Not necessarily, as not all employee reward programs are created equally. When an employee rewards program is designed well, it can be an important part of the company culture. However, when a rewards program is poorly thought out and not properly communicated, it can make a work force more demotivated. Watch out for these common reasons that employee rewards programs can backfire unintentionally.
Rewards programs can feel inadequate
Sometimes, a well-meaning employee rewards program can actually come off as insulting. As an example, let’s say that a company’s policy is to reward initiative with a $25 gift card to Target. This is a perfectly adequate reward for something like coming in early every day for a week or catching a critical typo on an advertisement. However, if an employee’s great initiative saved a company millions of dollars, then being given just $25 at Target can be a slap in the face. Rewards should match the action they’re rewarding proportionally.
Rewards programs can often look insincere
If an employee of the month program is in place, than it should be given based on employee contribution. This may seem obvious, but some employers will designate employees of the month alphabetically by last name. Employees will absolutely notice that their ‘recognition’ is given as an insincere obligation because it was their turn rather than as a result of hard work.
Rewards programs sometimes reward the wrong behavior
Sometimes a well-meaning reward program can accidentally encourage the wrong behavior among employees. If you institute a rule that programmers get $10 for every bug they find, it’s possible they might start programming in a few more bugs for that extra payday. Another example might be an employee rewards program that gives prizes for anyone who has no late arrivals at the office for a given period of time. In order to get the prize, employees could start just taking full sick days off to avoid coming in late resulting in even less work getting done.
Employee rewards programs are often unfair
A rewards program should be something that all employees are able to participate in. As an example, a company wellness initiative might reward any employee who loses 25 pounds with two nights at a nice hotel. This is a great reward unless there are employees who can’t participate because they don’t have a spare 25 pounds to lose.
Another example of an unfair rewards program would be giving some sort of prize to anyone who improves their attendance or punctuality. If someone is already at 100%, which is the ideal, they are left in the dust.
What makes a good reward, then?
A good reward is something that is fair, sincere, and doesn’t disqualify top performers. Most employees don’t need a monthly plaque or anything fancy to be happy at work. What employees really want is to feel genuinely appreciated and needed for their effort and hard work.
If an employee is given praise in front of a group of their peers by the boss for their contributions, that’s a good reward. Imagine if a boss tells an employee at 2:00 on a Friday ‘Hey, you worked 80 hours last week and got that product beta out in time, why don’t you take the rest of the day off paid?’ That employee would know their boss appreciates their hard work and would feel seen and needed. These things breed company loyalty far better than any meaningless certificate.
