Full esteem ahead

Entrepreneur, March, 1999 by Jacquelyn Lynn

Is your recognition program working - or backfiring?

Business experts all agree: Workers need recognition and rewards to be successful. But how do you know whether what you're doing is helping or hurting?

Tom Pace says the easiest way to find out is to be sensitive to the general atmosphere of your workplace and pay attention to individual reactions to your efforts. Pace, 41, is president of Pace/Butler Corp. in Oklahoma City, which buys and sells midrange IBM computer equipment. Through trial and error, he's developed a recognition and rewards program that works.

Each morning, the company's 50 employees gather in the conference room for a unique but powerful 15-minute motivation session. They begin by reading the company's "atmosphere statement," which was written by employees and describes the environment they want to work in. Then they review the company's mission statement, values and goals. Next, seated in groups of six to eight, employees compliment each other for recent behaviors, both minor and major. Finally, each person shares something they've done well. "These meetings raise individual self-esteem and set the tone for the rest of the day," says Pace.

But the daily meetings are just one of the components of Pace's program. He does a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic things designed to express his appreciation and make his company a better place to work. For example, he periodically gets $300 to $400 worth of $2 bills and gives them to managers with instructions to pass them out to anyone who is seen doing something positive. He also often provides meals, pays for trips, gives out books and flowers, and awards performance bonuses. Recently, he arranged for a helicopter to land on the company parking lot and take employees for rides just for fun.

Pace refuses to implement programs that create competition between workers, such as naming employees of the month. "That's about the worst thing a company can do because it singles out one winner - and the rest lose," he maintains. In fact, he says, any time he's tried to motivate employees by pitting one against another, it's failed miserably. "Make sure your program can reward everyone, that everyone can win, and that you don't have winners and losers," he advises.

One clear indicator of the success of Pace's efforts is that several employees who have left Pace/Butler and gone on to form their own companies have emulated the morning meetings and other components of Pace's recognition and rewards programs. "Other companies come in and see what we're doing and copy it," Pace says. "Even a federal prison has emulated some of the things we've done."