The Ascent Group, Inc.

Rewards & Recognition Best Practices

An extract from Reward & Recognition Program Profiles & Best Practices 2010, a research report published by the Ascent Group, Inc.

Retooling after the Recession

Our recent worldwide economic crisis has dramatically changed the business environment. Actions that many employers have taken to combat or survive the downturn have had a negative impact on employee attitudes and performance. Restructuring and budget cuts have increased the workload of remaining employees—many workforces are stretched thin. Slimmer ranks means fewer internal opportunities for advancement. Training budgets haven’t fared much better either during the downturn, and many existing reward and recognition programs have also been impacted.

With minimal salary increases and few internal promotional opportunities, your better employees may be awaiting a job offer to jump ship. Scarcity of development opportunities also negatively impacts team performance and information sharing. Worse, wide gaps between what employees want and what they believe is attainable can lead to disenchantment and an unwillingness to give that extra effort on the job.

Now is the time to focus on employee motivation. Customer service has become much more critical as companies begin to find a way out of the economic downturn. Obviously, the customer service employee plays a critical role in customer service success. The customer service employee is the frontline, the point of contact, the face or voice of the company. How they feel about their job and their role in the company will be communicated indirectly through the level of service they are providing customers.

Customer service management’s top priority is attracting and retaining top-performing customer service employees. Reward and recognition programs factor greatly in this challenge. Research has found that employees who are satisfied with their company’s reward and recognition program are usually more satisfied with their jobs, more likely to remain with the company, and more likely to recommend their workplace to others.

Benchmark Study of Employee and Supervisory Reward & Recognition Programs

With this in mind, Ascent Group conducted research during the fourth quarter of 2010 to better understand reward and recognition programs offered to front-line customer service employees and supervisors.

The main objective of the current study was to identify “best practices” in reward and recognition for frontline customer service employees and supervisors. In particular, focus was given to understanding how customer service organizations of all industries determine, design, and deploy reward and recognition programs to motivate and retain front-line, customer facing employees as well as encourage desired customer service behaviors and attitudes.

Secondary objectives included understanding:

• Reward and recognition programs goals and objectives
• Successful reward and recognition program design approaches
• Techniques to measuring employee and supervisory satisfaction with reward and recognition programs
• Reward and recognition program costs
• Approaches to determining program success and performance
• Technologies that enhance the administration and communication of reward and recognition programs
• Characteristics of best and worst programs
• Other motivating techniques for frontline employees

Participants were asked to share management tactics and strategies, as well as identify any improvement in performance. The study also asked companies to include considerations, successes, and plans moving forward. The result of this effort is captured in this report.

Study Recommendations

Reinforce behaviors and reward results. Recognize the right behaviors and communicate such that the employee’s behavior becomes a model within the work group. Sharing information on expected behaviors and rewards will establish trust. Employees will be able to understand what they need to do to be similarly recognized. Reward these behaviors so other employees are inclined to follow suit. Rewards are a better reinforcement of learning and risk-taking than punishment is for failure.

Recognition and rewards can be formal and informal. Informal recognition, meaning, spontaneous or immediate—simple thank you’s or expressions for a job well done. In fact, most of a company’s recognition activity should be informal. It indicates a culture or atmosphere that acknowledges good behavior when it happens. Informal recognition is a critical component in human nature and the social structure—it’s a major motivator and results in people feeling good about themselves and their achievements. This should be carried over into the workplace, as a sign of respect and acknowledgement. While peer-to-peer recognition is important, supervisor to employee informal recognition is critical to the success of the organization.

Show pivotal employees that they matter. Top and critical performers want to know they have a future place in the company. While promotions are one way to send this message, they’re not always possible in this economy. Special assignments, attachment to high-visibility projects, skill-building opportunities, and formal or informal recognition can be equally powerful engagement and retention tools.

Be timely, specific, and communicate! Make sure you recognize behavior and reward results in a timely manner so that employees know exactly why they are being recognized. Be specific, clear, and communicate the event so that others will take notice.

Recognition is about acknowledgement and appreciation for a contribution, improvement, innovation, or excellence—a message to employees that they are valued. The act of recognizing an employee affirms the values and spirit underlying the achievement. It’s also about reinforcing desired behaviors and increasing their occurrence. Attitude and performance are closely linked; the appropriate recognition at the appropriate moment will create a positive attitude that, in turn, will lead to improved performance. Communicating this to the rest of the organization creates role models and sets the standards of desired performance.

Consider keeping everyone informed of successes through regular communication, such as a weekly motivational newsletter. Many companies are using social media tools—Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikis, and Blogs—to communicate with employees about your reward and recognition program events and successes. While many retailers have been at this for some time now, offering sale items and coupons to loyal followers, promoting reward and recognition programs through social media is picking up speed. Social media is one of the fastest growing tools of communication. Integrating a social component with your rewards program can enhance employee engagement and make your program more interactive.

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