Why is it so hard for managers to get it right?!
My brother was recently recognized by his boss and was so insulted by the gesture that he started looking for a new job the very same day. As with most recognition, it’s meant to make the employee feel good, build morale, and keep them around longer, but this boss blew it and he’s not alone.
My brother had been working for his company for almost four years. His team had just completed a huge project that was going to bring in a ton of money. The manager called a meeting, thanked the team for their hard work, and handed everyone an ipod.
As my brother held it in his hand he stood there thinking, “Are you freaking kidding me?! I’ve worked here for years, have been a stellar employee, and you’re giving me this?!” He turned to his interpreter and signed, “Are you freaking kidding me?”
Who gives a deaf guy an ipod?!
Sure, this is an extreme (but very real) example of recognition backfiring in one’s face, but smaller examples happen all the time. Some common examples include giving chocolate to a diabetic, steak house certificates to a vegetarian, crappy company swag and other non-personalized gifts to superstars.
Many managers would argue that lame recognition programs are a result of not having the budget to buy cool things, but I would argue that lame recognition programs are a result of the manager being lazy. Individualizing a recognition program isn’t rocket science and it’s certainly not hard or expensive, but it does take time.
Time commitment #1 Gathering information. Sit down with each and every employee to find out what motivates them, how they like to be recognized, and (as importantly) what de-motivates them. By involving employees in the creation of individual, as well as group, recognition programs you are more likely to hit the nail on the head when it comes to delivering the recognition.
Time commitment #2 Getting the resources. So many managers are quick to comment that there is no company-wide recognition program. Can you say ‘lazy excuse? Take the information you learned by sitting down with your employees, personalize it, and create a program for your team. Need a budget? Fight for it. Need supplies? Buy them.
Time commitment #3 Delivering the recognition. Thinking through the delivery should take as much time as the actual delivery. Some people like to be recognized in front of a group, others would die in that scenario. To some, a letter home to their kids explaining how much their parent means to the office would be incredibly rewarding, another might just want a beer.
Let’s face it, almost every manager out there has bought an ipod for a deaf guy (figuratively speaking of course, I hope). It happens. We get busy and caught up on other things, but in the end, isn’t keeping our employees motivated and engaged the most important part of our jobs? Next time, lets do it right.
I know the deaf guy with an ipod story isn’t the worst one out there. What’s the best/worst recognition story you have?
Great story! And don’t forget folks… recognition isn’t the ITEM – it’s the ACT.
Your brother would have had a completely different opinion if he had never received the ipod, but, as part of the group, publicly (if that is his preference) recognized as a contributor to the big project.
Don’t let lack of “stuff” get in the way of the act of recognition!
Thanks for sharing your brother’s story, Marisa!
I agree that these recognition mishaps take place because managers don’t take the time or make the effort to understand their employees’ motivation and preferences.
Thanks for reiterating the fact that recognition is simple and doesn’t have to be grand or expensive to make an impact. Often, the most effective recognition is simply the most sincere.
I don’t really have a bad recognition story. The only one I can think of is valentines related not work. Though some of the best recognition I have received has been simple and has had a great impact. For my job I have to keep a log of my duties on a shared filed. Once in a while my boss will leave me motivating and postive comments on my log so that I see them the next time I log in. Though it’s a simple gesture it really makes me feel that I am doing a good job. Enjoyed reading your post Marisa and thanks for sharing!
Actually, I am deaf and I love my iPod. But I know they’re not for every deaf person. Really, the manager should know the employees before deciding on the recognition if it’s something other than “thanks” or cash.
Wow. Just…wow. I thought I’d heard them all — desk clocks sent to Chinese employees (where that signifies death), logo fleece jackets to employees in Nairobi, Omaha steaks to the Indian team members — but this one really takes the cake.
So much easier to give the employee the choice of what they want — from thousands of shopping, dining, entertainment, adventure or even charity experiences — anywhere in the world. We’re seeing many of our program participants choosing to use their rewards to send donations to Haiti relief now. Certainly not a decision a manager could make on their behalf, but gratifying to see, nonetheless.
Here’s another common way recognition often goes wrong — simple lack of acknowledgment: http://bit.ly/nVN2B
I worked for a high-speed real estate company in the 80′s that usually hit the mark with thank you notes. But one Christmas gift (we called it that back then) made a lot of people scratch their heads.
They created the same gift for every single employee regardless of job. Our partners enjoyed their personalized Tiffany stationery note cards, but our lowest paid clerical and messenger staff had NO CLUE what to do with the $100 gift. They would have much preferred cash.
