Some Thoughts On The ‘Reward & Recognition’ Program

Some Thoughts On The ‘Reward & Recognition’ Program 

Mrinal Krant, Director-Human Resources, Foresight Group, India

Recognition is a basic human need. From the research on people’s needs and performance drivers, works of Maslow, Herzberg, Herb Kelleher, Jack Welch, David Cooperider and Vineet Nayar, gravitated around ‘people’. People have always surprised researchers and business leaders alike; on “what people really want and what motivates them?” While ‘complexity’ of motivational factors and people’s responses to such stimuli will remain a mystery, it is proven fact, that, ‘right intentions’ work, programs may fail!  I like the word that a leader uses for ‘appraisal’; “sense of purpose”. Together with ‘sense of purpose’ and ‘right intentions’ can we not create a ‘portfolio’ mind-set for rewards & recognition? I used ‘portfolio’ as ‘pragmatically’ (using another leader’s word from an appraisal discussion) as senior management would look for the ROI in investments made in the process of rewards & recognitions. Investment of management and people’s time, cost and other resources! We all know, everyone loves being recognized. Recognition ensures ‘repeat’ high performance or sustained behavior results in ‘value creation’. Recognition is part of high-performance culture. Discretionary power to recognize empowers and engages managers and other leaders. Managers therefore, get sense of ‘participative decision-making’ and ‘sense of shared-leadership’ just not ‘shared responsibility! We have realized, we live in the collaborative world and things here are “co-created”.J Ideally we should make use of the ‘power of recognition”. Recognition is not appeasement, it is not ‘compensating’, and it is not a ‘trade-off either. It is priceless. It is about ‘recognizing those values’ that makes achievement so special, for individual/group, company and customers. Coupons, gifts, comp-offs are follow up measures, the ‘real’ thing is ‘recognition’! Recognition is the biggest of all rewards! Recognition has intense ‘emotional value’ which cannot be compared with a comp-off or a $100 dinner coupon. The emotional value touches both; the reward giver and the recipient, almost equally! People don’t work till morning and then catch flights ‘red-eye’ for recognition. They do it because they believe in the values! Values; that organization creates and gets created by! Recognition should be a leader’s top task!