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Just-In-Time Employee Motivation
Employees respond best to informal and timely recognition of their efforts. Therefore,
a manager who allows special moments to go unnoticed is missing prime opportunities to
motivate their employees.
Listed below are employee recognition ideas that are simple, easy to utilize, and provide targeted recognition.
1.) Create recognition business cards (RB-cards) to give after an employee completes a
difficult project, achieves his/her goals, or after an employee receives special
acknowledgement from a customer or coworker. RB-cards are simply a business size card
that you carry with you at work. RB-cards can be either elaborately or simply designed.
What is important to have on them is a blank space where you write the employee's name,
an area where you can write down the specific behavior being recognized, and a pre-printed
statement telling the employee to bring the RB-card to their next performance review.
2.) Create recognition memos on gold paper. A recognition memo is similar to the RB-card.
It also has a blank space to fill-in the employee's name, specific behavior being
recognized, and a pre-printed statement telling the employee to bring the memo to their
next performance review. However, the recognition memo is read and signed by the CEO
and all relevant department managers. The key to making recognition memos a successful
motivational tool is to have all signers sign the memo within 48-72 hours. A recognition
memo that takes 3-4 weeks to get to an employee is no longer useful to producing additional
employee motivation.
3.) Create an employee "freedom" card. An employee freedom card allows an employee to take
a certain amount of time off of work, usually 1-2 hours, at their leisure. The employee
freedom card works best with salaried employees who have a certain degree of freedom over
their work schedules. It also works best when given to an employee who has just completed
a difficult work project that required him/her to put in long work hours. Similar to
the RB-card, the freedom card has a blank area to write the employee's name, a blank
space to record the specific behavior being recognized, and a time limit in which the
employee needs to take their time off, usually within one or two weeks. The employee
is not allowed to save up freedom cards. The point of the freedom card is to allow the
employee to take a couple hours off work to help them recharge their batteries and to
lower their stress levels. The manager should tell the employee, "In order to recognize
your hard work, I would like for you to take a couple of hours off, on company time, in
order to relax and recharge yourself."
Happy Working,
Gary Vikesland, MA LP CEAP
Employer-Employee.com
Are You a Mediocre Motivator?
A manager who is a mediocre employee motivator is a manager who provides employee
recognition under the following circumstances.
1.)Recognizes the length of time an employee has been with the company versus their
specific successes with the company. A good or motivated employee is not identified by
the length of time he/she has worked for the company.
2.)Provides an employee with a "pat on the back" instead of giving the successful
employee more responsibility and say in the direction of their work.
3.)Recognizes an employee for having the best attendance record, versus recognizing an
employee who has a great teamwork attitude. An employee who is present at work each
day may also be a "pain" to work with for his/her coworkers.
4.)Rewards individual employees when the company requires employees to work in teams.
Nothing zaps teamwork more than rewarding an individual employee when the whole team
was responsible for one employee's success.
5.)Recognizing an employee for all the hard work he/she has done over the past year,
versus recognizing an employee for his/her hard work right after or when it is
actually occurring.
6.)Praises employees only when you are having a good day. Many managers believe if
he/she is having a bad day, why should anyone else be happy. These managers usually
end up going down with their ship.
Happy Working,
Gary Vikesland, MA LP CEAP
Employer-Employee.com
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