Employee of the Month...Decrease Morale?
kldrake
30 Posts
We are discussing a recognition program and part of that being Employee of the Month and many feel that it would cause a decrease in morale, as other employees will feel unappeciated for the good that they do. I have not had any negative experiences with it having a negative impact on morale, but only as a motivator for employee to do good and get recognized. What are your feelings?
Comments
As others of said, the key to the success of programs like this is the guidelines you develop for implementation and selections. I think that you also need to have a reward that is worthy of the employee "winning" this honor. If the reward is wimpy, then it sometimes does not seem like an honor, but a joke. Like any other thing that you do to boost morale or give recognition, you have to take care to avoid favoritism and to make sure it is fair. We were successful with having peers nominating, as well as management. The rewards we have used are a special parking place next to the building, cash, and either mention in the company newsletter or posted on a bulletin board. If it is fair and well guided with a good reward, then I think you will find the program to be very successful.
Good luck!
Employee of the month did not work in the manufacturing industry I was in. We had a couple of department meassuring tools in place that were accurate and known by all. In that situation we turned it in to department of the month.THis increased morale, everyone really felt like they had a chance and that we were not just working our way thru the plant employee list. They won lunch with Gen. manager, Plant super, HR manager and Depaertment Manager, and a mug and sweatshirt for this honor. There was the wooden nickle program as well, for individual recognition, so if you were on a team that was not great you could still be awarded wooden nickles for the Food wagon, company store, or redeem for cash. This really seemed to do the trick. I was in one place were the Employees voted, and one guy paid to secure enough votes to win employee of the month. This guy thought I wouldn't be able to fire him because of his "acheivement".
Parking Space for a month and name, statement from manager, photo (with permission). I welcome any ideas.
[quote user="bstouder"]In the past, I have seen these things turn into popularity contests. If you aren't willing to spend some time on it to develop good selection criteria and then give recognition to the performers who do the most for the company, then don't do it. Make sure there will be someone following this same criteria a year from now and that you don't have to have someone from every department just so someone doesn't feel left out. I've had a little success by giving some publicity to "honorable mention" candidates which seems to take some of the sting out of not being selected employee of the month.[/quote]
I too have not had good experiences. One negative that I found was that the person who won was usually the one who had worked the hardest right before the nomination was due. Each dept had to nominate at least one person. The manager didn't always think through a long term perspective. So a truly unmotivated employee could do well on one short term project and get it....whereas a consistently motivated employee never seemed to have a chance. On the other end of the spectrum, it also got to the point where the "superstars" got it everytime. So it did feel as if the ones who would be motivated by it never were or the motivation didn't end up being longterm. And in the middle were the managers who wanted to make sure that every employee got it once before any employee got it twice.
What worked better for us was more of a cyclical recognition. Our bosses took our group/team out to lunch or on a "field trip" after finishing a large project (which was probably 2-3 times a year). It was usually a long lunch at an upscale restaurant/funplex/beach/etc. Sometimes there was even a small thank you gift. That motivated the whole group and I never saw a negative come out of it.