How should employees be rewarded when they go the extra mile?

Q: My local barista was a tower of power to us oldies all through the pandemic. He was constantly cheerful, a superior listener and went above and over and above just serving us.

I wrote a letter to management asking if he could be presented some type of recognition. I was for that reason unhappy to uncover he experienced been presented just a bottle of wine.

I believe the business could have finished extra. How do you truly feel about gratifying workforce who go “the extra mile”?

A: Twenty-5 yrs in the past, when I was Timpson’s main government, I despatched a handwritten letter each Monday to at the very least 10 branch professionals who experienced traded significantly properly. Several proudly displayed the letter in their shop. The personalized contact was so preferred that I introduced our Chairman’s Award with a tax-compensated cheque (ordinarily for £50), which was also despatched with a letter in my handwriting.

James, my son and Timpson’s current boss, nevertheless writes to particular person shops. A Chairman’s Award is now extra likely to be at the very least £100, but, like a large amount of other corporations, we also recognise fantastic consumer assistance and random acts of kindness, especially when a consumer has contacted us to praise a specific colleague.

Most big organisations measure consumer assistance concentrations on a dashboard – a preferred aspect of today’s governance agenda. To ensure superior assistance is being encouraged, they establish a typical reward procedure. Some rewards have inevitably long gone electronic and are often managed by outside the house “service providers”.

Some have adopted a procedure based on “well finished emails” that encourages colleagues to pick out persons who should have praise and mail them an on the internet notice. The concept is then copied during the organisation and… properly, that is it the reward is only their public recognition.

Several big corporations seem to be severely concerned that giving generous rewards can come at a prohibitive value. With this in brain, they make positive rewards are carefully controlled by the human methods division at head business office. Just before anybody out in the field can hand out a box of chocolates or a bottle of Prosecco, a request has to be despatched to HR by deciding upon an acceptable reward from the authorized checklist.

Just before handing around the flowers, chocolates or wine, a form has to be concluded and despatched to HR, who, in because of system, will issue an get form in favour of an authorized supplier. At final, the present can be obtained and presented. It’s an instance of command and handle going bonkers.

Some yrs in the past, we found a way to give our frontline professionals the liberty to hand out quick rewards to recognise fantastic assistance: we issued our own business scratch playing cards (an notion that was originally Asda’s).

As opposed to the lottery, to be a winner on a Timpson scratch card, colleagues have to expose 3 Timpson items, this sort of as 3 watches, 3 keys or 3 sneakers. Everyone’s a winner, but their reward depends on which items are exposed. The possibilities are £10, £25, £50, a bottle of your choice, a meal out on James or “the next sale is yours”.