Manage
HR
It
is the quality and the standard of the human resource recruited
that plays a key roll in differentiating between a successful
organisations and a "run of mill" organisation . In
this section, we will discuss the issues relating to this valuable
resource through a series of articles. And yes, we are
open to contributions from masters of this Art ... Are you one?
Inspire
Creativity and Reward the effort
Let’s
face it. All of us at some point in our career feel we deserve
more than what we are getting. ‘Star-performers’ expect
bigger rewards coming their way. We all have ideas about what
these rewards should be, e.g. more money, bigger title, bigger
office, etc. The question is, how can you as the employer provide
meaningful incentives and rewards to your star-performer?
Sometimes
the effort that goes into executing a certain plan is not rewarded
at the same level. Recently an MBA student related an experience
he had while working for an aircraft manufacturer. This student,
then a fulltime employee, came up with a long-term plan that
would save the company millions of dollars and also potentially
save lives. For his effort he received a pen set. The ‘reward’
was the biggest reason why he left the company. According to
the student, he hoped to work on other projects in return or
set up a team for him to develop his new idea. It’s these
kinds of incentives – autonomy, more time, more resources
- that creative people respond to.
Different
kinds of compensation, stock options and concrete financial
rewards are all fine, but that is not always why people stay
on in a company. Employers should structure work environments
so that creativity is both fostered and rewarded at a time when
many companies are still worried about losing their best talents.
The
idea is to look at the models behind creativity. As an employer
your job is to identify those areas where your employees are
most creative, most productive and most fulfilled. Once you
determine that, give them autonomy to pursue ideas in those
fields. In the end, creativity leads to a better work environment.
Efficiency and productivity increases when we do something that
engages us.
What
happens when your employee fails at a given task? How do you
avoid rewarding people who go off on useless or wasteful projects
without inhibiting the free flow of ideas? The usual tactic
is to shut down work interest is by punishing failures. However,
this is certainly not the best line of action to take. Rather
if your employee does have a groundbreaking idea, give him the
opportunity to back up his plan irrespective of the outcome.
You look at the due diligence that has gone into it; you study
the business plan, you check to see if the employee has done
his or her homework. Then you reward both his good homework
and his creative thinking.
The point is, you can follow the established procedures and
expect to get a lot of failures in return. Or else try inspiring
the best out of your team and improve the overall quality of
work. All it requires is a bit of creative thinking. Here are
a few thoughts, which might help you along the way.
•
One cannot discount the draw of financial rewards and incentives.
Performance driven incentives, bonuses, employee ownership plans
and stock options can prove to be quite effective.
•
Encourage your employee to grow, give him the resources to try
out new ideas.
•
Help him balance his personal and professional life. Introduce
concepts like flexi time to work offsite.
•
Age related incentives come highly appreciated. There will be
certain differences between the needs of 27 years old versus
a 40 year old. Provide for them according to their requirements.
Sometimes
it’s the little things that improve work environments.
Example, allow employees to use personal stereo headsets on
the job. Job productivity actually increases because distraction
is far less.
When
introducing a reward system, think whether you want to base
it on seniority, quantity or quality of work. If you are rewarding
seniority without rewarding quality, you can’t expect employees
to be appreciative. What you want is high quality, creative
people thinking out of the box. Those are the people who should
get rewarded.
Employee
feedback is another useful way to encourage workers to think
creatively. But as an employer, you must respond to their feedbacks.
Act on some of their suggestions. The worst thing one can do
is taking the feedback and stacking it somewhere it cannot be
found. Encourage employees to offer their input into a decision.
Whether the feedback is being used or not, detailed reasons
to support the decision should be given.
A
good employer will always try to bring out the best in his team.
It takes a lot more effort to get the creative juices flowing,
but at the end of it all you have a team, which is willing,
contended and productive. In the long run, both you the employer
and your employee stand to gain from one another.
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