Develop a Peer Recognition Program

02/27/07

Consultant Gregory P. Smith, of Chart Your Course International, asked employees in a poll, “What causes you the greatest dissatisfaction at work?”

At the top of the list: Lack of appreciation, which even beats out poor pay and benefits.

Managers undoubtedly have a responsibility to recognize and reward employees for good work. But Smith, speaking to a group of HR people at the recent Society for Human Resource Management convention, also touted the value of peer recognition: “Recognition from peers can be even more powerful than recognition from managers,” Smith said. “Employees are often in a better position to ‘catch someone doing something right.’”

Queen for a Month
What do peer recognition programs look like? Smith described one such program at Dayton Metro Housing. Each quarter, employees receive three “Quest” tokens. When they spot fellow employees or managers providing good customer service, they hand them a token. At the end of the quarter, the person with the highest number of tokens is crowned king or queen. Those with eight or more tokens are “knighted,” and all the kings, queens, and knights attend a special banquet.

At the end of the year, anyone who received tokens can use them to bid on various awards and prizes.

Managing performance in this way follows the time honored ABC model:

Antecedent: Anything that creates the desire to act in a certain way, like the promise of a reward.

Behavior: How the employee acts.

Consequences: What happens after the act-like receiving praise or a promised reward.

FASTT Fun
Smith’s formula for creating an energizing peer-recognition programs is called FASTT Fun. FASTT stands for:

Focus on behavior. Recognize and reward people for specific behavior that serves your current organizational needs. These behaviors depend on your situation and may include things like practicing good customer service, improving attendance, or cutting costs.

Avoid judging. Make it easy for anyone to get recognized or rewarded. Said Smith, “The problem with employee-of-the-month awards is that a lot of people don’t think the process is fair.” By putting power into the hands of peers, employees perceive the program to be fair.

Simple. Keep programs so simple that everyone understands immediately how they work.

Team owned. Let the people involved create and design the peer-recognition program. When people “own” the program, they’ll talk it up among their co-workers. “Give them a dollar figure,” Smith said, “and let them figure out the rest.”

Timely. Hand out rewards or recognition weekly, monthly, or quarterly, not annually. Reinforcing the behavior you want takes continual effort.

Add a Random Element
Finally, if you want people to participate, the program has to be fun and have an element of surprise.

Smith helped develop a program for a retail employer in which employees had access to printed form they could use to praise co-workers for desirable traits, like teamwork and good service. Once filled out, the slips of paper ended up on the company bulletin board. The person who received the most forms got special recognition from the store manager. But then all the individual forms were placed in a basket, and names were drawn randomly for prizes and more recognition.

Smith believes that a lack of recognition and praise “is a major reason why people become dissatisfied with their jobs.” Easy to implement and effective, peer-recognition programs could be the spark that motivates your people to perform at a high level of dedication and skill for years to come.



Greg Smith is the author of Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High Turnover to High-Retention.