Recognising a job well done

Published: The Hindu
On: September 26,2012
At: Hyderabad, Chennai

To read it online, click here.

The first part of this article discussed the benefits of recognising the achievements of employees. In this concluding part, the top minds of various industry sectors share the initiatives taken by their organisations and the role of social media in recognising employees.

So, how do organisations make employees feel appreciated? Sonia Kutty, General Manager, Human Resources, QuEST Global says, “One of the key initiatives is recognition from the customer, which we consider as the ultimate, as no one better than the customer can give a better testimonial. This is one of the key indicators of appreciating an employee’s contribution.” Several awards - CSAT Champions Award, Service Anniversary Awards, Employee of the Month, and Strong Contender for Employee of the Month Award, Team of the Year and Strong Contenders and Knowledge Management Champions Award are given throughout the year based on set parameters and votes of a team of judges. ‘The CEO Club Dinner’ is a quarterly event where the best employee of the quarter gets the opportunity to join for an informal dinner with QuEST CEO, Mr. Ajit Prabhu. ‘Conveyor’ – the company’s newsletter makes special mention of employee’s key achievements”, she adds.

Tejas Pandit, Business Operations and Strategy Lead, EMC India Centre of Excellence says that EMC has designed a customised platform to recognise employee achievements. This platform not only recognises individual employee’s achievements but also enhances collaboration. It also induces motivation for right behaviours and actions to be exhibited while working at EMC India.

Naveen Narayanan - Global Head, Talent Acquisition, HCL Technologies says that while there are cash rewards, the primary focus is always on recognition and appreciation. He says, “Awards such as Long Service Awards and Delivery Rewards and Recognition Awards Programmes bring to life HCL’s Employees First philosophy. O2 League of Extraordinary is an annual gala event to celebrate the high performance and achievements in the presence of family and colleagues. Xtra Miles is an online platform through which employees can appreciate the extraordinary efforts of peers. Recognition comes in the form of ‘miles’ or points earned, and gives them an opportunity to be a part of a select club of achievers.”

As Nagarajan Balanaga, Vice President – Human Resource, Cummins Group in India elucidates, “All major achievers are personally recognised by the Group Managing Director at the all-employee communication forum held quarterly. Individual and team efforts are recognised at this forum in the presence of the leadership team.” Additionally, key achievers are also recognised by presenting the CMD (Chairman and Managing Director) Awards for demonstrating allegiance to Cummins’ six core values.”

Rajesh Ramanathan, Director, HR, Cadbury Kraft Foods says, “Internally, we highlight and recognise achievements through mailers, newsletters and announcements on the intranet along with announcements in town halls and key forums.” Among their initiatives, ‘Managing Director Club’ is a concept wherein the best performing sales and customer business development colleagues are nominated to the exclusive Managing Director Privilege Club – ‘The Heroes’ and are flown to an international location for fun-filled 4 days.

Additionally, they have a regional award system where key achievements from teams of different countries are recognised across functions. Recently, 11 top performers were selected from across Cadbury Kraft offices in India and were awarded the opportunity to witness the London Olympics 2012.

Tapping the power of social media

The emergence of social media – like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter is a great benefit for organisations with branches worldwide. A bit of fun is added while ensuring the organisation’s visibility and employee engagement.

As Sreehari S, Managing Director, India Development Centre, The Attachmate Group (TAG) says, “Social media plays a vital role in the company’s reward and recognition process, especially in geographically distributed teams. Most of our recognition programmes are structured around peer recognition, and the company supports this with enabling tools and processes. This allows employees to express appreciation, gratitude and recognition for each other’s contributions across locations. The employees and their significant contributions are posted on the collaboration sites within the company’s intranet and are also displayed at various points at the workplace.”

Rajesh Padmanabhan, HR Head, Capgemini India says, “The public recognition that follows infuses a sense of accountability in the winners as they are regarded highly by others. Such announcements leave strong impressions on the external viewer about the company’s values and culture. As for the employees, it reinforces them to align themselves with the company’s ethos.

Today, we see that many companies are active on Facebook, Yammer, Twitter and they have strong alumni networks. In this age of netizens, such initiatives will be very successful.”

Meena Wilson, Senior Faculty, Centre for Creative Leadership – Asia Pacific says, “The role of social media is expanding. At this point, social media recognition seems to be driven by employees as individuals, not by their organisation. Individuals recognise each other via comments on Facebook, Yammer, and other networks. This may change. With organisations creating their own ‘pages’ on social media sites, savvy employees step forward to blog, twitter, youtube or post. In effect, social media enables employees to step out and directly win accolades from internal and external audiences in ways that were not possible earlier.”

It is easy to be carried away with all the praise about social media. However, it is critical to ensure privacy concerns are addressed in line with the organisation policies and culture. Otherwise, companies will flounder and make mistakes resulting in loss of reputation, customers and employees.

