Need Help with Employee Recognition Plan

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

Comments

  • 6 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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