Employee award: Mercedes for a month
This is an article I found written by Jan Norman, the small business columnist for the OC Register posted on August 22nd that I found to be interesting. It is an interesting way to improve employee morale.
Employee award: Mercedes for a month
Posted by Jan Norman, small-business columnist
Emplicity an Irvine human resources outsourcing service, gives its employee of the month something more than a plaque. It’s the use of an E-class Mercedes Benz with “Employee of the Month” on the side.
Here’s the first winner Lorraine Ontiveros, 23, with her company-supplied ride:
Lorraine Ontiveros
The company calls its employee recognition “Driving to Success” and has employees vote on their peer who best exemplifies the chosen theme for the month.
Ontiveros was the landslide winner in July for the theme: “positive attitude.”
“The first time I drove the car, people were waving, giving me a thumbs up and even taking pictures of the car and it was a bit distracting, in a good way,” Ontiveros says.”It kinda felt like I had the paparazzi following me.”
In August she passed the keys to Jennifer Meehan, who fellow employees decided best exemplifies “excellent teamwork.”
Vic Tanon, Emplicity founder
Emplicity founder Vic Tanon says he’s always trying to figure out how to reward and incentivize employees, which isn’t that easy in a recession.
“We have a lot of Gen Y employees who want recognition in different ways,” he says. “We wanted to make a loud statement when recognizing our employees and felt that a nice ride would give people something they could proudly take home and show to mom and dad and to their friends.”
Emplicity is a 14-year-old professional employer organization plus an outsourced human resources service. It has 35 employees and offices in Irvine, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Antonio and Los Angeles.
The monthly award also helps emphasize core company values, Tanon says. Each month’s theme is one value re-enforced on a daily basis.
Employee recognition is a communication tool that reinforces and rewards the actions and behaviors you most want to see people repeat, says Susan Heathfield at About.com.
Her “Five Most Important Tips for Effective Recognition” include:
- Establish criteria for what performance or contribution constitutes rewardable behavior or actions.
- All employees must be eligible for the recognition.
- The recognition must supply the employer and employee with specific information about what behaviors or actions are being rewarded and recognized.
- The recognition should occur as close to the performance of the actions as possible, so the recognition reinforces behavior the employer wants to encourage.
- Don’t want to design a process in which managers select the people to receive recognition.
