Business Services Industry

Online recognition: Like other HR functions, employee recognition programs move online with fewer administrative headaches, lower costs - Agenda: Awards & Incentives

HR Magazine, June, 2002 by Andrea C. Poe

"Rules for taxation and shipping can be programmed right into the system. While implementing a global program is always more complex, the online system substantially reduces the overhead and provides greater control," says Jorgensen.

Choice

Old-school vendors kept warehouses full of incentive items. As large as warehouses may be, there's finite space. Online providers may still have warehouses, but they also contract with other vendors to provide more products.

Southern Company had very specific product needs. In addition to gift certificates for national retailers, the company wanted to include gift certificates to local hometown stores. "We gave our vendor a list of Mom-and-Pops that we wanted to include, and they incorporated them into our program," Hubbard says.

PacifiCare wanted an option that would work like cash, so the company's vendor included a debit card among the gift choices. "It's a real debit card with real dollars that employees can use like any debit card anywhere," explains Rockwell-Koren.

L'Oreal USA wanted to update awards. "Employees were unhappy with the old program with only vases and watches," says Wilhelm.

The vendor counseled L'Oreal on popular types of awards. "They were right. We see a lot more people take lifestyle items like DVD players, camcorders and big screen TVs," says Wilhelm.

Personalize It

One of the biggest drawbacks to an online system is the impersonal nature of presenting an award via computer. For 71 percent of companies with incentives programs whose managers have personally presented awards, the idea of acknowledging people through e-mail can seem a bit cold.

It's not just old-economy businesses that find online presentation lacking. "One of our high-tech clients, a networking services provider, asked that we implement a rule in their recognition system that prevented awards from being presented online," Jorgensen says. "They felt that their computer-based culture was becoming too impersonal and they wanted to use recognition as a way of boosting the people factor on the job."

Most companies use the online system to notify managers of important anniversaries (for service awards) or provide a spot for managers to log performance awards, but the actual congratulations is done in person.

"The online program shouldn't take the place of personal contact, but should be a supplement to it," says Fornal.

Andrea C. Poe is a freelance writer based in Easton, Md., who specializes in human resource and management issues.

Extra Online Resources

For an explanation of how a typical online incentives program works, see the online version of this article at www.shrm.org/hrmagazine.>