The recognition and performance link

Janet Wiscombe

Evidence suggests there is a strong link between non-cash incentives and improved job performance. Many people in HR dismiss awards and incentives programs as «feel good» activities. But evidence suggests there is a strong link between non-cash awards and incentives and improved job performance, says employee-recognition expert and best-selling author Bob Nelson.

Nelson’s study, conducted from September of 1999 to June of 2000, is based on responses from managers and their employees in 34 organizations ranging from Universal Studios to the
U.S. Postal Service. He says that several performance-related variables were found to have broad support from managers in the study, the majority of whom agreed or strongly agreed with the following items (listed with percentage of agreement):
— Recognizing employees helps me better motivate them.
(90.5 percent)
— Providing non-monetary recognition to my employees when they do good work helps to increase their performance. (84.4 percent)
— Recognizing employees provides them with practical feedback. (84.4 percent)
— Recognizing my employees for good work makes it easier to get the work done. (80.3 percent)
— Recognizing employees helps them to be more productive. (77.7 percent)
— Providing non-monetary recognition helps me to achieve my personal goals. (69.3 percent)
— Providing non-monetary recognition helps me to achieve my job goals. (60.3 percent)

Nelson also found that 72.9 percent of managers reported that they received the results they expected when they used non-monetary recognition either immediately or soon thereafter, and 98.8 percent said they thought they eventually would obtain the desired results.

Of the 598 employees who reported to the managers in the study, 77.6 percent said that it was very or extremely important to be recognized by their manager when they do good work. Employees expected recognition to occur: immediately (20 percent), soon thereafter (52.9 percent), or sometime later (18.8 percent).

«If you look at companies employees love to work for, you’ll find that they recognize their people and tell them they’re doing a great job,» says Nelson, whose books include the best-selling 1,001 Ways to Reward Employees (Workman Publishing, 1994) and, most recently, Please Don’t Just Do What I Tell You ! (Hyperion, 2001). «Non-cash awards and incentives lower stress, absenteeism, and turnover, and raise morale, productivity, competitiveness, revenue, and profit.» Nelson’s mantra: «You get what you reward.»

Workforce, April 2002, p. 44