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A WORD ABOUT AWARDS AND CONTESTS
A popular method of reinforcing good performance that many companies have adopted is a contest or Employee of the Month award. Unfortunately, many of these programs have little, if any impact on performance. For example, in a recent American Productivity Center survey, only about a third of the companies surveyed rated such recognition programs as being very effective. Why? Simply because many of these programs violate the guidelines for effective reinforcement we just listed. For example, many such awards are based upon subjective criteria. Even employees who win the awards don't know exactly why they won. As a result, the awards become noncontingent. Employees cannot see a direct connection between their behavior and the award. Additionally, many of these programs are designed so that only a few employees can win the award. For example, no matter how well employees perform, there can be only one Employee of the Month. A lot of employees don't try for the award because the odds are against them winning. We are not saying that you should not establish some type of employee award. What we arc saying is that you should make sure it conforms to the guidelines for reinforcement. For example, instead of an Employee of the Month award, why not establish a "club" people can become part of once they achieve a certain level of performance? One of our clients has a very effective recognition program they call the President's Club. All employees who reach a certain level of measured performance get a banner, pin, or certificate signifying that they have earned membership in the President's Club. To retain membership, they have to continue to perform at a certain minimum level. All employees have a chance to earn membership, and they do so based upon purely objective criteria.
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