Abstract:

The report presented here is a proposal for our company to adopt “Employee of the month” program as an employee recognition tool. Recognition is a tool for motivating high performing employees to further high productivity. In this program, the employees (who are supposed to be awarded) are given various kinds of incentives like photo in office and on company website, certificate of appreciation and similar activities.

The report will first tell about the importance of employee recognition from point of view of literature and then will focus on description of employee of the month program and ways in which it can be adopted in the company.

Importance of employee recognition:

In any organization, Human Resource Management includes four main parts: developing employees, acquiring employees, motivation then and retaining employees. The first phase is acquiring human resource. This part deals with staff building related activities like fixing categories of employees, deciding number of employees etc. This past has three dimensions too namely career building expects management development and employee training.

The second function is motivating employees. This includes searching for individual needs of employees and finding ways that can motivates employees towards the organization. The retention function mentioned above deals with activities that helps in sticking the human resource to the organization. This includes factors like work environment, satisfaction with salary, authority given to employee, role in team and decision making process etc.

As we know that the most precious resources of an organization is its people. So motivating people can prove an efficient way to enhance the performance and thus building a sustainable tool for completion. Employee motivation is a key for improving culture and value system at any organization. The purpose is to bring employees more closely to the organization. Some suggested ways to encourage employees are:

Few ways to encourage employees are:

• Employee involvement in decision making.
• Proper rewarding system and monitoring program.
• Pleasant work environment and work culture.
• Try to improve work-life balance in employees.
• Employee training at regular intervals to prevent out datedness of the workforce
• Employee recognition

One of the major tools for employee motivation is employee recognition. Employee recognition is the process of awarding high performing employees with fame. Employees are given appreciation and publicity within the organization so that they can further motivate for high quality work. The importance of employee recognition is further elaborated by Motivation factors, one of the key theories of Human Resource Management literature. It says that employee’s attitudes and motivation can be determined by the two kinds of factors Motivation Factors and Hygiene Factors

• Motivation Factors or Intrinsic factors are the factors related with job content and lead to job satisfaction. Work staff is asked questions on
• Augmentation: Knowledge they earned and were it worth.
• Work Itself: Characterization of jobs as interesting or boring, varied or routine, creative or non-creative.
• Recognition: Appraisals they get on their work.
• Responsibility: Responsibilities related to their task and the power they have in their hands. Are they satisfied with it
• Achievement: Analyzing personal efforts being put in by them satisfactory or not.

Thus employee recognition again comes out be a important component of employee motivation.

Need for Employee of the month program:

As suggested form literature in above section, employee recognition is a key way of motivating the employee in any HRM process.

One of the ways of employee recognition is “Employee of the month program”. There are number of ways of employee recognition but one of the most widely used methods is EMP (Employee of the month). EMP has been used and verified by huge number of companies and is presently a benchmark for employee recognition.

In employee of the month program, an outstanding employee (based on the performance of a single month) is been chosen by voting or by other ways and that employee is awarded by organization-wide popularity and certificate of appreciation. This fills the employee with emotional and social satisfaction as his or her effort is been recognized by those he or she working with. Other kind of incentive like high pay etc does not care about the social recognition need of the employee and thus results in dissatisfaction from the job. Thus the kind of appreciation provided with employee of the month program will not only boost the confidence of the employee but will also create a sense of competition among the employees to attain the this kind of appreciation and will enhance their productivity. (How to Start an Employee of the Month Award, 2010)

Employee recognition program: Introduction

An employee recognition program should be of great use for building the spirits for any kind of organization, be it a small organization or a large organization. Every person in the organization would like to be recognized because he would like to mark his presence a pleasant one in the organization. This also means that an employee would like to get recognized because of the hard he does in the organization. And to start this many effective programs can be started and this can probably show the way to innovation, higher output and great job fulfillment for the workers.

A plan for employee recognition must comprise of several levels of acknowledgment which is also known as appreciation. That is from a simple Credential of Appreciation to the Staff of the month to giving awards to the employee in different divisions and also Credentials must be given to the Staffs who go beyond expectation. This Credential of Appreciation should not be that easy for the employees to achieve it. Else the meaning of Credential of Appreciation for the employee will lose its meaning. Employees who work in the lower level that is the starting of the carrier should not feel that achieving those credentials will be easy. It should be made tough so that the company also gains something from them.

