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Bill Lee
Bill Lee is owner and CEO of Scott Rice Office Interiors, LLC, a company created in 1934, then known as Bauman's. Scott Rice is a Steelcase dealer and an Office Furniture USA franchise owner. Scott Rice provides office furniture, modular carpet, panel systems and related installation and moving services to businesses and organizations throughout central Kansas. Bill acquired Scott Rice in December 2003 after serving as general manager for the three previous years. He has a broad background in sales/sales management and held general management positions in four different companies over the last 25 years. Bill has managed businesses in several different arenas to include office products, paper converting, specialty advertising and now office furniture. He has been involved in three business turnarounds during his management career. Bill grew up in Southeast Kansas and graduated from Kansas University. He served as an Army infantry officer in Vietnam and considers this experience as his best learning experience related to people management. Bill has always felt that managing toward superior service performance is the key to success in any organization and he made that a top priority at Scott Rice from the very beginning.
Career
2006-08-01 09:43:00
Recognition, incentives at work
Are things like recognition, rewards and incentives valuable in the work place?

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ANSWER:  Many books have been written about motivational concepts and we could fill up this entire paper and not deal with all the ideas that have been created concerning the topic.  I don’t think, however, that the subject is as complicated as it might appear.
Generally I believe that all employees want to excel and do a good job – so, why do we need carrots?  1) Incentives and recognition focuses employees on the objectives and activities that will lead to achieving organizational goals, 2) incentives and recognition reinforce good behavior and success and 3) when employees see their peers getting recognized there is pressure to match the higher performers.     
Experienced employees have learned what it takes to be successful – on the other hand someone just out of college will have a lot to learn.  Whether employees are experienced or not they all crave and deserve a pat on the back and a reward for surpassing expectations.  
Below are a few suggestions for managers and employees regarding recognition and rewards in the workplace.
Management:
1. It goes without saying that you must stay focused on the goals of the organization when creating incentives and recognition programs.  Those goals must be translated into individual objectives and activities.  Each employee needs to know how their job contributes and what the related perks are. 
2. Goals must be simply stated, objective, fair and attainable.  The experienced employee will be assigned more difficult objectives – the new hire, lower, more attainable objectives.  Goals that are not attainable in the mind of the employee are demotivators – allowing employees to participate in goal setting work best.   
3. Keep individual objectives simple – limit them to two or three of the most important measurements that will lead to desired results. 
4. The value of rewards, recognition and incentives must be proportionate to the contribution – the higher the contribution, the more valuable the reward.
5. Rewards must be great enough in the mind of the recipients to affect behavior.
6. Communications and technology advances are driving change faster than ever.  Incentive programs need to be flexible enough to deal with changes in organizational focus.  Management should review incentive programs quarterly and make appropriate changes.
7. Publishing a program of incentives and recognition is not enough.  Employees need to know how well they are performing.  Charting performance against objectives is very effective.  Charting should be shown for the organization as well as the individual employee.  Updates should take place often and be communicated immediately – this reinforces behavior
8. A process where managers select the award winners will be viewed as “favoritism” and/or be talked about as “It was your turn to win this year.” 
9. Employees like recognition that is random and maybe unexpected.  Try to vary the random rewards – cash, gift certificates, picking from a grab bag or half day off. 
10. Announce awards at group meetings.  If that is not possible send out an appropriate e-mail to employee peers.  Most of us, whether we admit it or not, like to be placed on a pedestal in front of our co-workers.
11. Every employee is different – make a point to learn about what makes each employee tick and use that knowledge to develop individual incentives where appropriate.
12. Team Recognition?  That’s a hot subject that deserves a separate article to be covered later.       
Employees:
1. Make sure you understand the recognition and incentive programs and what you will need to accomplish to win.
2.Know where you stand at all times.  Does management keep you informed of your progress?  If not, check in now and then and suggest that performance updates become part of the process.
3. Don’t be afraid to express your desire for recognition.  Being open about your desires lets management know that you are not afraid to make a commitment.  Many employees down play the level of their desire to attain awards (but secretly, they want desperately to win) – that way they don’t have to show their disappointment when they fail to achieve award levels. 
4. If you are failing to gain recognition you will need to ask yourself some important questions.
a. Is achieving important to you?  If not, recognition programs and incentives will not cause you to change.
b. Are you willing to put forth the effort to achieve expectations?  Success does not just happen – you have to make it happen. 
c. Do you have the proper training?  This is the easiest problem to fix.
d. Are your expectations in line with the organizations?  If they are lower and you don’t raise them to match or exceed the organization’s you won’t need to be concerned about recognition – you won’t be around long.
5. Make suggestions to management regarding incentive and recognition programs – in most cases they will listen and consider your suggestions.
If I have left out a question you have regarding rewards in the work place e-mail me (blee@scott-rice.com) and I will get back with you.     

 

 
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