Celebrate the Cash Free Christmas Bonus
Struggling to find enough money in the kitty to throw an office Christmas party? Then stop looking. Mark Paskowitz, a senior consulting partner with The Ken Blanchard Companies, says there are better ways to let your employees know you’re grateful anyway.
“In this tough economic year, everyone’s focus has been on money, money, money,” says Paskowitz. “Businesses have been so focused on successful recovery by evaluating strategic and operational issues that they’ve forgotten to take a minute out to recognise the people working so hard alongside them. And if there’s one thing worse than not getting your expected Christmas bonus, it’s getting no Christmas bonus and a boss who acts like they don’t care about you either.”
“I’ve been into organisation after organisation recently, meeting people who’ve been working incredibly hard to pull their companies out of the red and back into the black,” he reports. “Yet whenever I’ve asked how many of them get too much praise at work, no one ever raises their hands.”
Paskowitz insists businesses need to re-focus on reward and recognition immediately, particularly in the run up to Christmas when people traditional expect their employers to give back. He says organisations that don’t take the time to thank their people are depriving them of a deep-seated human need: if people don’t get the recognition they need in any walk of life – relationships, family life or work - trust, credibility, and a feeling of connection diminishes rapidly. Once this happens in the workplace, performance always suffers - slowly at first, in small, almost imperceptible ways - but then it starts to build. Eventually, people stay at work physically, but quit emotionally.
“There is a huge difference between people showing up at work and people doing their best at work,” says Paskowitz. “When I ask people to think about the best and worst leader they’ve ever worked for, they consistently remember their best leader as one who acknowledged and recognised them.”
“I’m not suggesting cash bonuses aren’t a good idea. I’m no Christmas Scrooge!” he says. “I just know it’s a mistake to think people only want monetary recognition. This will drive short-term behaviour, yes, but to create long-lasting impact, leaders should look at more durable factors driving intrinsic motivation. The trick is to find out what drives each person individually, then take time out to talk to your them, find out what their likes and dislikes are, what they enjoy doing. Then you start building a relationship that shows you are genuinely interested in that person.”
“People are starving for time with their bosses,” he adds. “They want an opportunity to be listened to and to be involved in what’s going on in the company. Just a few minutes on a regular basis can make all the difference to individual performance and loyalty.”
Mark Paskowitz is hosting a free Webinar on the subject of Reward and Recognition on a Limited Budget on Tuesday, December 15, 2009, from 17:00-18:00. To register visit www.kenblanchard.com/News_Events and click ‘Webinars.’