Page 124 - Retaining Top Employees

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112 Retaining Top Employees

Use the Golden Ratio
A good general rule is to keep the value of rewards and
awards in the same ratio as total compensation.Thus,employee
“A,” who earns a total of $50,000 per annum and is eligible for a
recognition award worth $2,000, is likely to view as reasonably equi-
table that employee “B,” who earns a total of $100,000 per annum, is
eligible for an award worth $4,000. However, if employee “B” were to
be eligible for a recognition award of $10,000, employee “A” might
sense that the arrangement is unfair.
Note: This is simple enough for monetary awards,but you might
need to convert non-monetary awards to a dollar value to make the
same estimate.

disgruntled employees—many of whom will be providing essen-
tial support for your top performers and will be acutely aware of
any perceived inequities.
Finally, if you’re considering implementing a recognition
program for your top people, make sure this program is fair to
the organization as a whole. There are three ways in which a
divisional or departmental recognition program can be detri-
mental to the organization:
• The program takes key people out of the loop. Make
sure your recognition program does not divert key peo-
ple from other organizational responsibilities. (See the
sidebar on page 110, “Anticipating the Implications of
Implementation,” for an
example.)
Watch Fairness • The program sets unfair
to the Customers
expectations. Run the
Be attentive to the impact
of your recognition program on your goals and any rewards
and awards past your
clients and customers,particularly if it
includes sales contests. Make sure that colleagues to ensure
contests don’t place your top employ- you’re not setting any
ees in a position where,in order to unreasonable expecta-
win,they’re stuffing the sales channel or tions for other employ-
otherwise treating customers unfairly. ees in the organization.