!

Trinity

We have an "Employee of the Quarter" four times a year. Toward the end of the quarter HR sends out a reminder to the employees to nominate any employee they feel is deserving of the award. (They fill out a form on our intranet that lists the name and reason for the nomination). Then the top three nominations are forwarded to the three upper management officers who pick the winner. We have a staff meeting where we announce all the nominees for that quarter and then the winner and what was said about them. They receive a personalized acrylic trophy, and a day off with pay. We also have a big plaque in our lobby that lists the employees of the quarter. (Actually, we now have two, since the first one was filled up). It appears to go well, although I can see where it could be a popularity contest. One note: Management is excluded from this..we have a "Manager of the Year" award that we give out at the Christmas party for them. Similar in that they are nominated by the employees and then finalized by a committee of employees..they get a trophy and $50.00.

djacobs475

We have a monthly "Super Star" program. Throughout the month, supervisors and management complete a "Super Stars Candidate" form for those employees they feel have gone the extra mile and are deserving of this reward (by the way management is excluded from this reward program).

All forms are then put in a fish bowl. And then every month, usually mid-month, we gather all the employees together. We ask for a volunteer to draw 1 name from the fish bowl of candidates. The winner receives a company monogrammed Golf Shirt, a $25. gift certificate to the Olive Garden, and at times we throw in extra percs, such as tickets to basketball, hockey, football games too.

All candidates, including the winnner, get a "Super Star Certificate" together with an enameled, logoed Star pin we had made up. At this time, we also have a cake to celebrate all the birthdays of the month. All candidates' names are printed in our monthly newsletter as well.

We have found it to be very successful. The employees look forward to it, many do go the extra mile, and most importantly they feel recognized. I don't believe it's about the size of the reward, but rather about the recognition.

Since we always open the floor up to questions, the added bonus to these monthly "reward" meetings is that it also gives the employees a venue and a chance for them to raise their concerns to management.

For us this Super Star program has worked very well.

AprilShowers

We try to motivate the company as a whole with potlucks, dress down days, and lunchins. Employees seem to respond well to this.

Balloonman

Of course if that doesn't work you can always fire someone, that tends to motivate the remaining workforce for a little while.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman



In case you did not figure it out I was joking!
I used to make people a balloon on their birthday, they got to pick the creation.

ray a

We have an Employee of the Month (sometimes referred to as Soldier of the Month). Directors and Managers nominate people they think are deserving and I and or the VP choose the winner. Since the majority of our employees work in manufacturing, "corporate" strongly suggests that most of the winners should come from manufacturing. This creates problems with the indirect departments sometimes being a dismotivator. The nominees are to exemplify our corporate values that we are preaching. There have been complaints that those chosen are the manager's pets and it is unfair. Current management is striving for more fairness and the complaints have died down. So, administration is key to success. I stopped doing the award about a year ago because it seemed to be creating too much dissention. The CEO insisted we start back up and make it work.

The winners receive a $50 gift certificate to the establishment of their choice and a polo shirt with the company logo. Plus they are recognized and given their awards publicly in a monthly "All Hands" meeting.

Additionally, we used to do an employee of the quarter, but stopped it both locally and at corporate for the same reasons. That winner was chosen by vote of all the employees in the facility. Departments would pool their votes and the biggest department won, regardless of worth. Once we made a management decision (directors and GM) to award the 2nd highest vote getter because the number one person we didn't think was worthy of the honor. People went around polling each voter and determined we "cheated". The last time we gave the award only 7 out of 200 employees voted.

ritaanz

At other places that I worked we tried the "Employee of the Month", gift certs, preferred parking, etc. It got old very quickly. Where I work now, we do not single out any one employee. Because we have such a great safety record, we treat all of our employees to semi-annual company lunches, "spur of the moment" ice cream or donuts, and, the most recent, we gave all of them denim shirts with the company logo. Last year, when we celebrated our one year accident free, we gave out wrist watches with "Safety First" on the face along with the company logo. Great hit and it was relativily cheap costing $6.00 apiece. As someone else posted, it is the recognition that is important. We want our ALL employees to feel that their efforts are appreciated. It works for us.

