THE MILLER COMPANY Ideas that Inspire ™

The United Nations just released a report stating that the U.S. “leads the world in productivity”.  It went on to say that the U.S. is second to Norway in the amount of wealth produced per working hour.  In simple terms, the productivity results are a function of longer hours while the wealth production per hour is a result of those hours being used well.  The report credits U.S. success to leadership in information technology, corporate organization, competition and our international trade practices.

Certainly, these are positive results for the U.S.  For discussions sake, let’s reduce these findings to the point where they are relevant to your company…

• Your employees are working, on average, more hours than most companies in the world.
• Your company will utilize leading edge technology to equip employees with the best possible tools to do their jobs.
• Your company will seek organizational design that will maximize employee productivity.
• Your company is facing fierce competition and will do what it takes to stay on top or get to the top.
• Your company is aggressively pursuing the global market for customers, business partners and employees.

Now, let’s put ourselves in the place of an “average worker” – the person in the middle – they like their job but don’t love it, are good at their job but not great.  Remember that this person represents the majority of our workforce and that our company could not function without them.

• I work too much.
• I like that my company invests in the best, but I wish they helped me understand how to better use the tools…
• I heard we’re considering a merger.  Will I have a job?
• I heard we won that account.  Did my contribution matter?
• I don’t understand the people I’m supposed to work with.

I believe the above sentiments represent the thinking of much of the workplace in most of our companies.  So, what to do?

If you’re reading this, at least part of your job involves workplace recognition and reward practices.  While it would be silly to presume that a strong recognition and reward system would address and resolve all these issues, we can have a positive impact.

Make sure your system recognizes behaviors – at least some of which can be performed and recognized by every job description in the company.  Recognize people for improving themselves – training, community service, wellness…Use your system as a means for senior leadership to communicate the things that are important to them.  Recognize great performances and use them as a model for future great performance.  Design in the ability to recognize teams.  Operate a strong peer-to-peer recognition program.  Enable system wide reporting that gives all levels of management exposure to who’s recognizing, who’s being recognized and what they’re being recognized for.

Don’t make the mistake of operating your recognition and reward system exclusively for the people that are already operating at a high level – consider the “Average Worker” and the needs they have.  Research and best practice examples support the efficacy of a broad approach to recognition and rewards.  Odds are, your company will benefit with this approach.

Regards,

Tom