Strategic Employee Recognition: by Derek Irvine

What’s your biggest concern in the next six months? WorldatWork recently reported the results of ComPsych Corp. survey asking just this question of HR managers. The answer itself is not surprising: “Maintaining employee productivity and morale” (31%). I do have to admit, however, that I was surprised that this outranked “Dealing with health-care costs and new legislation” (26%). Admittedly, I listen to my US colleagues and follow the US healthcare debate through the lens of my own lifetime experience with the Irish healthcare system, but it’s clear to me that these changes are of serious concern to employees, HR Pros and company leaders alike.

What’s your investment plan for workforce improvement programmes? An Accenture survey of CxO level executives (and a few HR pros) found recognition, incentive and training programmes held steady or actually increased in the last 12 months.

As Incentive magazine reported on the study:

“In the United States, 39 percent of respondents made no changes to their recognition programmes, while 28 percent increased them. … On average, about 24 percent of respondents cut those programmes. International companies showed even more support for retaining or growing recognition, incentive, and training programmes, with just 15 percent and 19 percent cutting recognition and incentive compensation programmes, while about 75 percent maintained or grew them.”

What do you think? Are we in for a double-dip recession? Seems to me that the economic pundits are waffling hard on this topic. In a Bnet article, Margaret Heffernan seems to think so, but she offers great advice for what to do in a double-dip – grow! Click over to read her case study of Timken and how they, “Invest when times are tough so we can capitalise on those investments in the good times.”

A Towers Watson survey found many US and Canadian companies are following this advice, at least in terms of their investment in “talent/performance systems,” citing these as the most critical HR Service delivery issues in 2010 (quoting):

• Talent/performance management systems (42% versus 35% in 2009)
• Streamlining processes/systems (35% — unchanged from 2009)
• Increased involvement in strategic business-driven issues (27% versus 23% in 2009)

I’m a fan of Ann Bares’ Compensation Force blog. She writes cleanly and clearly on what are often complex topics. She’s called herself a “spreadsheet jockey,” but she is uniquely talented at taking the information out of a spreadsheet and bringing to light the most pressing issues to those not immersed in employee compensation matters.

Last month, she broke down the challenge of merit pay. Click over and you’ll see at a quick glance why she concludes:

“There we have it, for what it's worth. All I can say is, no wonder we're looking beyond merit pay, and even cash rewards, to drive performance.”

Irrational. Some days, does it seem like that’s the best word to describe the workplace? I tend to like Dan Ariely’s research on irrationality. Initial research showed, “In eight of the nine tasks, the promise of a bigger bonus actually significantly decreased people’s performance.”

Paul Hebert recently reviewed Ariely’s latest book, The Upside of Irrationality on his i2i blog. Paul highlighted this very interesting twist on the impact of cash bonuses: