Employee recognition that works.

How do employees today prefer to be recognized? Ironically, it's the simple forms of sincere thanks that mean the most to employees. In fact, of the top 10 recognition factors employees indicated as most important for them to receive when they do good work, four were types of praise: personal, written, electronic and public--each typically done by those individuals they hold in high esteem at work, given to them in a timely, sincere and specific manner.

The other top-ranked motivators included support and involvement, that is, providing information employees need to do their jobs, involving employees in decisions (especially those that affect them), asking employees for their opinions and ideas, and supporting them when they make a mistake. Autonomy and authority, such as allowing them to decide how best to do their work, allowing them to pursue ideas they might have for improving things, and giving them a choice of work assignments, also ranked high for employees, as did flexible working hours, learning and development opportunities, and the availability and time of their manager.

What do these factors -all have in common? They are all intangible, interpersonal and highly situational. Granting the above items in response to good work when it occurs is cited by today's employees as the most desired form of recognition. These actions my 'Tin here as a person, not just a manager, when you need me the most." By way of example, one employee recently told me about how she was having a tough time with some per renal issues and, during a meeting at work, her manager said: "Mary, I want you to go home, take care of what you have to there and come back when you're ready." She took a few days off and came back to work ready to dig in. "That happened over seven years ago," she told me, "but I think about it and the courtesy and consideration that manager extended to me almost every single day."

The balanced approach

This shift toward less formal recognition makes sense because that is what employees today say they most value. More personal "here-and-now" sincere thanks and forms of recognition are preferred over more formal recognition programs, which are less frequent, less personalized, and often have lost relevance, meaning and excitement in most organizations today.

However, it doesn't mean you have to do informal recognition to the exclusion of formal recognition. My recommendation is that practitioners ask their employees (via a survey, assessment, focus groups or all of the above) what they value from a list that includes current programs and practices, and potential new items, activities and practices, and see how they respond. Then once you have a motivation baseline of your employees' preferences, systematically move away from those things that your employees no longer value and toward those things that they are more excited about. This allows you to discontinue programs and practices that are not valued with a minimum perceived "take away" loss, because you are acting on their feedback (which itself will be motivational to most employees) and adding things that they have indicated that they value more. This process will also validate those things that are currently working and provide an energy surge to your over-all recognition efforts, making them more fresh, fun and dynamic.

Bob Nelson, Ph.D, is president of Nelson Motivation Inc., San Diego, Calif., and author of numerous books on motivating and energizing employees. E-mail: [e-mail]. Website: www.nelson-motivation.com.