Employee of the Month...Decrease Morale?

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

  • 12 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • your program should motivate people as long as everyone feels like they have a shot at winning if they do something good. make sure you put the resources in developing and implementing the program.  define the criteria for receiving the award and how employees will be nominated and judged.
  • I agree with regdunlop.  Just make sure you define the criteria to receive the award.  Are people nominated by peers or does it come from supervisors, will the nominations be revenued by someone.  Make sure that there is no room for favoritism.
  • 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.
  • 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!

  • We got around this by calling it "Best Performances" instead of Employee of the month.   We modeled it on the Oscar's and were able to spread the recognition around to various categories, operational excellence,  sales, customer service (internal and external), processes, cost savings etc....also included best performance as a supervisor,director etc.  Kind of made it fun too.  Nominated by employees; selected by a cross functional committee.
  • Just curious - what did you give as a recognition??
  • 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".

  • The only experience I've really had with it was not a positive experience. They had a employee of the month in place when I took over as HR Director, but there was really no criteria, no plan in place, and it came down to the last minute decision by a few managers putting their heads together. Employees recognized that it was a farce, and appreciated that we discontinued it. Now we have implemented other types of recognition and feedback, but have stayed away from an employee of the month award.
  • Employee of the month is very time consuming to do well and also avoid all of the issues already raised.  I would look at other ways to motivate and recognize.  We did a fun recognition at our "x-mas" party one year and it was a huge success.  No big gifts but recognition in front of entire company.  They were called to the stage to make an acceptance speach, photo was taken and they were given an ornament that was made to represent them and their accomplishment.  Lots of fun and laughs.  We had enough categories that the majority of employees could be recognized for whatever their strength was.  Employees nominated and a management committee made the ultimate decision in the event they were under disciplinary actions, etc. so as not to create a conflict in the message that it sent to that person.  I think giving each department manager a working budget and some guidelines for recognition is also a great way to handle recognition.  They can use what best motivates their team.
  • 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.

     

     

  • Depends how you manage the program. I know of a great system that  keeps track of the nominations and praises and can generate nice printouts of the praises to give or email the employees. That way everyone can feel appreciated. Not just the Employee of the Month, which too deserves to be recognized properly as they did earn that title, I think most people can respect that.
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