Good Morning today’s post is by my good friend Greg Blencoe, the author of “The Supermanager” If you have not had a chance to read the book and are in a management position, I highly recommend it. ` Tina
One of the principles in The Supermanager is to praise good work. Therefore, I believe in the power of positive reinforcement.
However, I’m not a fan of employee of the month programs. If the goal is to raise overall employee morale, motivation, and productivity, then I think that employee of the month programs usually don’t work very well.
I believe that praising employees for the good work that they do is extremely important. Therefore, the obvious benefit of an employee of the month award is that the employee who receives it is being shown appreciation for their efforts.
However, I believe that employee of the month awards can have a negative effect on the employees who did not receive the award. Even if the recipient is completely deserving of the award, the employees who did not receive the award could feel subtly rejected. They might wonder why they aren’t being shown appreciation for their efforts. The negative effect on the employees who did not receive the award could cancel out or even outweigh the positive effect that the award has on the recipient.
Furthermore, if one department or company has one really outstanding employee and lots of other good or very good employees, shouldn’t the really outstanding employee get the employee of the month award every month? And if the award if given to the other employees in the months after the really outstanding employee receives it, the award will likely be viewed as not very genuine and lose some of its value.
While I think managers who implement employee of the month programs have good intentions, I don’t think this is the best way to praise good work.
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