Incentive schemes – how helpful is “Employee of the Month”?

Those of you who know me, and follow me on a regular basis will know how passionate I am about building workplace cultures where people are motivated, engaged, and giving of their best.

As I prepare for the second day in our new programme, “How to be an Outstanding Manager”, which is all about how to motivate and engage your people, I was revisiting one of mytime favourite books on the topic of getting the best out of people: “How to get the best out of people; the power of positive reinforcement” by Aubrey Daniels.

One aspect of motivating a workforce is, of course, the incentive schemes, or the reward and recognition practices we have in place – and I know of many organisations where “employee of the month”  is part of their reward and recognition practice.

But just how effective is it? And what alternatives do we have?

Aubrey Daniels is interviewed on the topic on You-Tube – and you can find the link below. It’s only a short video – so  worth checking out!

I rather like Daniels’ opening question: (I’ve slightly changed his word “punishment” to “ignore”!)

Question: How many people get positively re-inforced from an employee of the month scheme?

Answer: 1

Question: How many people get ignored?

Answer: all the rest.

Question: Why would you have a management practice where you tended to ignore more people than you reward or recognise?

Daniels goes on to say that “employee of the month” violates every known principle of positive reinforcement.”

Strong stuff! Have to say, I’m with him on this one. 

Take a look at what Aubrey Daniels has to say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlMM7ScTTiw

And let me know what you think!

Perhaps you can tell me if you have this scheme in your workplace – and if it does, does it motivate you? Maybe you have some great suggestions of incentive schemes which DO work – in which case, I’d love to hear them!

Warmest regards,

Shona

As a manager, what kind of vision do you have for the way things are in your team/workplace?

How clear are you about the kinds of behaviours you want to see – and those you don’t? How clear are those you work with about what the values and beliefs are in your workplace? When they go home, or they talk about their workplace – what do they say?

More importantly, will they say what you want them to say?

For those who work with me, or who come to my “How to be an Outstanding Manager” programme, you’ll know I believe one fo the first things ANY manager needs to do is to get clear about your expectations for your team.

I call it the “How we do things around here” conversation.

more »

What Makes a Bad Boss – Bad?

How can a boss’s behaviour lower morale and affect performance?

I found the following article in my research and reading, which I thought was really interesting – showing as it does some of the feedback from real people, about real incidents and behaviours which makes them unhappy about their manager, and you can bet affects overall morale and performance in that team..

I’ve been working recently on pulling together some ideas to share with managers about ways in which managers and organisations can kill morale, and some of the things listed here certainly fit the bill!

more »

Want to thank my friends at CFPD for tweeting about this video!

If you’re an organisation who’s beavering away trying to get clear about your mission statement – in fact – if you’re a manager who wants to get clear about what your team is all about – watch this video!

Love it!

https://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/marketing/video/made-to-stick-writing-a-mission-statement-1

My personal world works in parallels, Whilst I spend my time coaching, training and writing about my passion – getting the best out of people – like most of us, I have to walk the talk every day!

I have used virtual help for some time now – and for any manager who finds it hard to “let go” – who feels the need to “micro-manage” or try to be too prescriptive, it’s a great opportunity to test out just how well you delegate, how much you are willing to trust the people you hire, and how willing you are to admit you don’t know it all, and can’t do it all! If you can successfully manage and motivate a virtual team, I think you can motivate anyone!

I believe we all become our own bottleneck very quickly. We all should play, I believe, to our own talents and strengths, because it is then that  our life becomes interesting; that we have more enthusiasm, that we work harder, and that we achieve more. more »