By Jody Urquhart

Does acknowledging employees compell them to explore their potential further or is it more of a mindless clacking of cliché expressions? Is your recognition program a superficial ploy encroaching on your staff’s need to be candidly recognized? If your award program doesn’t invite a thunderous reception, it may be because it is too generic. But don’t be disheartened because many organizations suffer the same twisted fate.

The Art of Appreciating Others
Why are formal award systems so popular? The main advantage to formal awards is that they are easy to administer. All you need to do is calculate how close or how far people get to their goal, find the “top achievers” and acknowledge them with your standard reward.

This advantage is also the major disadvantage. Formal awards are a “mass acknowledgment” program. They can be very impersonal and don’t take into account the strengths, accomplishments, or efforts of individuals. They don’t take into account employees’ say. Formal award systems recognize one narrow aspect of the job (increased revenue, sales or productivity) and those few employees who are good at achieving that goal. By contrast, informal recognition programs focus on spontaneous and personal appreciation of employee efforts.

Appreciating others is a brilliant and creative act. Managers and peers need to notice and nurture consistent acts of achievement. Yet many don’t consider showing appreciation a part of their job description. Others realize that acknowledgment is important, but they botch the process. Spouting hollow praise too often will bring discouraging results. There is an art to showing appreciation for others.

According to psychologist B.F. Skinner, a good acknowledgment has four qualities:

1.     Specific: Talk very specifically about what you saw the person do. General motivational clichés like “good team player” will have a lukewarm effect.

2.     Immediate: Obviously praising someone for something she did nearly a year ago is a waste of time because the best acknowledgment is immediate. “Catch” someone in the act of doing well and compliment the behavior on the spot.

3.     Personal: Use the person’s name and talk about the qualities they bring to the team.

4.     Spontaneous: Never script compliments or they won’t sound sincere.

Action Plan: Rewards That Engage Employees
To engage your employees, create a culture of appreciation where employees regularly recognize each other’s contributions and make the recognition personalized. Take time to find out what specifically motivates each employee and then see what you can do to make those things happen. How do you find out what motivates others? Ask them. When people get rewarded in the way they want, they will be much more satisfied.

Here are four steps to creating a personalized rewards system:

1.     Create an acknowledgment committee. This is a fun volunteer position and it should rotate regularly so all staff have an opportunity to participate. The acknowledgment committee is responsible for acknowledging other staff members weekly.

2.     Have the acknowledgment committee create a form that helps them get to know employees. Ask employees things like, “Share your favorite color, your biggest pet peeve, something interesting about your family, your hobbies”. Anything unique about a person that they would offer to share is valuable.

3.     File these forms away and every week (or month or however often) the committee randomly draws an employee’s name and checks the list to find interesting unique ways to acknowledge him. (e.g. Jason loves telling jokes so buy him a joke book). The “reward” is fun and does not cost a lot (usually under $10).

4.     The committee now has to catch Jason in the act of doing well and acknowledges him with the personalized item. You may even create a fun ritual, chant or saying when delivering acknowledgments.

Jody Urquhart helps professionals create meaningful and fun work environments. She can be contacted at 877.750.1900 or visit www.idoinspire.com.