Having accountability and performance tracking in the workplace is a vital part of all successful organizations, but companies will do well not to focus too much on the role of extrinsic motivation.
While reaching set targets is important and can encourage people to push harder for certain milestones and objectives in the hope of various rewards, intrinsic motivation that is aligned with company values is a much more powerful driver of productivity and employee engagement.
To do this it is necessary to focus on the acts and behaviors that warrant recognition within the context of a brand’s values and ethos, as well as rewarding people for reaching commercial targets. A good recognition program should therefore be aligned with the core values of the organization and not just sales targets or other such indicators of success.
What’s Different About this Approach?
This approach brings the values of your organization to life by making a direct connection between the behaviour being displayed and your company values. Rather than thinking of your employee’s actions and behaviours as a separate entity to your core brand values, you are bringing these together and creating a more robust sense of culture.
Doing this also opens up opportunities for brand values to be discussed more within your company, further extending their presence and relevance. The opportunity for storytelling about the specific behaviour and the values that leads to success and recognition can help to deepen people’s understanding of the company’s fundamental brand identity and what it means to be an employee within your organization.
This strategy acknowledges that in addition to people being motivated by monetary reward, they also want to have recognition and praise from those around them. It is in this collective recognition that people feel more motivated and engaged than if they were to simply be offered a small bonus, especially if the reason for them receiving this is unknown to those they work closely with.
Ultimately, this creates social validation and engenders employees’ personal commitment to the organization’s core values, while still not taking away the chance for them to strive for external indicators of success such as promotions or pay rises.
Establish what Desirable Behaviour Looks Like
Creating a culture of desirable behaviors helps to bring your values to life and encourage people to embody the values you hold most dear as a company. It also helps new hires to understand the role they should play if they want to fit in and support the collective body of colleagues they are now part of.
As an organization, you’ll need to think carefully about the kind of behaviour that you want to recognise the way you will do so. While most businesses will offer recognition and greater reward for those who push the hardest, work the longest and achieve more of their goals, this doesn’t necessarily embody the kind of company culture you want to create.
For instance, are you recognising people for ’overworking’ or sacrificing mental health? The answer is probably no, but the process of only recognising certain achievements over others could lead to this kind of culture. Instead, consider the fundamental attitudes, approaches and behaviours that you want to encourage in everyone and find ways to reward those who are simply doing their job well.
This can create a more inspiring environment and reduce competition and resentment between colleagues. So, while remarkable achievements should still be acknowledged and rewarded accordingly, it’s also important to recognise seemingly mundane performance that is sometimes overlooked but nevertheless important to who you are as a brand.
Which Actions Should be Recognised?
The key is to establish a connection between specific actions and behaviours with the organisation’s values. . Consider whether you want the focus to be on work based activity or if you want to broaden the scope. For example, you mightchoose to place a particular emphasis on non-work related tasks. You may have an employee who has been particularly accommodating or supportive to colleagues as they’ve taken ill or struggled with their workload for some reason.
Equally, you might reward people for their mentoring skills and willingness to actively support those junior to them. These are the people that often contribute to the positive atmosphere in your office and simply hold things together when things are overwhelming or hectic for others.
If you want to learn more about adapting your organization’s processes to improve integration and engagement among your workforce, get in touch with us at SERVICEBRAND GLOBAL. We offer a comprehensive brand identity service that not only looks at how you can define your company’s fundamental principles and values, but also how you can create systems and policies that truly bring your value to life in daily work.