Need Help with Employee Recognition Plan

Geno

Help! I need some ideas from anyone who has an employee recognition program in place that works well for them. We have one in place now that could best be described as a tried and true, plain vanilla, no frills, employee-of-the-quarter type of thing. The problem is that it received a fair amount of criticism in a recent employee survey – with the biggest complaint being that it has essentially become a popularity contest. Oh, did I forget to tell you that this is a collective bargaining situation – which in and of itself makes it tough to recognize individuals. Also, and I’ll be honest with you, absent subjective selection criteria, I’m personally not a big proponent of culling out one single employee for recognition – but the boss insist that we have something in place. To add to the challenge, the company is diverse both functionally and geographically (multiple work-sites within a thirty-mile area). I would love to hear from other HR professionals who might throw some ideas my way that might help. Thanks in advance.

Geno

System

Geno, I hate to report that I've never found a program that lasted long or worked well. I believe the best recognition comes from direct supervisors and up. Simply recognizing someone verbally by saying 'you did a slammin' job' or 'good job on that . . ' was much more encouraging than an 'Employee of the Month' program. I say teach supervisors the art of encouraging workers without blowing false sunshine their way.

One thing that I do that ALL employees seem to love is having their photo on the bulletin board in the HR office. Visit job sites if you can and shoot pictures. We get a lot of employee traffic in this office to see whose picture is up on the board.

System

What I hate is that the winners inevitably are the people with offices close to the boss who work the same shift as the boss.

If you have a company newsletter, you can have short articles where bosses praise employees who done good.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

TN HR

In my opinion employee of the month/quarter, etc is crap. Unfortunately for you the union will not allow you to truly recognize employees in the best way possible. Pay for performance. It's a sacriligious concept to unions.

You could have monthly/quarterly cookouts where the supervisors/managers cook and serve the hot dogs and burgers. Rent one of the large, towable grills and take your show on the road to the different work sites.

bsa

We are a small manufacturing company that recognizes milestone anniversary years and birthdays on a quarterly basis. We have cake and award the anniversaries for the previous quarter.

1 year anniversary = golf shirt
3 year anniversary = gift certificate
5 year anniversary = jacket & gift certificate
7 year anniversary = watch & gift certificate
10 year anniversary = $500 cash

It works for us.

2445428

I've been using certificates for about 5 years now. They are At-A-Girl and At-A-Guy certificates that I created in WORD. An employee receives one if we receive a letter or phone call from the public praising that employee, or if the supervisor sends me a memo praising that employee for superior service. All eyes follow me when I have an At-A in my hand for delivery, and the employee who receives it gets applause from co-workers and proudly displays their At-A in their office or cubicle. It really gives the employee great incentive to deliver outstanding customer service.

AJ SPHR

We have something similar to the person above. We have a recognition program with a catchy title and employees are allowed to nominate each other for this recognition. They fill out a Word document and submit it to the recognition team, who review it for appropriateness and then give the form submitter a gift card they then present to the employee, along with the form itself. These are posted on offices proudly, and the gift cards are a selection of $20 gift cards for use at area malls or restaurants.