Employee of the month/quarter

[Poetic Justice]

So, I have a few questions regarding the concept of employee of the month/quarter/year basically.

1) Do any of you still work in a business that does this?

2) If you do, what potentially makes it a positive or successful part of the business?

And

3) I am thinking of bringing in something like this in my business but I want to have some sort of trophy, or prize that moves from staff member to staff memebr when they win it. Think of something like a gnome, teddy, or some sort of work suitable statue that when it is at their work station people associate it with being the current champion - this can be used as social proof with any external parties/visitors/customers as well as social media.

Edit: The trophy isn't the prize. It is on top of a monetry reward.

 

[the_interloper]

I would never have won this award if it existed at any of my workplaces

 

[74561347]

money is a much better motivator than awards or trophies.

i cant think of any job where a teddy would motivate me to work harder than more pay. in the end i work so i can do things that arent work, and as soon as knock off time comes around i am completely checked out

 

[MatthewB]

my last job still had that, a big deal wasn't made out of it, you got you pic in the quarterly newsletter and what you did that was so good, we also had salesman of the month

 

[Poetic Justice]

money is a much better motivator than awards or trophies.

i cant think of any job where a teddy would motivate me to work harder than more pay. in the end i work so i can do things that arent work, and as soon as knock off time comes around i am completely checked out

Sorry, I'll have to correct. That wasn't my idea of the prize - we usually give a monetry gift card here when we do it.

The teddy thing was just a viral thing that people associate it with and for us to use for a marketing thing

 

[owen87]

So, I have a few questions regarding the concept of employee of the month/quarter/year basically.

1) Do any of you still work in a business that does this?

2) If you do, what potentially makes it a positive or successful part of the business?

And

3) I am thinking of bringing in something like this in my business but I want to have some sort of trophy, or prize that moves from staff member to staff memebr when they win it. Think of something like a gnome, teddy, or some sort of work suitable statue that when it is at their work station people associate it with being the current champion - this can be used as social proof with any external parties/visitors/customers as well as social media.

Edit: The trophy isn't the prize. It is on top of a monetry reward.

Have fun when staff start arguing with you over who they think really deserved to be employee of the month if there's cash involved.

Hint: They always think it should be them.

 

[Over The Post]

i cant think of any job where a teddy would motivate me to work harder than more pay.

Sure about that?

Have fun when staff start arguing with you over who they think really deserved to be employee of the month if there's cash involved.
Hint: They always think it should be them.

^^^ this ^^^
First hand experience in a workplace with many women: be prepared for the "ooh she can use the money to buy knee pads" remarks and similar cattiness that would get any male an instant meeting with HR

Pros:
- sounds like a good idea
- makes the winner feel good for a day

Cons:
- most people who miss out will resent it because they think they worked harder than the winner
- if the winner doesn't win next month they will resent it because they worked just as hard and didn't get it
- god forbid the office brown-noser wins it, even when completely earned
- god forbid the office loner/miseryguts wins it, even when completely earned

Sales bonus: all good, the numbers are on the wall for all to see, there's no disputing who gets to wear the teddy

Good luck!

 

[owen87]

View attachment 1255625

Sure about that?



^^^ this ^^^
First hand experience in a workplace with many women: be prepared for the "ooh she can use the money to buy knee pads" remarks and similar cattiness that would get any male an instant meeting with HR

Pros:
- sounds like a good idea
- makes the winner feel good for a day

Cons:
- most people who miss out will resent it because they think they worked harder than the winner
- if the winner doesn't win next month they will resent it because they worked just as hard and didn't get it
- god forbid the office brown-noser wins it, even when completely earned
- god forbid the office loner/miseryguts wins it, even when completely earned

Sales bonus: all good, the numbers are on the wall for all to see, there's no disputing who gets to wear the teddy

Good luck!

Any cash bonuses should be very clearly tied to a very measurable KPI that gives 0 room for subjectivity or argument. Even then people will argue that they were near enough, or that x person got lucky and that sale really should be credited to y person.

