Page 142 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

122 Building a High Morale Workplace

employees feel appreciated they perform and produce at their
best. When they don’t feel appreciated, there’s often a drop in
both performance and production across the board.

Employee rewards and incentive programs have become a
multimillion dollar industry filled with award plaques, recognition
banquets, prizes from movie tickets to BMWs, exotic travel, gift
certificates, and free dinners at Morton’s Steakhouse. But even

as much as employees love these prizes, one form of recognition
remains the most cost-effective and easy way to sing some-
body’s praises—the good old-fashioned pat on the back!

Make It Real Praise—Not Phony Flattery

The best recognition is real praise, from the heart. It’s not about
the phony flattery that some managers use to manipulate
employees into doing better work or more work or both.

Employees know when managers are manipulating them with
phony flattery in order to get something in return—“Oh, my

Affordable Ways to Reward, Recognize,
and Praise Employees
In his best-selling book, 1001 Ways to Reward Employees (New
York:Workman Publishing, 1994), Bob Nelson offers up a multitude of
fun, stimulating, low-cost, and proven strategies for bumping up
employee morale. Here are a few:
• Time off. Employees love time off work. It’s a precious and valu-
able commodity in our busy world.
• Recognition items. These include trophies, engraved plaques,
watches, and other customized gifts.
• Parties and other celebrations. Examples include everything
from Margarita Happy Hour to Halloween parties and birthday cel-
ebrations, from laugh-a-day staff challenges and fun committees to
grill-your-boss cookouts and Felix and Oscar awards for the neatest
and messiest workers.
• Praise. No-cost, on-the-spot praise remains the most popular of
all informal recognition efforts.You can just say,“Thank you for a
job well done,” you can write out little notes of praise, and you can
recognize an employee in front of coworkers. It’s all good.