Want to improve employee motivation? Then recognise employees for more than their work
In their Workforce Mood Tracker September 2011 report, Globoforce state that 69% of respondents say that they would work harder if they felt that their efforts were better recognised. Makes sense. Their research also uncovered several themes for how to implement successful recognition programmes including:
Recognise employees for more than their work
Here’s what Globoforce say:
Recognizing employees more frequently and specifically for their behaviors and contributions reminds employees that company leaders also see them as valued contributors. Or, as one respondent commented, as reason to improve the recognition program is ‘to have happy employees that feel they are being valued as human beings not just for work’
But how do we recognise employees for their behaviours? Here are three steps
Employee Motivation: How to recognise employees for their behaviours
1. Define the behaviours you want to recognise
So often we focus our attention on defining (using performance objectives and targets) the ‘quantifiable’ elements of our employees job. So we set objectives for the volume of work produced, the $ sales targets met, the deadlines met and so on. Nothing wrong with that.
But, if we only define the quantifiable element of our employees job then it follows that we will only manage, and recognise the quantifiable element of the job – the ‘work’ element. The reality is, not only are behaviours are crucial to the success of our businesses but managing and rewarding behaviours is crucial to the job satisfaction of our employees
Read more about how to identify and define behaviours here
2. Monitor behaviours
It’s simple good practice that if we are going to define and agree the behaviours we want and need our employees to demonstrate then we are going to need to monitor those behaviours (in the same way we would monitor any other aspect of our employees performance). And of course by monitoring the behaviours you are giving a clear message about how much you value those behaviours. There are three key ways to monitor behaviours:
a) Observation – watching your employee ‘in action’
b) Report back – having your employee report back to you examples of positive behaviours
c) Feedback – collecting feedback on the employee’s behaviours
Read more on how to monitor behaviours in my blog ‘Monitoring Performance against Performance Objectives’
3. Praise the effective behaviours
One simple way to recognise ‘frequently and specifically’ your employees behaviours is to give them some specific praise about their behaviours. If you have followed steps 1 and 2 above this really is an easy ask as you are simply giving focused feedback based on monitoring behavioural performance against the agreed behavioural performance objectives. A very simple but effective way to describe specifically what the behaviours are that you want to praise and why those behaviours are so valuable is to try the following method:
- When you….
- What happened was…
- And the result is….
For example
When I showed the client the research you had done on their business she said she was really impressed by the insights you had provided. The result is she wants us to make a proposal for a further piece of business. That’s a really good outcome for us so thank you and well done
Read more on how to give praise here
Summary
As we can see from Globoforce’s research, recognising and valuing employees for their behaviours is crucial to both employee satisfaction and employee performance. The easiest identify, recognise and manage employee behaviours is by using behavioural performance objectives. Read how to use these types of objectives – the easy way – in my free special report ‘Performance Objectives Made Easy’. Grab your copy NOW! at http://www.performanceobjectivesnow.com
If you want to read more strategies for effectively managing your employees take a look at my FREE special report ‘Boost Your Business Performance through Effective Employee Management’ at http://www.boostemployeeperformance.com
Author – Joan Henshaw – http://hr.toolbox.com/blogs/managing-employee-performance/want-to-improve-employee-motivation-then-recognise-employees-for-more-than-their-work-50318?reftrk=no&trdref=4e6577736c6574746572