 

[rank and file]

The Prince of Perth likes the idea

 

[Shell]

I would never have won this award if it existed at any of my workplaces

Yeah we had employee of the month at my old school i never won it in 14 years.

The only time i got my nose out of joint over it was the time my and another faculty got their offices and classrooms renno'd. That staff member got theirs for "packing, organisation extra work etc" in regards to it. Then I did the exact same thing when my faculty got done- nadda nothing. Yeh whatever its all politics.

 

[Kram]

I struggle to think anything more lame tbh.

 

[Gough]

The Prince of Perth likes the idea
View attachment 1255738

If he's clean good on 'im.

 

[Billy ray]

 

[Hank Scorpion]

We have employee of the quarter, which comes a small cash prize.

I did win it once , but personally not a fan of the idea. Feels like a lazy, token effort to acknowledge hardworking team-members, but dusting your hands of managing it for the rest of the quarter.

There are better ways of encouraging and rewarding good work imo.

 

[Stratton_Gun]

Personally think it's rather silly

Like many said above, it can cause tension and resentment that would outweigh any benefits of it

 

[Caesar]

We have an annual company awards night with a handful of individual and team-based awards. Big company and it generally goes to people who have successfully implemented major projects or initiatives, so it is considered a relatively decent thing to have on your resume.

 

[craigos]

 

[mr bagcroft]

Isnt Employee of the month for joints like McDonalds? Thats about as seriously as it should be taken.

 

[Over The Post]

My place introduced the Everest Awards for people achieving the pinnacle of excellence. First prize was something like a $20,000 travel voucher, so it was definitely worth aspiring to.

Excellence. Peak. Pinnacle. Elite. Perfection.

And the mountain logo on all the blurbs, all the web pages, all the photos, and the award itself... was of the Matterhorn.

 

[Rob R]

The Prince of Perth likes the idea
View attachment 1255738

Smart move by the company to give him the award given the free publicity they would receive.

On SM-G570F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Rob R]

So, I have a few questions regarding the concept of employee of the month/quarter/year basically.

1) Do any of you still work in a business that does this?

2) If you do, what potentially makes it a positive or successful part of the business?

And

3) I am thinking of bringing in something like this in my business but I want to have some sort of trophy, or prize that moves from staff member to staff memebr when they win it. Think of something like a gnome, teddy, or some sort of work suitable statue that when it is at their work station people associate it with being the current champion - this can be used as social proof with any external parties/visitors/customers as well as social media.

Edit: The trophy isn't the prize. It is on top of a monetry reward.

From what I have seen, regular awards or quotas for awards just turn them into jokes as ultimately people will get them despite not really doing anything special. Better to award someone for an achievement eg. new more efficient process, product, new customer, safety improvement etc

On SM-G570F using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[La Dispute]

It’s decent in theory, supposed to reward people who go above and beyond, but in my experience the kind of employees who win these awards are company martyrs who don’t progress too much at all.

I get it’s good to help out your colleagues here and there, but there is a unique slipstream of individuals who routinely throw themselves under the bus in the hope they get noticed, but get noticed for the wrong reasons - Aka being confirmed pushovers who will happily take on extra work thinking it’ll increase their prospects going forward.

And sometimes they are just nice people who don’t know how to say no.

 

[Lord of the Pies]

I worked for an engineering firm that had a hack award. You generally won it by breaking something expensive. Broken part then got welded to a perpetual trophy. Trophy stayed on your work bench until next eff up.

 

[Scotland]

Surely this sort of thing only works in organisations of a certain size.

Employee of the month in a small business of half a dozen people has no meaning. Either someone wins it over and over like the Brisbane Lions B&F or everyone wins it every few months regardless of how much of a nuffy they are.

Likewise big organisations aren't really going to pick an employee of the month seriously. You might win it at a Bunnings store, but you probably aren't going to the employee of the month for all of Bunnings let alone out of 100,000 people that work for Wesfarmers overall.

 

[raskolnikov]

In my workplace we don't have employee of the month but we are encouraged to send positive postcards to colleagues doing a good job.

No, really.