The cost of Credential of Appreciation is very less. Such as when a customer leaves a record of a small document regarding that particular employees goes ahead of or more than his normal duties, a simple credential in the name of that employee can be given stating that how did he satisfy the customer and what all measures he took to do that. This certification will improve the self belief of the employee to work harder where this will lead to the fulfillment of the company.

When a customer gives a written document to the employee’s leader regarding the service the customer received, the copy of that could be given to that employee along with the credential. This kind’s of reward should be presented at the department or employee branch meetings. This is one of the practical situation, where doing things like this such as reward for the employee will be effectively appreciated. (Employee of the Month Recognition, 2010)

Staff of the Month should be calculated by the co-staff’s he is working with. This is because, and then only the employees will work in a competitive manner. And during that particular period of month the employees work should be monitored carefully by the head of the department and then be stated during the award ceremony. A well-made, framed credential, commemorative inscription or other physical reward should be provided to show along with a small financial reward making his appreciation highly popular by his team members.

Higher output and deeper commitment will result from clever use of this particular appreciation award because every staff will want to be named as the Staff of the Month for his or her hard work. Awards can be given depending on the range of the organization such as the award can be Staff of the Month, Staff of the Year or Staff of the Quarter. If the organization has its branches in many different countries, then a large reward or award can be very much effective as a much favorite after staff recognition award. (Employee of the Month Recognition, 2010)

To make the Staff recognition programs successful, the credit system must have already been clearly stated for each reward and award. These nominations must be made sure that they are being assessed by a balanced group of peers. If there are some sort of clue that the chance of gaining appreciation are high for the popular staff or the staff the boss likes the most, the entire staff recognition plan would be of little value.

Steps in starting employee of the month program:

For the proposed employee of the month program as a recognition tool, the organization can implement these following steps: (How to Start an Employee of the Month Award, 2010)

Step 1:

Make sure that the employees come to know what all are the criteria’s for taking part in the program. Also decide how long an employee must be working in order to be qualified for the Employee of the Month (EOM).

Step 2:

Make sure a date has been chosen each month to select the Employee of the Month. Then place the employee’s name of all eligible one’s in a coffee mug or a hat and pick out one name.

Step 3:

Inform the person that he is the Employee of the Month. Comprise a document of the prize as well as the list of benefits of the credit. Make a publication in the employee information sheet and place the choice on the organizations’ community bulletin panel.

Step 4:

Create a list of bonuses for the EOM. Also include ideas made by the staff’s. The organization must allow the Employee of the Month to wear casual clothes during any day of the month. And also arrange manager to take the Employee of the Month to have lunch one afternoon.

Step 5:

Have a poll done by the employees for their top 3 to 5 Employee of the Month benefits. Then an announcement should be done regarding the top choices after the polling. And make sure these details go in a printed document to the employees.

Step 6:

The organization should create a unique notice board or display casing in which the Employee of the Month displays his or her photo and record so that the other employees also come to know about his or her better. And this has to be made sure that the organization clears the space for the next Employee of the Month to come.

Step 7:

Put the Employee of the Month in charge of gathering the staff’s to select the next Employee of the Month. And allow time for that particular employee to collect all these during the last or that first day of the month. Then remove the person’s name of the earlier winners for a decided upon time.

Conclusion:

It is evidenced that employee motivation is a key element in HR activates of a firm. The organization need to motivate its employees for better productivity and one of the ways of doing this is employee of the month program. Employee of the month program provides the social and emotional need to the employees and thus will encourage the employees to work harder.

The company thus can implement this kind of recognition program for better productivity.

An employee of the month program can be a huge morale-building instrument for any business, whether small or large. Everyone likes to be renowned for their undertakings and useful recognition programs can result in higher productivity, innovation and better job happiness for the workers.

Considering all the aspect of need of employee recognition and features of employee of the month program, it is suggested for the company to adopt this program to motivate its employees to perform well. The steps to implement the program are provided in the body of the proposal.

References:

• What is an Employee Recognition (ER) Program?. (n.d.). Retrieved on 30th March, 2010, form http://www.topresults.com/Creating_an_Effective_Employee/What_is_an_Employee_Recognitio/what_is_an_employee_recognitio.html
• How to Start an Employee of the Month Award. (2010). Retrieved on 30th March, 2010, form http://www.ehow.com/how_4485719_start-employee-month-award.html
• Employee of the Month Recognition. (2010). Retrieved on 30th March, 2010, form http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/qt/reward_criteria.htm