Formal recognition programs are often outdated.

• Author: Nelson, Bob
• Position: Rewarding Employees

Editor's Note: This is the first of a three-part series on employee recognition.

What is happening today to recognition programs? Most employees today perceive formal recognition programs, once a source of great pride and prestige, as stale and irrelevant, a by-product of a bygone era. While companies have been investing more money in such programs, the evidence of their effectiveness in terms of morale and performance has steadily declined.

Let's look at three examples of formal recognition programs that tend to be out-of-step

with the times and preferences of today's employees:

1. Years of Service. In stable, predictable times, at organizations in which employees have a job for life, marking milestones toward retirement makes sense. But what employee today takes a job that he or she really expects to be there 20 or 30 years later? Few, if any.

   Just because such recognition programs exist, doesn't necessarily mean they am motivating employees. In one organization with which I recently worked, over half of all surveyed employees didn't view years-of-service awards as a form of recognition at all.

   In most organizations today, years-of-service awards have become more associated with endurance than performance. They've become a badge of honor that "I survived"--all the more so if the organization has experienced a merger or layoff in recent years. Sure, you want to retain your employees--especially your top performers--to stay as long as possible, but it's increasingly not the clock they get on their 10-year anniversary that keeps and energizes them.

2. Employee of the Month. An equally questionable, although widespread recognition practice, is employee-of-the-month programs. I know of one organization where management periodically announces the employee-of-the-month at the managers team meeting, everyone applauds, and then the person in charge says: "If anyone sees George, tell him he was selected for this honor!" More times than...