As Rajesh Padmanabhan cautions, “We need to be careful with the context and messaging to ensure the spirit of recognition and appreciation is not lost.”

With an effective recognition strategy and judicious use of social media, companies can enable employees to give the best they can at work.

Recognise employees’ achievements to improve engagement

Published: The Hindu
On: September17, 2012
At: Hyderabad, Chennai

To read The Hindu's online version, click here. 

Research has proven that lack of praise and recognition is the main reason for employees leaving an organisation. While salary raises and bonuses are important motivational factors, companies must recognise the achievements of employees more than once a year in different ways. Do today’s companies believe in announcing and celebrating the achievement of employees or teams across the organisation? What are the benefits of recognising and rewarding employee achievements in the presence of peers and senior managers? Leading thinkers and experts from industry share their insights about the connection between visibility of appreciation of achievements and employee engagement in this two-part article.

As Meena Wilson, Senior Faculty Centre for Creative Leadership, Asia Pacific substantiates, “People work in organisations not just to make a living, but to make a life. Tangible benefits – salary, bonuses, club and car allowances and other perks – are necessary. But so are intangible benefits – recognition of the expertise, skill and talents employees bring to work. This is what engages employees, motivating them to do their personal best.”

Sonia Kutty, General Manager, Human Resources, QuEST Global says that recognising and rewarding exemplary performers is a key ingredient of QuEST’s core values, which encourages the employees to set new standards.

S. Chandrashekhar, Director Human Resources, Juniper Networks India Pvt. Ltd. opines, “At Juniper, we have multiple modes of recognising and celebrating contributions of our colleagues. These include individual as well as team recognitions. These programmes enable us to set the bar for others as well as highlight the role models that may be emulated.”

Naveen Narayan, Global Head, Talent Acquisition, HCL Technologies while speaking on the merits of recognising an individual and its influence on the organisation says, “While Gen Y today expects immediate gratification by supervisors for the effort of walking that extra-mile, acknowledgement by peers, colleagues also goes a long way in motivating them. A motivated and dedicated employee is an asset for any organisation and proves instrumental in building a high performance culture that drives organisational growth. In other words, happy employees perform better and their loyalty towards the employer also increases.”

As Rajesh Ramanathan, Director, HR, Cadbury Kraft Foods concurs, “Recognition has multiple advantages. It builds a culture of appreciation, belonging and reinforcing the right kind of values and behaviours we’d like to encourage as an organisation. For employees, it is also an opportunity to showcase their achievements with pride. It encourages heightened ownership at work.

Rajesh Padmanabhan, HR Head, Capgemini India, feels that acknowledging contributions on a larger platform sends out two key messages to the employee community, “ We acknowledge that the contributions are creating a difference and we are counting on you to continue adding value to the company with such accomplishments.” He says, “The key here is involvement. Employees feel extremely connected when companies reach out to them for seeking their opinions and suggestions, acknowledge these, incorporate them in action and award such employees. That’s what makes the employee feel as a valued stakeholder in the company’s performance and makes the entire company, a collaborative workplace.”

Recognition must inspire others to take positive, transformational action. However, does this generate competition among colleagues? Does it lead to dissatisfaction and jealousy? Sonia Kutty explains, “This is not used as a system of benchmarking one employee against another but more so to do with the fact that the company is grateful for the dedication each employee puts forward every time the need arises.”

Rajesh Padmanabhan opines, “Every single contribution matters. It encourages others to explore opportunities that allow them to bring this zeal on to the table and give their bit in making the company a better workplace.”

However, it is important to be fair and consistent. One way is to develop criteria for what makes an employee eligible for the recognition. Anyone who meets these criteria is then recognised. It is very important for companies to have the right parameters for recognition. As Meena Wilson questions, “What achievements deserve public recognition and what form must that recognition take? Does the number of years in the company call for congratulatory handshakes and applause at annual functions? Should the sales revenues generated by teams in different regions of the country be published weekly? When a manager successfully slashes operational costs, should he/she be promoted as a reward? If an executive effectively handles a lock-out or merger, does he/she merit company-wide acclaim at a public function?”

Meena Wilson further makes a point, “The need for celebrations and recognition is a given. What has to be taken into account is what the company values most. This can be high sales volume, innovative ideas, loyalty and service, community service, cost-cutting, success in steering the company through labour problems, and so forth. What top level leaders and HR identify and celebrate will determine the culture of the organisation. This in turn will determine whether employees give more than 100 percent when they come to work.”

To sum it up, Sreehari S., Managing Director, India Development Centre, Attachmate Group rationalises, “Conventional wisdom of ‘appreciate in public, and criticise in private’ very much holds ground in today’s environment. An environment of open celebration of individual and team achievements, not only provides motivation to the achievers, but also serves as a mechanism for the organisation to convey to its employees as to what it expects of them and what will be appreciated.”

Let us look at the initiatives taken by organisations in this regard and the role of social media in the next part of this article.