Rewarding Performance

Recently, I wrote about Bernard Tomic and his loss of love for tennis. The article explored Tomic’s only playing tennis to support the lifestyle he wants to lead. This then lead to the comparison with employees who are also only turning up to work to support their lower order security needs in their life. Hence meaning employees not working to their potential or at their best.

The irony with this situation is Tomic is still being rewarded for basically showing up! He is not being rewarded as well as he could be because he is not performing as well as he could. Nevertheless he is receiving a reward. So why should he change his behaviour?

The same can be said for your employees who are simply going through the motions. They are receiving a reward. To be fair they must receive something for their time. That is the way the world works. What happens though when you start to reward them for doing nothing extra? What I mean by this is the bonuses employees receive. Sometimes they are provided across the board to all and sundry. It is the receiving of a reward for the overall performance of the business. This can be understood as everyone has contributed in some way shape or form to the performance of the business.

What happens when an employee is expected to achieve a certain goal? They may or may not be aware there is going to be a reward at the end of it. What do you do if they only achieve a certain percentage of the goal? If you would provide them with the total reward even if they haven’t achieved the total goal what message are you sending?

We have all seen people rewarded when we know they haven’t deserved it. The precedent is then set. How do you then change your employees’ behaviour to achieve the total goal instead of near enough to the goal?

Do you want your employees to be achievers or settlers? What steps do you need to take or change?