A more personal “length of service award” makes a difference

Topic: Motivation, Rewards, Strategic HR, 
Publication: HR Magazine
Article:  Length-of-Service Awards Becoming More Personal.  
Author: R.R. Hastings
Featured by: Sarah Bowen

Length-of-service awards (the small gold pin or certificate at the bottom of your junk drawer) can be truly rewarding when managed in the proper way. However, when carelessness is evident in such gestures, employees do not feel valued. So, how can we make these gestures count?

Employees respond best when given the option to choose what kind of benefits to receive from their company.  And, yes, awards such as vacations to Hawaii or a new Rolex can increase an employee’s sense of pride in working for a company. Regardless of the price of the award, however, it is important to specifically address the employee on his/her anniversary through direct communication or a letter and also to share with the company the accomplishments of the individual. Employees respect the time and effort their company invests in recognizing individuals.

Managers should actively participate in recognizing employees and personally present their awards. When recognizing employees, specific achievements and accomplishments should be highlighted to distinguish employees and emphasize how they have contributed to the company’s mission. Awards programs do not have to be expensive. Bells and whistles aside, employees respect their employers for acknowledging their service to the company even if they simply receive a ‘thank you’—although a trip to Hawaii is always nice!

Hastings, R.R. (2009). Length-of-Service Awards Becoming More Personal. HR Magazine: SHRM’s 2009 HR Trend Book, 43-47.

Quarter past nine, I’m late again!

Topic: Compensation, Motivation, Rewards, Strategic HR
Publication: Research and Practice in Human Resource Management
Article: A Mathematical Model to Monitor Late Arrivals at Work.
Author: S.A. Oke, T.M. Ezenachkwu
Featured by: Sarah Bowen

In their recent article, Oke and Ezenachukwu embark on an ambitious journey to prove that timeliness is improved through rewards and recognition in the workplace.

The authors conduct their research in a beer and soft drink production company to test their model and assumptions.  Educational commitments, monotony of work, and poor welfare provisions were three key reasons workers gave as reasons for their tardiness.

The researchers proposed that work tardiness issues can be resolved through the use of rewards to employees who arrive early to work.  In order to alleviate lateness, the company implemented a computer system to supervise the arrival and departure times of workers and calculate the additional compensation for arriving early.  Adjusting for a variety of commuting differences, the results showed that most workers will arrive early to work when additionally compensated for their timeliness.

Maintaining proper records of employees’ daily arrival and departure times, informing employees about the program’s benefits, and giving feedback to employees and managers contributed to the effectiveness of this approach.  Electronic displays installed as part of this program served as reminders to employees about their responsibilities to the company and aided in motivating workers to achieve a better work culture.

In addition to directly affecting the bottom line, on-time arrival impacts the culture of the organization:  when workers arrive on time, a company acquires a more positive image and employees become more confident in management.

Oke, S. A. & Ezenachukwu, T. M. (2007). A Mathematical Model to Monitor Late Arrivals at Work by Junior Staff, Research and Practice in Human Resource 

Who is holding the glass ceiling in place?

Topic: Compensation, Organizational Justice, Motivation, Rewards
Publication: Journal of Human Resources
Article: Who is holding the glass ceiling in place? 
Author: N. Fortin
Featured by: Benjamin Granger

Many 21^st century women still earn less than their male counterparts.  However, this injustice may not be due fully to chauvinists and stereotypes.  In her article, The Gender Wage Gap among Young Adults in the United States: The Importance of Money versus People, Nicole Fortin investigates influences that women themselves exhibit which may contribute to their smaller paychecks.  As women more often choose to volunteer with organizations that are altruistic in nature, and tend to place more importance on workplace success rather than rolling in the dough, it is easy to follow Fortin’s argument that such noncognitive factors inevitably influence the gender wage gap. 

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 and the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988/94, Fortin explores the possible impacts on the gender pay gap by examining four noncognitive functions:

·     The importance of money and work
·     The importance of people and family
·     Self-esteem
·     Locus of control (the extent to which a person feels they- rather than their environment        have control over their own success). 

In addition to human capital and cognitive factors, Fortin argues that these noncognitive qualities significantly influence the discrepancy in wages among men and women.  

Fortin finds that lower locus of control and higher importance of people and family tend to widen the gender wage gap, while higher self-esteem and importance of money and work tend to lead to more equitable wages for workers in their early thirties.  Although the research shows that the differences due to these noncognitive factors are largely insignificant over time, the importance of work and money should not be overlooked, as it plays the largest role of the four noncognitive factors.

Fortin, N. (2008, Fall2008). The Gender Wage Gap among Young Adults in the United States. Journal of Human Resources, 43(4), 884-918. Retrieved March 14, 2009, from Advanced Placement Source database.

Pay-for-performance: Helping those that help themselves?

Topic: Compensation, Motivation, Rewards
Publication: The Wall Street Journal
Article: When schools offer money as a motivator.
Blogger: James Grand

Long gone are the days when Mom and Dad would offer a few bucks for an “A” on your report card to buy some candy from the grocery store.  Now, the schools are starting to provide the incentives—and they aren’t just offering up bubble gum and lollipops.

A recent article from The Wall Street Journal (August 21, 2008) reported that a number of schools around the country are implementing new pay-for-performance (PFP) systems as means of encouraging high school students to enroll and pass Advanced Placement (AP) courses.  The performance rewards (in some cases, upwards of $1000) are given to the top performing students on the various AP exams.  With a great sigh of relief from its investors, longitudinal analyses of the PFP systems have shown mostly positive results—higher enrollment in AP classes, higher test scores and more graduating seniors moving on to college (whew).

But should schools (and other organizations, for that matter) be wary of the PFP reform?  Research from organizational psychology, management and education indicates that although PFP is generally linked to higher overall performance and satisfaction across a variety of domains, there are a number of consequences that should be carefully considered before they are used (Rynes, Gerhart, & Parks, 2005, provide an excellent review of the issues associated with PFP systems).  For example, there is evidence to suggest that PFP is more attractive to individuals’ with greater need for achievement and self-efficacy, which are often related to characteristics such as education level and even gender or race in many work domains.  Thus PFP systems have the potential to create discriminative compensation practices or entirely homogenous workforces if not carefully monitored.  Furthermore, in jobs/tasks where units of performance are not clearly established (i.e., subjective supervisor ratings, etc.), the benefits of PFP are often difficult to determine and may actually be detrimental.

Time will tell if PFP catches on in our nation’s schools—in the meantime, I suppose a bag of M&M’s never hurt anybody.

Singer-Vine, J. (2008, August 21). When schools offer money as a motivator. The Wall Street Journal. pp. D1.