REWARDS AND RECOGNITION
by ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D.

"So, my pay is predicated on how many people I supervise. Well, thanks for that piece of information. Surely it means that I need to work hard to convince you that I need more and more staff to complete the tasks you assign me. I think I'll build my empire."

"Tenure, you say. What a relief. I need security. Now that I've achieved it I can rest on my laurels and coast along, no longer having to prove myself to your school administration."

"Oh, you are planning to pay me an hourly wage for doing this technical writing for you. Thanks. It is really quite complicated and will take me a very long time to complete."

"Bonuses for outstanding achievement! Wow, if I steal my subordinate's ideas and present them as my own perhaps I can earn a good bonus this year."

If any of these quotes hits you in your corporate pocketbook, you might want to consider re-visiting the manner in which you compensate people for their services. Many companies are looking at variable pay structures which allow them the flexibility to pay people a base salary plus compensation incentives for performance. These incentives can be part of the salary, or fall outside of the salary structure per se and be considered as part of rewards and recognitions. In this article, we will consider these additions to base salary as part of rewards and recognitions.

Some clients are interested in developing long term strategies that make rewards and recognitions consistent with the values being taught in the company. For example, companies switching from the standard hierarchical structure to work teams want to reward team cooperation. Those that are looking at this issue are asking for programs that can be implemented by all levels of management consistently.

Among the common goals to reward: productivity, quality, creativity, cooperation, profitability, positive work ethics and attitudes, and allegiance to the corporate mission and values.

In many companies assumptions, rather than knowledge, guide the manner in which rewards and recognitions programs are developed. The most common assumption made is that all people are motivated by money. Another common - and often erroneous - assumption is that everyone likes to have the spotlight shine on them.

The measurements used to determine "outstanding performance or attitude or ----" are also not clearly determined. In addition, often there is both a lack of consistency and a lack of flexibility so that individual supervisors and managers have difficulty handling the freedom of variable rewards and recognitions.

Too, the changing workforce brings with it changing values and beliefs about what is worth rewarding as well as what IS a reward and/or recognition. What might be a compliment to one person could be a humiliating experience for another. Not only are we dealing with people at different levels of professional growth, we are dealing with people from many cultures and backgrounds, at different times in their personal as well as professional lives.

Thus, what might have been a reward at one time, might not be at the present time or in the future. Sometimes people suffer reverses and what they thought they outgrew (job security) they might now need again. When studying this issue, we need to remember that we are dealing with individual differences, cultural differences, gender differences, age, education, socio-economic status, and a host of other differences - including what other rewards have recently been given.

In addition to the differences of the individual - there are differences in managers' styles and beliefs about rewards and recognition. One question that needs to be addressed at the corporate level is the degree of autonomy or conformity to allow each manager in making these decisions. While we don't want to take away from the ability of an individual manager to make immediate and personal decisions, we do want those decisions to be consistent with corporate policy and principles.

There are a number of issues each manager must consider before offering an "attaboy". Among them are his/her own personal assumptions about joking, teasing, or potentially embarrassing the person being rewarded. What might be fun to the manager, might be excruciatingly embarrassing to the recipient. Other issues that must be considered are those of privacy v. public recognition; expected v. extraordinary behavior; patronizing v. appreciating; and comparisons with others receiving rewards and recognitions.

M&M's work well with little children for a short period of time...however, offering a trivial reward for work well done is insulting. Also insulting is patting someone on the head for tying their shoe laces when they've been doing it successfully for years. On the other hand, failure to acknowledge consistently good quality causes loss of morale and motivation.

All rewards and recognitions should have more than one purpose. At the very least they should have the dual purpose of making the recipient feel better and of furthering the values and goals of the corporation. It also helps if they act as a motivator for future behavior of both the recipient and his/her colleagues.

Behavior gets reinforced positively or negatively, consistently or intermittently. Each of these methods of reinforcement produces different results. The optimal forms of reinforcement are those which are positive, intermittent, predictable, and appreciated.

The most obvious rewards in business are money and promotions. Modern management is learning that money as a reward is only successful some of the time, with some of the people - unless it is a huge amount of money, and therefore not cost-effective for management.

Promotions have many problems inherent in them, not the least of which is The Peter Principle ("In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." Laurence J. Peter.) For years now successful technical competence has been rewarded by making technicians/engineers managers of people. It has not worked effectively because it often amounts to fitting square pegs into round holes. Both the person being promoted and the people being managed have difficulty when technical brilliance is confused with people management skills.

Thus contemporary management is seeking new solutions to motivate individuals, teams and departments to further the corporate mission.

If you want to take this issue seriously, you really need to thoughtfully look at what you re trying to accomplish, what's changed, what's worked in the past, what the current and future needs and wants are of your people and how to measure the success of your newly developed program. Remember, the old military style doesn't work well anymore - whips (or promises not to be whipped), stripes on the sleeves, and promotion after promotion are not necessarily the steps to motivating your professional staff to fulfill their destiny and the corporate mission.

Some Basic Questions to Ask Regarding Rewards and Recognitions:

	What do you want to reward? If achievements, how do you define them? Do you want to reward participation in the team, or acts of heroism? What about the values of your organization, performance goals, money savings, or other avenues of success?
	Who are your people and what are their needs and wants? Do you have entry level people needing money and security? Are there those in your organization primarily concerned with social and status needs or needs for self-esteem? What about creativity, time off and some of the more obvious perks? Remember too, some people need to be rewarded publicly and others privately.
	Is the plan equitable, flexible, consistent, and, not only is it, is it perceived to be fair by all concerned?
	How do you maintain corporate consistency, stay in compliance with the organization's business legal, union, financial and human resources requirements, while at the same time allowing your individual managers a great deal of autonomy and the checkbook?
	Now, look at what exists and determine what works with these goals and what doesn't.
	How should the plan be funded? Self-funded from the profitability of the group or project? From general funds? A special rewards and recognition fund?
	How are you going to communicate both the concept and the specifics in order to get buy-in and accommodation?
	Finally, how are you going to measure success, make plans for modification, and consistently improve the quality of the plan?