What Is Non Financial Recognition Business Essay - Free Essay Example

Companies today are constantly searching for new ways and approaches to recruit new employees with top talent, retain their top talent, and find new ways to motivate employees for maximum productivity. New creative organisations are doing just that, for example Google. Google have a unique working environment for their employees so they can focus on creative ideas that produce fantastic new products. They reward their employees with benefits like free food all year round, onsite swimming pool and gyms with personal trainers, allowing them to bring their pets to work ect. Men and woman want to do a good job, a creative job and if they are provided the proper environment they will do so. Google and other companies like this use this brilliant aspect to allow employees to be in control of their own time, let them perform with respect and freedom, and enable them to have an agreed common goal. Due to the economic state or countries are in, it isnt always possible for employees to be rewarded with an increase to their benefits and salary, however, there are other numerous ways one can reward their staff whilst boosting their morale that does not include breaking the bank in the process. This report will illustrate a whole host of alternative motivators that can act to influence employees behaviour and embellish employee motivation. What is non -financial recognition? Non fina Theory of motivation and rewards I think the key to motivation is understanding what someone elses key objectives are and then working to a line with their role with their objectives into the role of the companies objectives. Obviously they need to make a fit to what they want and where the company is going. According to Armstrong.M (2002), motivation theory examines the process of motivation. It explains why people at work behave in the way they do in terms of their efforts and the directions they are taking. It also describes what organisations can do to encourage people to apply their efforts and abilities in ways which will help to achieve the organisations goals as well as satisfying their own needs. There are two types of motivation Extrinsic Motivation The motivating factors are external, rewards such as money or grades. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself may not provide. An extrinsically motivated person will work on a task even when they have little interest in it because of the anticipated satisfaction they will get from some reward. Intrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money or grades. The motivation comes from the pleasure one gets from the task itself or from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on a task. In theory intrinsic motivation are more likely to have a longer and deeper term effect, whereas Extrinsic has an immediate and powerful effect but will not necessarily last long. Motivation theories can be divided into three main categories Instrumental / behaviourist, which in effect state that people are only motivated by money Content theory, which is concerned with the specific needs of people Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. First, Maslows hierarchy of needs assumes that needs are arranged in a system that contain lowest-level needs, which are psychological needs, and the h ighest needs which are self-actualization needs; therefore, according to Maslow, individuals must move up the hierarchy (Matteson, 1996). The assumption of Maslows theory is that individuals are motivated based on which hierarchy they are in. For example, a homeless person is not motivated by his or her social status, but his or her ability to find food and shelter. Thus, individuals have different levels of needs in each of these areas, and those levels will drive their behaviour (Matteson, 1996). Maslows application is that employees will not be fully motivated unless their basic needs are met. A practical example is if employees are not allowed to take off time to spend with their family because of continued mandatory overtime, employees will be demoralized because their need for social security is not met; thus, their work will not reach maximum potential. Employers need to understand that they have a responsibility to allow employees to have a life outside of work. Otherwise , they will lose top performers. Process or cognitive theory, which examines the psychological processes involved in motivation. Lockes Goal setting theory. This theory provides the rationale for performance management processes involving the agreement of objectives and feedback. These can be the basis for non-financial rewards (recognition). Adams Equity Theory. This theory provides a practical rationale for the morally correct treatment of peoples rewards impartially and fairly. It justifies the use of job evaluation and the need to adopt transparent reward policies and use performance management processes as means of providing for fair reward decisions and explaining how they were made. Non-Financial methods of rewards Employees would generally prefer to have their efforts rewarded with enhancements to their salary and benefits. This isnt always possible, though, especially in times of economic uncertainty. There are, however, many other ways you can reward your staff and boost morale that dont involve breaking the bank in the process. Recognition ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ Recognition Can Be Simple One of the most effective ways to express appreciation is often one of the most overlooked: saying thank you. Even if most of the duties one performs are a normal part of the job, hearing thank you in a spontaneous and timely way can mean a lot to anyone. It should be done often, and can be done privately or publicly in front of co-workers. Mention the task, project, or behaviour you want to recognize and be sincere. Some departments have a yearly picnic, luncheon, or other event to show appreciation to staff for their efforts. The best motivators are manager initiated; managers must take the initiative to acknowledge people, to thank them. Organize an awards ceremony or certificate program to recognize the efforts and achievements of your staff. Along with a presenting trophies or plaques, take the time to praise employees for the work theyve done and arrange a dinner or a party for all of your employees to mark the occasion. Award prizes for effort and improved performance alongside honors for recording the highest sales figures or being responsible for most revenue generation. High use recognition managers look for opportunities to recognise employees when they do good work! Flexi-Time ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ The Internet has made it much easier for people in a whole range of jobs to work remotely from home. Giving your employees the option of performing part of their function away from the workplace or offering a more flexible approach to hours is a good way to reward staff for their efforts. It also shows that you trust your workers to carry out their roles with minimal supervision and have considered their work-life balance and family commitments Incentives ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢Organize regular incentive schemes to reward your staff for meeting performance targets and other benchmarks. Set aside a monthly budget and ask some of your employees to form a committee to consult the entire work force of your company on how theyd like the money to be spent and how the