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Employee Recognition: What Works, What Doesn’t 107

Designing Specific Recognition Goals

Whatever the constituent elements of your recognition pro-
gram—rewards, awards, contests, or whatever else you decide
to include—to be successful it’s important to design each ele-
ment in a way that’s specific, attainable, fair, and appropriate.

The Importance of Specificity
It’s important that each recognition element be as specific as
possible. In order to avoid confusion and, at worst, demotivating
effects, make sure that all employees understand all of
the important details of
your recognition pro- Testing Specificity
gram—eligibility, quanti- One of the simplest ways to
ties, quality, and the know if the details of your recogni-
tion activity are specific enough is to
appraisal process.
test them in advance. Hand the terms
First, it should be obvi-
and conditions of your program com-
ous to all employees
ponent to someone completely
whether or not they’re enti- removed from the environment in
tled to take part in any ele- which it will be used (friends and sig-
ment of a recognition pro- nificant others come in handy at this
gram, particularly if you’re point!) and ask what questions they
using the modular have. Use their responses to develop
approach. the terms and conditions until all the
obvious questions are answered.
Second, make sure
there’s no doubt about any
quantifiable aspects of the recognition program. Whether it’s a
sales target, a safety goal, the number of days of free vacation
you’re giving away, or the deadline for a competition to end,
anything that’s quantifiable should be clear and unambiguous at
the outset.
Otherwise, you risk reducing the impact of the program (it’s
hard to get excited about a reward for hitting a target if either
the target or the reward is ill-defined) and losing credibility
(there’s always a lingering doubt that the numbers may be
“massaged” at the end to achieve a preferred result).