Main Disadvantages Reward System and Recognition

The reward system is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience, associative learning, and positively balanced emotions, particularly ones which involve pleasure as a core component. The Reward is the attractive and motivational property of a stimulus that induces appetitive behavior, also known as an approach behaviour, and consumatory behaviour. In its description of a rewarding stimulus. ‘A review on reward neuroscience noted. In operant conditioning, rewarding stimuli function as positive reinforcers’. However the converse statement also holds true: positive reinforcers are rewarding.

The Primary rewards are a class of rewarding stimuli which facilitate the survival of one's self and offspring, and include homeostatic and reproductive rewards. Intrinsic rewards are unconditioned rewards that are attractive and motivate behavior because they are inherently pleasurable. Extrinsic rewards are conditioned rewards that are attractive and motivate behavior, but are not inherently pleasurable. “Extrinsic rewards derive their motivational value as a result of a learned association with intrinsic rewards”.

A recognition program may appear to be merely an extra effort on their part with few tangible returns in terms of employee performance. While most employees certainly appreciate monetary awards for a job well done, many people merely seek recognition of their hard work. For an entrepreneur with more ingenuity than the cash available, this presents an opportunity to motivate employees.

Fulfilling employees’ needs, recognizing their efforts and presenting them with monetary and non-monetary rewards help you create a right workforce for your organization that can be your partner in success. Recognition of their efforts and boosting their morale results in increased productivity and decreased attrition rate. It is a proven fact that the motivated and dedicated workforce can change the fate of a company. After all, human effort is the biggest contributing factor in the success of any organization. It is just next to impossible to achieve organizational goals only by the efforts of top management. It’s the workforce who executes their plans and helps them achieve their financial as well as non-financial aims.

Establishing and implementing a reward system needs careful analysis of the company policies and procedures. Deciding how to recognize employees’ efforts and what to provide them requires thorough analysis of responsibilities and risks involved in a particular job. The reward system of an organization should also be in alignment with its goals, mission and vision. Depending upon the job profile, both monetary and non-monetary rewards can encourage employees to contribute more to the organization. The Employees need to clearly understand the behaviour or action being recognized.

The Reward is ‘Apart from a decent salary, friendly environment, growth opportunity, recognizing and appreciating the outstanding work performed by employees goes a long way in attracting and retaining talent within the organization’. A reward and recognition program is a systemic approach for employers to show appreciation towards good performance on individual and or group levels. While the term ‘reward’ and ‘recognition’ are often used together, they should be interpreted separately. The Rewards are typically considered monetary in nature, while recognition provides a psychological benefit.

Many employees welcome the recognition they receive in the form of monetary rewards, and employers who implement employee reward programs usually do so as an expression of appreciation for their most valuable human resource capital. Employee reward programs come with disadvantages as well, but eliminating the programs isn't the solution. Careful planning and implementation of rewards prevent programs from becoming the source of workplace conflict rather than well-deserved employee recognition.

One of the biggest disadvantages to having an employee reward program is how employees perceive certain rewards and, in the case of highly compensated executives how the general public perceives them. Many people expressed outrage about corporate greed when American International Group Inc. executives received bonuses worth nearly $100 million in 2010 after a government bailout. Employee reward programs that receive the most scrutiny are usually within organizations perceived most likely to also grant golden parachutes. During times of high unemployment rates, public criticism of employee reward programs for executives is elevated.

One of the biggest motivators for employees is to be held in high esteem by their peers. The best way of earning this respect is by being acknowledged for being good at what they do. While most would relate rewards and recognition to monetary bonuses or extravagant awarding events, employee appreciation doesn’t have to be that expensive or glamorous. Employee rewards can be as candid as a pat-on-the-back and a genuine compliment. It can also be as simple as a ‘thank you’ email or a friendly greeting at work.

Hiring your staff only marks the beginning of the employee cycle. Next, you need to train, develop, motivate to them to perform, and ultimately, keep them. So, how do you keep your company’s most valued assets? The answer – incentive programs. Employee retention is the ability of an organization to retain its employees. Employee rewards and recognition are one of the possible approaches to retain your staff. One example can be financial incentives such as raises, bonuses, and stock options.

Employee recognition gifts are also a great plus – for example, a gift card from their favorite store or a token of appreciation for every five years of service. Incentive programs as a means of employee recognition in the workplace is a great way to show appreciation for your employees, keep them motivated, and make them stay.

Carroll tells companies the single best thing they can do to improve employee satisfaction is to use effective communication skills. Ideally, employees should understand how decisions about compensation are made, on what basis, and when they can expect to hear about raises and performance. Employees often equate how much they’re paid by how much they’re valued, which might not be the case, especially for a small business under increasing financial pressures. Keeping your workers in the loop can help to alleviate this problem.

In large organizations, one employee typically does one job. This isn’t the case in small business, where a person might be, say, the accountant, the facilities manager, and the business manager, as well as the person responsible for coordinating all employee birthday parties and answering the phone when the receptionist is out.

Carroll advises companies to tie salary to the highest skill set that they ask employees to perform on a regular basis via benchmarking. She also recommends looking at your internal hierarchy and comparing employees’ skills and job duties against the people they supervise and against the people who supervise them.

“Compensation alone will never attract or retain top performers,” says Carroll. Instead, she says that companies should take a more dynamic approach, especially with top performers who want a workplace where their performance is recognized. Nonfinancial rewards can take the form of offering developmental training or other opportunities to be involved with the organization at a deeper level, according to Carroll. It can also mean offering non-traditional solutions, such as the flexibility of a four-day workweek to an employee who values that extra day off.

Which brings us to our next point: Sometimes, the best way to find out how to reward employees for good performance is to find out what they want. Using an employee satisfaction survey can help you figure this out. “If you’re really, truly trying to understand employees and what motivates them, one of the best things to do is just to ask them,” Carroll says. “All employees are motivated by something a little bit different.”

Carroll agrees with the well-known adage, “Employees don’t leave companies, they leave bosses.” “Somebody who you genuinely feel is engaged in helping you to be successful and giving you opportunities for growth really can’t be supplemented by large sums of money,” she says. Instead, strive to be a good boss—start by learning to become a good listener.

The Global Market for Offshore IT services and business processes has nearly tripled since 2001. All indications point to this trend continuing. To maintain this positioning and the continued potential expansion of the markets that offshoring can address, new models that go beyond the simple replication of onshore activities are imperative. We have developed a model and we are focused on setting a precedent to deliver offshore services and solutions for years to come. Our Transparent Offshore Model (a.k.a. TOM) is unique in the offshore space due its overall framework. TOM is the core of the service delivery framework and is comprised of collaboration, communication, and currency. 

The three C’s collectively represents the differentiating factor that results in Salzer Technologies ability to produce high performance and quality deliverables. This is an asset to the client organization and backed by greatly improved supportability. It’s more than a contract. It is a business relationship that matters to Salzer Technologies. We provide this end-to-end transparency model by delivering visibility to the customer in the form of our project management related processes of team knowledge sharing, collaboration and technical decision making, software development, and quality assurance. So, at the end of the day, the entire team is in sync with where the project stands.