Whirlwind

I agree with those who have said that inclusive staff activities work better than awards that single out individuals. I'm in the public sector and we only have a small private donation fund for staff goodies (we're prohibited from spending public funds on these things). Here are some of the cheap or free things we have done for morale: An ice cream social/swap meet where we provided the ice cream and staff brought used books, CD's, and even jewely to trade; an annual staff appreciation luncheon, where managment buys, cooks, and serves lunch to 400 staff (usually fajitas or barbecue); 15-minute chair massages for $5; a free yoga class; a free aerobics class; and next fall we're planning a staff arts and crafts fair in time for holiday shopping -- staff will display and sell their handiwork to one another. If, like me, you don't have a corporate budget, you'd be surprised at the people in the community who will provide reduced priced (or sometimes free) services just for the exposure and contacts. Also, you might find that you have, say, a certified aerobics teacher on your staff who will lead a class as part of their regular duties or for overtime. Finally, just for goofy fun, we've had lots of bulletin board contests (match pictures of staff with pictures of their pets was the biggest hit) with prizes like a small box of Godiva chocolates.

Good luck, and have fun!

Zanne

Employee Motivation. I agree with Balloonman - terminate someone and most
everyone gets a little motivated.

But seriously.....We are a bank system and have 14 branch locations and allow each branch to decide on how to motivate. You guessed it - some branches don't even try to do anything and have poor morale. Other branches have jumped both feet into it. Our budgets are limited - so here are their creative things: (Remember these are branches - where the most is 10 employees) Posters of "good" things that have happened, small gifts from the dollar store, ice cream day, certificates, (made on the computer)lunch on us, movie passes, lunch on us. We have one branch where the team leader made this incredibly cheesy "trophy" out of a champagne glass, flowers, tinsel, stars, and a little sign that says "You are special!" It's a traveling trophy in the branch and EVERYONE wants it. It's an honor to have that goofy thing sitting by your window or desk! Go figure!

In my department, I buy grape slushes from Sonic. Everybody smiles on that day!

Zanne

Paul in Cannon Beach

You might check out "1001 Ways to Reward Employees" by Bob Nelson and also "Managing to Have Fun" by Matt Weinstein. You will find lots of great examples and ideas that you can tailor to your workplace.

Another suggestion, ask your employees what motivates them? You might be suprised.

Paul

valentine

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-27-03 AT 06:33PM (CST)[/font][p]We do employee of the month. We have slips at the reception desk where employees can nominate co-workers. We also have an employee committee who solicits nominations, as well as Managers.

Once a month we gather all the slips and they are read at our DH meeting. The DH of the person being nominated says either Yeah or Neah to their nomination and then we vote.

It has worked well, especially having the employee committee give us nominations. Employees don't feel the DH are playing favorites. We also have the chair of the employee committee come to the DH meetings once a month to report on employee issues and see what is doing on at the DH level. It has worked well.

Mentel

For the past six years, I have solicited nominations for peer awards. We give out the awards at the holiday party and everyone, especially the spouses, look forward to these awards. We have our 'standard' catagories like Mentor of the Year, Made the Most Progress, Outstanding New Employee, Most Fun to Work With, etc. These employees get a plaque. Then we open it up to 'special' awards that employee make up about each other. This is really great! Everyone looks forward to the goofy nominations and goofy awards that go with them. We had one employee that could eat up to five donuts on 'donut day' so we name him 'The Donut King' and he got a supersized coffee cup to wash down all those donuts. We give out about 8 of these goofy awards each year. It is a big hit. During the year, we also do the pot lucks, ice cream socials, Packer Days (yes we are in Wisconsin)and other employee activities. We have a company activity committee that runs these and comes up with ideas for new things to try.