In the last article, we outlined a study conducted by a partner research company of O.C. Tanner. The study found that when employees believe that their organization recognizes excellence, those organizations have marked and substantially higher returns than organizations whose employees don’t feel that excellence is recognized.
But, there is more to the story than “just” implementing a recognition program. “My employer recognizes excellence” is a very different question than “My employer has an employee recognition program. That’s because some employee recognition programs fail to do what they are supposed to do: recognize excellence.
Recognition is Used to Control or Coerce
In some organizations, managers use recognition programs to induce or control behavior. The biggest problem with that is that employees tend to rebel against giving up control. When a recognition program uses monetary rewards to alter employee habits or behavior, the recognition program becomes costly and decreases employee performance.
Essentially employees assert their independence by reverting to worse than before performance when the inducements end or feel more entitled to rewards for their work and lower their performance when those rewards cease.
The drop in internal motivation is the difference between rewarding behavior and awarding for excellence. Check out this article on the difference between rewards and awards in employee recognition. Employers who use rewards to motivate behavior find that the rewards must continue to increase in size and cost over time. If, at any point, the reward is taken away, employee behavior drops to levels lower than they were before managers introduced the reward.
Rewards are when an employer tells employees, “if you do X, then you will get Y.” Morale suffers, and employee performance drops. Top performers often lose intrinsic motivation. But awards are different. Awards inspire employees to do better and help increase internal motivation.
Recognition Is Not Given Out Fairly
When employees with newly acquired habits are recognized, the internal motivation of already performing employees drops. That’s because the employees view the reward for new performance as unfair.
This study by Ian Larkin, an assistant professor at the University of California, Las Angeles, and Lamar Pierce, an associate professor at Washington University in St Louis, looked at this very aspect. Managers used rewards to induce employees to greater punctuality.
Employees who previously demonstrated poor punctuality at work improved their timeliness when they could earn a reward. But, they only improved for as long as they needed to gain the reward. Poorly punctual employees digressed back to previous reward levels after the reward period was over or as soon as they disqualified themselves from the prize.
But, researchers found the most alarming difference in previously punctual employees. Those employees dropped in punctuality as a result of the rewards program. That’s because they felt that it was unfair that other employees, previously habitually late, were now being rewarded for being on time when they had demonstrated punctual habits long-term with no reward or recognition. It didn’t seem fair to them.
As a result, their internal motivation fled, and their new habits reflected poorer punctuality than before managers offered the rewards.
Altering Recognition To Bring Increased Performance
Recognition programs yield significant performance improvements when a few minor changes are made. Instead of creating a program aimed to improve the performance of low or medium-performing employees, aim to recognize and award top performers. Sometimes leaders seek to create a recognition program that will bring up the performance of all employees, but that, in reality, focuses on improving the worst behavior. The example of rewarding timeliness in the previous section is an example of this.
Managers sought to improve punctuality and reward employees for being very punctual. But, poorly punctual employees only improved long enough to receive a reward. Already punctual employees decreased in their punctuality because they felt it was unfair to be placed in a contest for a reward with poor performers.
Instead, by seeking to highlight, reward, and recognize top performers and teams, managers can improve the overall performance of the entire staff. When managers identify and recognize existing excellence, it increases excellence and enhances the team’s overall performance.
Consider the 80/20 rule as it pertains to employees. 20% of your employees perform 80% of the most critical work of the business. And, it probably isn’t the employees who are the most charismatic, funny, or the ones that keep the office entertained.
It’s likely the employees who quietly, reliably do their jobs and do them well. It’s the employees who cover for absent colleagues or take a few minutes to show a new employee how to do a task correctly.
Conclusion
Recognition programs succeed when managers and leaders focus on recognizing excellence. This motivates intrinsically motivated employees to continue to improve and perform well, and it motivates externally motivated employees to strive harder for excellence.
As the O.C. Tanner study has shown, recognizing excellence improves financial benchmarks of success for businesses. It does more than just reduce turnover. It could be argued that employers cannot afford not to recognize excellence.
To learn more about how to better recognize excellence, schedule a demo with Thanks today.
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.