Motivating staff to work efficiently

There are various ways to motivate individuals in an organisation to perform efficiently. Cash motivation in terms of incentives and bonus does work. However, in most cases it is only the individual who knows how he/she has performed.

For most employees, organisation wide recognition motivates them to drive their performance and plays an important role for achieving individual and team goals.

One of the most effective ways is institutionalising awards. And this is better if it comes from the chairman's office. These awards can be in individual and team categories, and usually announced annually.

To begin with, finalise the award categories, which should be no more than four to five, or it may lose its charm. In individual categories, it could be best employee, best salesman or best manager.

In team categories, it could best business unit, best support department, or best project team. The last one is important if there are strategic projects underway, with multi-department staff working on them.

Next is to develop the measurement criteria, which need to be simple, objective, and easy to understand by all staff, so when the awards are administered, everyone understands why a particular team or individual were the winners.

Measurement criteria

The measurement criteria are usually a mix of data available in the system (revenue, profit, cost reduction) and qualitative inputs (contribution as team member, feedback from supervisors/peers).

It is important that the qualitative factors are also quantified, so a final score can be calculated, to decide on the winners.

Next, develop the detailed terms of reference for the awards outlining how the awards will be administered. These will include the timeframe to be considered for the award, criteria for nominations of each award, criteria for short-listing individuals/ teams, method for evaluation and calculation of points. The necessary forms need to be finalised at this stage, which can be used for nominations and evaluation.

Unbiased jury

To ensure that the awards evaluation is non-biased, appoint a panel, who would act as the jury. The panel usually consists of senior management executives, from cross functional departments. The panel receives nominations, scans them and identifies the short-listed teams/individuals, conducts necessary checks/interviews, finalises scores for short-listed participants and selects the winning individuals/teams.

At the end, what type awards will be handed out, need to be finalised. These could be a mix of cash, plaque, certificate, and maybe a family holiday or gifts.

An important step now is to announce and communicate the awards scheme introduction across the organisation. A bit of hype helps at this stage. This is usually done through special announcements from the HR department.

The annual awards ceremony needs to be organised as a special function, attended by all employees, and the winners felicitated by the chairman.

Believe it or not, public recognition will drive your employees to enhance their contributions as individuals and as a team.

Sanjiv Anand is managing director and Manish Kotwala is director, of Cedar Management Consulting International.