Thanks for all of your comments.
As many of you said, it’s not even about the money when it comes to recognition, it’s about the gesture itself. Cori, I think your example of your boss leaving you motivating messages supports this point perfectly.
It nothing else, we just need to remember that recognition is about understanding our employees well enough that we can recognize them in a way that makes them feel valued.
T had a doc at the hospital tell his manager what a great job T had done managing all the cases the week his co-workedrwas out of town. What did he get? A pat on the back and coupon for a free dessert (excluding the soft serve ice cream) at the cafeteria. It was like a slap in the face.
There needs to be a better process!
Granted a month or two later he did get ‘great team member of the quarter’ or something – which came with a mini-bonus and parking space. That only slightly made up for the original slap in the face
I couldn’t agree more with the author. Recognition is important, but it must be informed and sincere. Periodically, my company’s top managment walks around and thanks employees for some recent accomplishment. On the surface, this sounds like a good thing.
The reality is, at the last minute, middle managers get an e-mail from their director letting us know that they are going to do a walk around the next day and could we tell them something that our employees have recently accomplished. The next day, staff does their thank yous. It is obvious that in most cases they don’t understand what it is they are thanking the employee for. Often they get it wrong. I had one of my employees ask me what they were thanked for. I asked what they were told. It made no sense to me and it bore little relationship to what I had told my director the night before.
This is a great way for leadership to lose respect and validate the feeling that many employees have regarding managments knowledge and their view of those down in the ranks. Pitiful.
I have had the problem with no matter what is given for a bonus, cash, dinner out, pedicures, shopping trip, they always want more or bring up a much larger company and what they get for longevity. The thing is they used to work at the company and hated it. How short the memories are. When I was the employee, I never expected anything, was just thankful for it.
Great post Marisa. You did a great job capturing the essence of what’s broken in most ill-conceived attempts at recognition.
On a positive note (odd for me, I know) I once worked for a CEO who held company meetings every month. In them he handed out $100 bills to employees that were nominated by their peers for exemplifying excellence in their daily grind. Nobody gamed the system, people were genuinely happy for the recipients and managers never had the chance to mess it up. Just a simple example that I found to be successful in the past.
I completely agree with the author. Always think things through before taking action – if you don’t know enough about the matter then do research or engage someone who does. I’m a big believer in the saying “if you’re going to do something, do it properly” – regardless of whether the gesture be big or small. Last but not least, I found this great article the other day – 88 days to recognise and reward your employees/colleagues – very practical advice http://tinyurl.com/ydmbhps
A former Managing Director rewarded a colleague of mine with a leaving present of a bottle of champage – he’s a devout Muslim and doesn’t drink alcohol.
Idiot!
I just left a company that thought (a) a Christmas Party on a Monday, after work, and no Tuesday off was a good idea; (b) hosted a company summer picnic in the middle of a work day and people had to go back to work after the picnic; (c) gave annual bonuses late — as in April, not January or even beginning of February and then under-delivered to new staff who were promised larger “average” bonuses; (d) were required to attend ice cream parties, wedding and baby showers — the latter of which were thrown only for very special people (the guy in printing whose girlfriend had a baby was not, apparently, worth a congratulations party but a manager was entitled to all kinds of gifts and a party (who do you think needed the baby clothes and formula more?). Jeez, the list just goes on-and-on. Oh, I almost forgot the guy from Europe they flew in to the Northeastern US office for “additional training” and then fired him while in the US. It’s unbelievable that management cannot figure out they have a serious morale problem. Just incredible. I have completely given up on corporate America after this experience; I took my PhD and advanced quantitative skills and started my own company. Good riddance to managers and companies that lack such basic common sense.
At my 5-year anniversary with a former employer (a big high-tech company everyone would recognize), where everyone received an engraved watch, my manager slid it across the bar to me at an after-work happy hour. Such pomp and circumstance.
After 10 years with the same high-tech company, we had a small selection to pick from. I actually did choose a watch this time, and it was given to me at a large quarterly business update meeting from one of our executive staff. So far so good, until I opened the box and saw that they gave me someone else’s watch, engraved of course. All they needed to do was look inside the box before-hand . . . It took another few weeks to find mine.
But the bottom line is that even the small recognitions, the spontaneous ones with little or no monetary value, can be the most precious, appreciated, and impactful when they are:
- specific, noting exactly what was done well,
- pure, without any qualifiers or advice attached,
- positive, how “we” benefited,
- immediate, or as soon as possible, after the goal is achieved or behavior is noticed,
- frequent when early in the process then less-so after desired behavior becomes routine,
- irregular, not at the same time or on the same day every week or month.
