One effective way of motivating workers is to provide incentives and rewards for excellent performance and recognition for a job well done. We sometimes forget these tools because we feel that people are paid to do a good job already. In the rush to move on to the next job that needs to be done, we also forget to say thank you.

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Rewards For Performance

People do respond well to incentives for good performance and to recognition for doing especially good work. Employers shouldn’t forget this if they want great performance.

There are two ways to plan rewards: incentives and recognition -- and there isn’t any reason why you need to choose one over the other.

In the case of incentives workers are told in advance what kind of rewards they will get if they reach a certain goal either individually or on a team basis. Some employers and employees are uncomfortable with this approach, so you have to use your judgement about whether it will work in your company. Incentives do produce results, and work especially well if you are trying to promote specific targets.

In the case of recognition, the reward is more likely to come after the fact. This is a sign that you appreciate the effort made. Every employer should make use of recognition.

Rewards don’t have to be expensive -- no trips to Hawaii are necessary unless the company can afford it and the performance was really, really outstanding!!! What is important is that when you have special promotions or a busy time is coming up, you get in the habit of planning rewards and doing something about it when you notice people doing things right.

Affordable Thank You's

Say something!

Gift certificate for a movie rental

A box of Dairy Queen treats for the team

Let the employee leave early on a Friday afternoon

Let the employee arrive late on the day of his or her choice (the Night Owl special)

A plug-in parking spot near the door for a day or a week (the Winter special)

Free parking for a month (if you normally charge for it)

Write a letter saying thank you (put a copy in their personnel file)

Gift certificate for any store at the local mall

Gift certificate for long distance if the person has family who lives out of town

Gift certificate for a restaurant the person really likes

Fancy office supplies (check them out in a big stationery store -- people love neon-coloured Post-It Notes and paper clips with patterns on them)

A nice big coffee mug

Take care of the item on your to do list that the employee has been asking you to do for the last three days (weeks, months...).

Put a short article of thank you in your newsletter

Say something special at your next staff meeting

Take the person out for lunch

How Good Are You At Acknowledging Great

Performance?

Take this test:

In the next five minutes, list all of the expressions you can think of to tell a person that he or she has done a great job. (Clue: "Great job!" would be one expression!)

To score this test, go over your list and count how many times you have used any of these expressions in the last week to tell an employee or co-worker they did a good job. Count one for every person you told (if you told a group of five people they did a great job, you can count five) and count one for every time you used the same expression (if you said "Good work" twelve times, you can count twelve).

0 to 3 You aren’t alone, but make sure you have your back to the wall when you’re at work! Try to pay more attention to catching people doing things right.

4 to 6 This is average, but who wants to be average? Ask yourself whether you are making enough effort to recognize people’s good work.

7 to 10 Well done!

11 and up You’re a master! Keep up the good work