CRA Inc

29 Jan 04 @ 11:26 am

Been Here 25 Years And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt

The Wall Street Journal’s latest “cubicle culture” piece, Been Here 25 Years And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt, makes the case that most employee-recognition programs do more harm than good — and there’s a lot on the line:

Employee-reward programs can be so unrewarding. The plaques, tchotchkes with logos, goofy contests and ham-handed presentation tend to backfire. It’s not that they’re all bad, but too often they seem like empty gestures supported by upper management, administered by a less-than-enthused middle management, and received by underwhelmed staffers. All this when an honest thanks would have gone further.

In other words, it’s the thoughtlessness that counts.

A majority of the recognition programs that exist today “do more harm than good,” says Curt Coffman, global practice leader at the Gallup Organization. His polls show that 71% of U.S. workers are “disengaged” — essentially clock-watchers who can’t wait to go home. “We’re operating at one-quarter of the capacity in terms of managing human capital,” he says. “It’s alarming.”

posted in category(s): Points of Interest