Blog: Appreciation in the eye of the beholders

Compensation & Benefits

Appreciation in the eye of the beholders

It is essential for organisations to convey how precious employees are for the success of business. By doing this they encourage every resource to transform into a high performing individual.
Appreciation in the eye of the beholders

Come awards season and the managers suddenly turn miser! It’s a feeling equivalent to a bone stuck in the throat – which can neither be swallowed nor spit out. No matter how many rewards and recognition awareness models are created and propagated via the medium of policies; yet just when the time is ripe, appreciation of an individual becomes tougher than crossing the Nile full of crocodiles. Every HR no matter where across the globe is battling the issue of recognizing their human capital, well within time; before they raise the red flag.

Such is the state of affairs that many employers manage to ascertain facts about the high potential resource only when papers are shuffled, thereby setting wrong trends across the organization. One could only make wild guesses about the general psychology that lies in the mindset of the concerned stakeholders. Ironically, appreciation is the only motive for the majority that sets them going in a quest, to achieve the pinnacle of success and stretch beyond their threshold. There’s an insecurity that always looms over the managers in question and that is with regard to identifying whether their own interests are being taken care of too.

In a generation where an individual’s interest needs to be taken care of before anything else or anybody else; the entire blame cannot be thrust on the psyche. Perhaps the organizations are unable to convey how precious the resources are for the business to prosper, across all levels of the hierarchy. Some organizations believe concentrating on the non-executive/non-management levels will boost synergy beyond forecasted trends. Whilst others believe the leaders and managers can take away most of the scores and the ones below still have lots of learning to be done!

The question isn’t about plain simple resources, which are available in scorching numbers across every bend of the road. Instead it’s about spreading the likelihood of every resource to transform into a high performing competent individual, thus becoming an employers’ dream talent.

Lack of proper channels to identify and evaluate employees is a top concern voiced by many. There may be policies outlining the entire procedure; however, the process implementation may not be that strong after-all. There could also be a case of the managers accusing the HR department following red tape bureaucracy. Perhaps the management thinks reward giving is a part of the protocol, without feeling the need to truly emphasize and appreciate the achievements by the individuals/teams. Some may find it (performance evaluation) a daunting task or a time waster, unless they are the ones receiving recognition.

Unfortunately, out of sadistic values there happen to be a certain segment of people in the industry who project thoughts like “A certificate is just a piece of paper, big deal!” But then dear segment of the industry, “So is your compensation!”

The process of determining the right candidature is hardly lucid and anything can happen between tossing a coin to mutually distributing awards among teams. Did we miss the lame jokes that circulate around? Yet people wonder how the government that is elected doesn’t showcase the right picture of the vote mechanism? Hard to believe, but our practices of electing is wired wrong right from our very evolution.

So what can HR do about it? Make more robust policies? Include the categories in the client brochure? Go yak-yak-yak about how encouraging the environment is and how management supports every potential resource. All said and done, but what needs a larger change and working around is the psychology – ‘The I Before The You’.

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Topics: Compensation & Benefits, Employee Relations, Performance Management, Watercooler, #Social Media, #TotalRewards

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