How employee recognition programs go wrong – are these too familiar?
The Wall Street Journal wrote about employees’ recognition experiences. “Employee-reward programs can be so unrewarding. The plaques, tchotchkes with logos, goofy contests and ham-handed presentations tend to backfire. It’s not that they’re all bad, but too often they seem like empty gestures supported by upper management, administered by a less-than-enthused middle management, and received by under whelmed staffers. All when an honest thanks would have gone further.” Employee of the Month programs that fail: EOM is a popular form of recognition. Effectiveness, however, is another issue. EOM programs typically violate every principle of recognition and positive reinforcement. They don’t precisely identify what must be done to get the award. Consequently, choosing the winner becomes a guessing game management grudging plays at the end of staff meetings. Equally important, EOM programs do not recognize model performance immediately, but arbitrarily await the first of the month when the s