incentive program should work. The money could be used to buy on the latest technology gadgets, nights out or vouchers from big-name stores. You could even award extra time off as an incentive if this wouldnt interfere with the needs of your business. Charity Days ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢Allow every staff member to take a paid day off to work for a charity. You can either allocate the charity yourself or allow employees to nominate the cause of their choice. Your workers get the satisfaction of knowing theyve helped a worthy cause and had a day away from their usual roles while your company is doing its bit to give something back to the community. Importance of employees reward Employers must offer employee rewards that the companys employees find meaningful. Well-managed employee rewards programs have tangible affirmative effects on the employers business Having an effective reward programme can help solve many of your HR issues Retention One effect a good employee rewards program has is a positive impact on employee retention, as mentioned at Loyaltyworks.com. Health and Safety Solid employee rewards programs also have measurable positive effects both on safety and workplace health, thus reducing overall health-care costs for both employee and employer. Motivation A crucial outcome of a good employee rewards program is enhanced motivation among personnel, including helping the employees to make connections between professional goals and personal goals, as described at Maritz.com. Engagement A solid employee rewards program also increases employee engagement in the workplace, a factor that converts into improved performance and better customer experience. Return on Investment Employee reward programs provide a concrete return on investment (ROI). Research has shown that employee recognition and rewards of a nonmonetary basis show a greater return on investment than do cash awards, according to Loyaltyworks.com. Bottom Line Ultimately, from the employers viewpoint, employee reward programs have a positive effect on the bottom line for reasons such as the positive effect on health care costs, performance, and workplace engagement. Factors to Consider in the Establishment of a Reward Program Before you establish a program to tangibly reward staff on an informal, ongoing basis, consider these issues: Determine why you want to establish a recognition program. You may want to reward some (or all) of the following: Time, Work, Money-saving idea, On-going or one-time customer compliments for service/satisfaction Solution to a difficult problem Outstanding one-time achievements, Outstanding attendance (particularly where public hours are important) General ongoing contributions that youd just like to acknowledge Improvement of any kind in an employees efforts Overall aims of reward management. The primary aim of reward management is to reinforce the drive to improve organizational performance. The achievement of excellence and, in the phrase of Peters and Waterman, productivity through people, depends on attracting and retaining the right calibre of people and then, having got them, providing them with both financial and non- financial inc entives and rewards which will maintain and indeed increase their motivation. In short, the aims of reward management are to attract, retain and motivate people of the quality required by the enterprise. Conclusion People might come to work for money but I find people always leave for recognition. Rewarding your employees means more than just paying them at the end of every week or month. If you think your employees should just be grateful that they have a job in the first place, the subject of rewarding your employees is one you need to pay close attention to. People do work for money but they work even more for meaning in their livesÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦companies that ignore this fact are essentially bribing their employees and will pay the price in a lack of loyalty and commitment (Pfeffer, 1998) The best motivators today cost little or nothing. Recognition is around you all the time, a lot of the time recognition is focused on money. Money is a motivator; its just not the only one. High staff-turnover is directly linked to how well an employee feels they are appreciated and valued in their job, and high staff turnover is costly to any organisation. There are several ways in which you can reward your employees, without it costing you a lot and while possibly saving you money on recruitment at the same time. There has been a big shift in the workforce over the last ten years, theres no doubt that everybody comes to work to get paid, however, if your going to attract the best talent in your companies it is not in todays worldgoing to be all about the bottom line the dollar amount they take home. Non financial rewards are important, theres an increasing desire for every employee and generally every person in the community, to live with meaning and have a better quality of life. How can you bring this in to the work place? Do you understand what really motivates the different employees that you have in the business? Each person is wired differently and therefore need different needs, some of us need greater flexibility, that can mean who we are but also life circumstances. Generally we all want greater recognition in some ways, some want them mor e privately others want them more publicly but recognition is important. Then we can get down to free time, involvement in community activities some things that we do in our company is that we provide a quality life trip where we employ each year and this is where they can go and live out a life dream that they wouldnt otherwise do necessarily by themselves and the company pays for it, and its not just about the person going away on some fancy trip its meant to enrichen their lives but also motivate everybody else in the company about they gona and done. So we provide some free days to go and help with their community based activity that the person is passionate about. In the end this its about understanding your employees passions and helping them connect to those in the work place. Because no amount of bonus is gona make up for this. Some bonus is good but we got to understanding what is the overall life drivers of our teams. And the other area that we built in is providing more f ree time of days off around major holidays for example Christmas, when really not much happens and our work flow is lower why not provide the time off and they can be the days employees can take their days off and refresh themselves with holidays. Think about who your employees are, theyre all different and how you motivate them with non financial rewards Refrencees 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, Nelson, 1994. How to Recognize and Reward Employees, Deeprose, 1994. Staff Appreciation Events, Stanford University, 1998. Recognition and Rewards Project Team Report, MIT, 1998 Managing behavior in organizations Marc J. Wallace, Andrew D. Szilagyi Publisher Scott, Foresman, 1982 Employee reward pg 56 Organizational behavior and management by Ivancevich, John M. Matteson,Michael T. 1996 publisher Irwin Employee Reward third edition by Michael Armstrong published by CIPD (2002) pg -14 Reward managementÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦(book)A handbook of salary ad ministration (1988)ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦by Michael Armstrong Helen Murlis. Published by Kogan page 12