So , in essence , the true Employee of the Month ( or Year ) would be those who … deliver on prior agreed targets . And if that is everyone , then we are building an organisation of achievers !
the Month ( or Year etc )
I have two main issues why I do not believe in this appellation being accorded to an individual .
Subjectivity : This is where there could be an element of bias in the selection of the winner of the award . Where this is deemed to be the case in the mind of some of the employees , then you will get remarks such as : It can never be me , as I never get nominated for anything ; Only those who suck up to the boss are beneficiaries of this award
Independent assessment that eliminates human bias : Such assessments are usually technology driven . Again , there are some employees that have diverse opinion on these assessments . These are the ones who might say : This is not a true reflection of my performance at work ; People tell a lot of lies in completing these and they just know how to dribble the system .
The things people will say about the two modes indicated above , are endless . And guess what ! Their opinions do count !
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So , in essence , the true Employee of the Month ( or Year ) would be those who … deliver on prior agreed targets . And if that is everyone , then we are building an organisation of achievers !
Sadly , once these assumptions are held by a majority of employees , the implication is that people will not strive to be the best in what they do - they are resigned to the fact they can never win the award . Sadly , some will continue in mediocre work .
So , how should we reward employee performance ? My suggestion to a few executives has been : Why not get targets set during appraisals and measure performance against targets at the pre-ascertained points ? And if all employees exceed these targets , then what is wrong in them all being named as Employee ( s ) of the Month / Year and reward them all ? The accompanying gift can be minimal anyway .
A number of executives have seen the benefit of this approach in their organisation and have said it had led to higher levels of motivation and striving to outdo their set targets .
So , in essence , the true Employee of theMonth ( or Year ) would be those who … deliver on prior agreed targets . And if that is everyone , then we are building an organisation of achievers !
In subsequent articles , we will look at other aspects of employee motivation , which we have begun to term as the sixth principle of Lean – Respect for People .
Kola Olutimehin is speaker , serial author , an entrepreneur with interests in varied industries , and The Principal Consultant and Founder of MakeWay Global . You can commune with him via email at : Getkola @ makewayglobal . com .