Page 244 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

The Never-Ending Source of Engagement C231

: They believe employees know they’re replaceable and
shouldn’t expect to receive special treatment.
: They don’t believe they should have to pay employees above
market for sustained high performance or provide bonuses
for special achievements.
: They believe that the employees they recognize will respond
by asking for a raise.
: They don’t know enough about the employees’ jobs to distin-
guish between average and superior performance.

There you have it—a baker’s dozen reasons. Having presented and
discussed these at length with hundreds of managers in the training
we do, we realize that many leaders and managers will remain firm in
their resistance to “giving too much recognition” to employees whom
they see as “already too entitled” or as “praise hounds who got tro-
phies for just participating and expect more of the same at work.” We
do not advocate giving more recognition than people deserve. Those
whose expectation of recognition exceeds the value they bring should
receive the strong dose of reality they need—in the form of direct,
fact-based feedback.

:
“We Can’t Measure That Job”
One line of push back we inevitably get when talking about
valuing employees is this tired old dodge: “Sorry, we would
love to do a better job of recognizing employees in this de-
partment. But the kinds of jobs they have just don’t lend
themselves to being measured. And if we can’t measure
them, then we sure can’t figure out how to recognize who’s
doing a good job and who isn’t.”
Baloney.
We’ve spent years working with employees and leaders
in every imaginable industry and have yet to find a job that