Inspiration Conversation

Recognition and Reward Systems (RRS) can play a key role in a company’s effort to engage employees. Key components of a RRS are typically:

• a strategy that aligns with organizational goals
• support from senior management
• appropriate training and communication
• attractive awards
• an administrative and reporting system
• (for more on this see Recognition Professionals International’s Seven Standards: www.recognition.org)

A strong RRS supports desired organizational behaviors and creates a “rallying point” for individual and corporate success. When they are designed and implemented correctly, they can be strong tools to grow employee engagement. Before we look at the role of a RRS, let’s define what employee engagement looks like.

An “engaged employee” does two things very well – they produce a high volume of high quality work and they help create change. The quality and volume of work is a result of a focus on the present and an understanding of the actions that lead to their work success and the success of the company. The ability to create change is driven by the awareness of all the components that make up their work and their willingness to challenge the status quo when they see an opportunity to do things better. An engaged employee “owns” their work and may regularly contribute beyond their exact job description. They generally hold a significant amount of tacit knowledge regarding “how things get done” in their sphere of influence and are happy to share that knowledge. Interestingly, research indicates that most people want to be this kind of worker. The challenge faced by most companies is the creation of an environment where the path to employee engagement is purposely facilitated and workers are not frustrated.

This is the place where a RRS comes into play. A well designed RRS exists to support and grow a company of engaged employees. A RRS regularly reinforces the behaviors called out in the corporate culture. It’s important that the system be built around behaviors. Why? Because everyone in the organization has a chance to participate when it’s about behaviors. Certainly, a company should recognize its high achievers based on performance and results; but there are far too many people that would have zero opportunity for recognition if a company only recognized easily observable high performance. The classic example is recognizing those in sales roles but not those in operational roles. Are the sales roles more important than the operational roles? Of course not, but it is generally easier to identify and recognize performance in sales than it is in operations.

How does a company create a RRS that contributes to an environment where employees are highly engaged?
Here’s a “big picture” list of steps involved:

1. Define the corporate culture and ensure that it’s “truthful”
2. Understand the key drivers of organizational success
3. Understand how work gets done in the organization
4. Define the behaviors that relate to #2 and #3
5. Recognize the behaviors

There is a GREAT DEAL of work within this brief list and it’s important to understand that undertaking a true enterprise wide RRS initiative is a complex process that will, in some ways, serve as a “cultural audit” for the organization. At the end of the day, a company will come to a core set of beliefs in what makes their enterprise important and why would anyone want to be a part of their effort in the marketplace. ?

One caution before the power of a RRS gets over-blown - it’s vital to remember that the road to engagement travels through compensation, benefits and work environment before it gets to recognition (think about Abraham Maslow’s Heirarchy). An organization cannot recognize its way out of a bad business model or under paid employees. Recognition will not be valuable to anyone that is worried about their financial condition or their safety. Fair compensation and benefits, clarity around job security and a safe work environment are the prerequisites of a RRS. Once the foundations of the basic employee value proposition are in place, a strong Recognition and Reward System can be a wonderful lever to develop highly engaged employees.