(SPPIFI)
After my “company’s” Christmas gift of markers and chart paper, I’d like to say that rewards should never be an item. Ever. After showing significant improvement last quarter, I was rewarded with creating a two hour presentation to hopefully spread my success to others. I would consider the extra work and the blank stares I’ll get from my colleagues, a gift of time in the worst way possible.
A note to all managers: I keep every hand-written note and positive, appreciative e-mail in a folder entitled “An Upper for a Downer Day” that an old boss made all of us make. I would have rather gotten a Christmas card that said “Thanks for all you do, you are an important part of our family.” I would have rather my data been considered in my annual evaluation than having to waste everyone’s time giving a presentation on a topic everyone was already familiar with.
At your job, you are expected to do your best and produce the best results possible. That is your job. Appreciation and rewards *should* quickly follow a job well done, however, they should not be necessary or expected.
On the flip (chart) side, even if you are given something as a “Thank you” and you hate it, you should still respond graciously, and at the very least, sell it on E-bay. Anyone want a set of Sharpie Flip Chart Markers? $5!
I was the secretary that helped “land” a 200K account. The salesman got a 8K “bonus” and wanted the boss to give me 2K bonus. I was told I wasn’t worth $200 by the boss. That making $9 an hour was more than enough.
Great post Marissa as it really focuses on the fact that recognition really isn’t that complicated. It’s simply about taking the time to thank someone in a way that is meaningful to them. Of course, it also helps if there is some consistency and thought that’s put towards that you are thanking them for.
Recognition is a simple and powerful tool – if we use it well, it can help to motivate people, while also helping to develop a community that supports and values the traits that you’d like to see.
In today’s business environment, managers need to work intelligently to manage their resources, and this includes making sure that their most important resources – their people – are happy and engaged.
Grow up everyone! You should be grateful your company even bothers to get you anything at all. Could recognition be better at most companies, yes. But to complain makes you all sound like ungratefuls who hate their jobs and their managers. Get rid of your sense of entitlement and be glad you have a job to go to every day.
Some people can not be pleased. If a company give gifts they, want cash. If the company gives cash, its not enough.
If everyone got a ipod except the deaf guy who got a watch(?), this article would have been about how awful the Manager was for singling him out and treating him differently because of his disability and the company would be in court.
God, I have become a cynic.
An employee mentioned once how much she enjoyed her visit to a day spa. She did a great job on a project so we got her a gift certificate ($150) to a local spa. She reacted very badly and at first would not accept the gift. Sometime you think you know what an employee would like just to find out you thought wrong.
I am a CEO and everyday I find something positive to say to someone. If you do it too much, it is meaningless. If you don’t do it at all, you are lazy.
Everyone you meet — and I mean everyone — knows more about something than you do. As a leader, it is my job to find out that fact and find a way to use those skills to the advantage of our company.
And Luscious had a point, although the delivery left something to be desired. A job is not a right or a gift: it is a contract between you and your company. You work, you get paid. Now if you work extra hard or do something extraordinary, your company should thank you. But it is not an entitlement to have recognition programs. It is an investment in the future of the company, though, that can have remarkable ROI: good breeds good, contentment breeds contentment, discontent breeds discontent. And bringing around a business full of discontent takes 10x more work than keeping happy employees happy. I have done both and will stay where I am with happy employees.
One last point: a recent survey of over 3000 employees found that 60% said they would find a new employeer within 1 year of the end of this recession. Turnover is expensive. Loosing good employees, deaf or not, is always hard. Keep your employees happy. Mine will be in the 40% — will yours? If not, maybe I will be able to steal your best team members just because you are too lazy to apply the Golden Rule when you rule…
Great post and comments,
I agree that a genuine “thank you” email or letter from the top management is extremely rewarding, especially when you work on this other side of the planet!It happened to me while working in Japan for a big European multinational company. I also think that it makes a big difference if managers know each employee personally and organize events with family members if appropriate. One must be cautious though with cultural differences as mentioned in some comments here. Learn how to give feed-back with cultural sensitivity.
Mine is fairly boring but illustrative. I worked for a company that instituted a bonus program for salaried employees. After an eight-week period when people were expected to work seven days a week, more than ten hours a day, star performers received bonuses that were less than what an hourly worker would have received in overtime. The math was too clear; people felt more insulted than if there had been no bonuses at all.
good to see you are blogging again. I enjoyed the full article and hope that maybe you can get permission to republish it in full after some time has elapsed – it deserves wider exposure online than it might get behind the log in.