HRO Today July/August 2016 - 18

Employee Recognition
Going global?
Engage2Excel
been trained on how to evacuate coworkers in such an
emergency. He actually saved another employee's life. His
performance was beyond the call of duty and resulted in
a special performance reward. "
Motivating Behaviors
Rewarding specific behaviors is beneficial to a company's
bottom line. This approach is different than programs
that recognize above-and-beyond performance by
an employee, such as an innovation that results in a
productive outcome. Rather, the reward is linked to
a particular key performance indicator (KPI) like sales
closure rates or a reduction in customer complaints, as
well as various efficiency and cost-effectiveness metrics.
" Recognition is the best tool a company can provide their
leaders to motivate specific employee behaviors, " reports
Chris Winkelspecht, Ph.D., strategy and services director
for Maritz Motivation Solutions. " Whether through an
evergreen corporate program that includes core values
as recognition criteria or a short-term department-based
campaign to shape a newly trained behavior, there are
four factors to consider when motivating employees. "
Winkelspecht says the four steps include:
1. Define the behavior associated with the program.
2. Communicate the operational definition, the
recognition that can be expected, and why it is important
for the business.
3. Ensure the behavior is recognized early, often, and
publicly.
4. Deliver recognition that shows the recipient the
company knows what they did, appreciates the impact of
the action, and is personally meaningful.
KPIs are typically aligned with a company's mission,
values, vision, and objectives-hence, they differ across
organizations. " It comes down to what a company is
specifically looking to achieve, " Ryan says. " Some link
the reward to a traditional KPI, while others based them
on markers they have created, such as a metric defining
a high degree of collaboration or improved customer
service. "
Peter Hart, CEO of Rideau Recognition Solutions, says
it is important for companies to define the particular
employee behaviors they need to achieve a specific KPI.
" If you want to hit a golf ball 275 yards, you need to learn
how to swing the club-that's the behavior, " he explains.
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HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | JULY/AUGUST 2016
finds configuring
the platform and
dashboard in the local
language improves
participation rates in
the program by as
much as 20%.
" Same is true in sales. If you want a salesperson to do a
certain number of sales calls per day or close a specified
volume of deals per month, you need to be sure they are
trained to do it. To drive this behavior, you might reward
the person for completing an educational program. "
The actual rewards also have expanded beyond the usual
online merchandise to reflect an individual employee's
pastimes and pursuits. An employee who says he enjoys
fly-fishing in his onboarding profile might receive a set
of custom-made flies for surpassing a pre-established KPI
or venturing beyond expectations, performance-wise.
Engage2Excel uses rewards to increase the chances of
specific actions. " If you know someone has a hobby, we
can link the reward to this hobby to incent a particular
behavior, " he says.
He provided the personal example of a highly productive
employee on his team who wanted more training to
increase her knowledge and expertise. " She never
finished college, but it was important to her to go
back to school, " he says. " She was such an exemplary
employee that we've rewarded her with an online
program at Cornell to get her diploma, which has made
her even more motivated. "
Makes great sense. " To tighten the bond with employees,
you need to know what drives them, " he says. " Everyone
is motivated differently. "
Russ Banham is a Pulitzer-nominated business journalist and author
of more than two dozen books, including histories of Ford, Boeing,
Airstream and other iconic companies.
HRO Today July/August 2016

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