How Do You Reward Employees Who Go the Extra Mile and Stay Late at Work?

Hi,

Just today, we had arranged a small get-together to celebrate the success of an employee in attaining 100% punctuality for continuous three months. We started this approach just after my joining because I felt that there should be some kind of reward system given to an employee for coming on time, that is, being punctual, and for any other achievement, though not big in view. We gave this employee a pen stand, and the rest of the employees were quite happy about it and were waiting for their turn to be rewarded.

Similarly, I would like to know if any of you can suggest some ways of rewarding people staying beyond office hours, working late for a project, etc.

For the aforementioned to be measured, I require some ideas from you because there may be employees who stay late waiting for their colleagues, and there may be some who are really working. How do we keep track of the ones who are really putting in their efforts?

Your ideas and suggestions on monitoring this will be greatly appreciated.

Hey, and don't forget to mention the kind of rewards that can be given to them.

Regards,

Julie

Hi Naveed,

Thanks for your good suggestions on rewarding an employee for performing well in his duties. Apart from the gift vouchers, Sodexo passes, and cash prizes, what other things can be given as a reward? Please let me know this. Also, I would like to remind you that only one portion of my query has been responded to.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could let me know how we can track or monitor the employees who are staying back, whether it is purely because of official work or personal reasons.

Waiting for suggestions on this end.

Regards,
Julie

Dear Julie,

It is a wonderful idea to reward employees when they achieve something. However, the rewards should not be given to employees who stay beyond office hours for many reasons. The reasons are:

1. Rewarding employees who stay after work hours could lead to a high percentage of employees remaining at work, which can sometimes create challenges for management and their families.
2. There is a risk of a "late hours culture" infiltrating the current organizational culture.

Therefore, I strongly believe that rewards should be reserved for employees who achieve results rather than for those who simply appear busy.

-Vinay M.

Hi Vinay,

Thanks for your response. My problem lies in identifying the employees who are really working from the ones who pretend to be working after office hours. While there is a possibility of a "late hours culture" emerging, I also don't want to overlook the employees who are genuinely putting in efforts to complete a project or job. I am looking for a mechanism to distinguish the real go-getters from the rest.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,
Julie

Hi Julie,

I appreciate your real concern for the performers. It's not so easy to identify non-performers sitting late for various reasons. However, one methodology to identify such people is to assign them specific tasks with time limits and observe over a period of time to see if there is any improvement in their performance. A real performer will sit sincerely to complete the targeted work. In contrast, a person wasting their time and others' time after office hours will automatically try to avoid responsibilities and leave the office promptly at closing hours. Thus, performers are automatically identified.

Yet another technique is to measure the performance of individual employees during office hours. In other words, are they meeting the targets within the stipulated time, or are they creating unnecessary work to stay late in the office? By observing this factor, the "Productivity Curve" can easily be drawn, and non-performers can be identified. Overall, it sends a message in the office that strict surveillance is being indirectly administered, which not only controls time-wasters but also improves overall performance. Of course, deserving individuals can rightfully claim their benefits offered by the company. Isn't it?

Bye then.

With regards,

Srinivas

Hi Srinivas,

Thank you for your response. Yes, sure enough, we can give time-bound special tasks, which will help us in identifying the performers and time wasters.

Thank you very much for the information; it is really helpful.

Thanks once again.

Regards,
Julie

Dear Julie,

I don't really see how and why you are facing problems relating to identifying employees who are required to stay beyond their scheduled hours of work. Leave this job of 'overstay requirement', if at all, to their immediate supervisors who are supposed to know the progress about the job of their subordinates and whether they are required to really stay beyond their normal hours. You can introduce some kind of an overstay authorization slip to be signed by the boss, and this way you can really keep track of the employees overstaying. But if you reward employees, in whatever form, who are overstaying, please don't lose sight of those who may be real performers but finish their work within schedule.

Hope this would be of some help.

Rahul