BETTER THAN CASH
Cash rewards don’t always make great impressions
Sometimes “old articles” are the best ones. I’ve decided to bring this one from 2006 back to life. It was originally written for Career College Central magazine. Does it still hold up? Let me know!
In addition to bonus plans, many institutions and organizations offer some type of reward to honor their top performers. These are often given in the form of cash, but, as many surveys and one humbled recruiter found out, they don’t always make a great impression.
I grew up with a “cash philosophy.” If you want to reward me, pay me! “Money talks, and everything else walks.” Now, I have not abandoned this school of thought in a moment of insanity, but I have learned a new trick and even applied it in my office: rewards instead of cash.
Many incentive studies reveal that most workers surveyed viewed cash rewards as mere payment of their normal salary, instead of recognition for exceptional performance. Similar surveys conducted showed that 29 percent of employees who received a cash reward used the money for bills, while only 9 percent used it to reward themselves.
Many organizations have a President’s Club for top performers that usually includes cash or a vacation. In my office, we call these individual Pacesetters, and those who achieve this designation are entitled to our annual trip to fantastic vacation destinations, such as the Bahamas, Hawaii, and Mexico.
When I first started working as a recruiter for MRI Network, I was still thinking of a pay-me-now mentality and wanted cash, but they had a policy of not substituting a cash prize for the trip. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this policy was really an excellent strategy. As a result, I have traveled to new locations that I might not have visited otherwise and have great memories and pictures to document those trips.
“By not offering cash payments as recognition, a sense of status and accomplishment has been attached to my job that would have never existed otherwise”
For my wife, these trips are something she looks forward to every year, and she certainly enjoys telling our friends and family where we’re going this year. By not offering cash payments as recognition, a sense of status and accomplishment has been attached to my job that would not have existed otherwise.
Since learning this lesson, I quickly implemented it with my team. We have smaller prizes, such as trips to baseball games and expensive dinners. You can be extremely creative with these bonuses. Try offering TVs or other sought-after gadgets, like iPhones. Your employees’ friends and families will never see their bonus check, but they will ask where the new TV or gadget came from. This adds value to their job, your organization, and most importantly, their employee satisfaction.
Vincent Scaramuzzo is the President of Ed-Exec, Inc. A leading Education Executive Search Firm. He is also a contributing author and podcast guest. As a specialist in Executive Search for over twenty years, Scaramuzzo works nationally. He can be contacted at vincent@ed-exec.com 860-781-7641.