Rules for Recognition
- Singleness: It's more effective to single out individuals and recognize their personal achievement. If you recognize a group or team, that's fine, but make sure you mention each individual's contribution to the achievement of the team's goal.
Don't wait - recognize immediately.
- Specificity: Pinpoint the employee's specific achievement. Be careful that your recognition is based on facts, not just feeling. Don't establish recognition schemes that reward employees for just being lucky. Emphasize the positive impact that the employee's performance had on improving safety, production, or services. It's important people know precisely how the employee has impacted the success of the organization.
- Speed: Recognize employees as soon as you can after the behavior or achievement. The old adage, "the sooner the better," certainly applies to effective recognition. I remember a story of a co-worker who received formal recognition to mark 15-years of work with an organization. It was policy to give everyone recognition every five years. He received a form letter and, what appeared to him to be a cheap pen. But, what really irritated him was that he had not received the recognition for six months after the 15-year achievement date. Do you think that the formal recognition policy was effective, or that the recognition, itself, was appreciated? Was the "story" he told me and others positive, and did it make me look forward to a similar award? Remember, the longer you wait to recognize, the less effective will be the recognition.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
2-4. Which of the following is TRUE concerning effective recognition for safety?
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