By Keith Curran

Have you ever noticed one of your employees doing an exceptional job handling a difficult customer?

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I need to recognize Kelly for the great job she did,” but as the day wore on you lost track and forgot to do it?

If Kelly is like most people, the lack of recognition from you may decrease her desire to perform at that high level again — so should you be surprised when Kelly doesn’t perform to the same level next time?

Employees tend to repeat what they are recognized and rewarded for, and as their supervisor, it’s your job to do just that!

What is a reward?

Simply, a reward is anything that increases the frequency of a desired employee action. You’ll want to use rewards when an employee’s performance exceeds your expectations and you want that performance to continue. Rewards help you manage your practice by:

• Improving an employee’s performance to a level you desire and expect;

• Getting an employee to repeat that desired level of performance;

• Helping desired performance occur more often; and

• Creating a more pleasant work environment where rewards are used more frequently than discipline to elicit desired performance.

Can you think of a situation where you actually recognized an employee’s actions, yet the desired performance didn’t continue? When an employee’s performance is not influenced by a reward, it’s probably because you used a reward that did not work for that particular employee.

For example: If Kelly is someone who dislikes attention and public recognition, a public awards ceremony may not be seen as much of a reward. On the other hand, if Karim, your other front desk assistant craves public attention, he may very well see that as a reward. Same reward, two different reactions.

Selecting and delivering the reward for maximum impact

Selecting the right reward is only half the battle. The other half is delivering the reward correctly.

For example: Rewarding Kelly for the effective manner in which she dealt with a difficult customer nine months later won’t have nearly the same impact as rewarding her the day of or the day after her accomplishment.

There are four principles for delivering rewards correctly:

• If-Then Principle: If an employee’s actions meet or exceed your desires, then reward the employee.

• ASAP Principle: Give the reward as soon as possible (ASAP) after the desired performance has occurred.

• Variety Principle: Keep changing the reward to maintain the desired effect.

• Sometimes Principle: A sometimes reward is given only some of the time when an employee’s performance meets or exceeds your expectations. This is especially effective when the performance must happen frequently.

Employees who are rewarded periodically perform well and are likely to continue performing to that same level even when you aren’t there to observe it.

Finally, you should deliver the reward in a meaningful way. You want to describe exactly what was done well, how your practice and/or customer benefited, and then deliver the reward using one of the above principles.

For example: “Kelly, the manner in which you politely and professionally enforced our payment plan and collected the payments due from Mr. Alvarez — even when he became angry — was exactly how we should deal with difficult customers. That should help us keep Mr. Alvarez as a patient in the future. I know that you don’t often get the chance to eat lunch out, so tomorrow I’m going to take you to the restaurant of your choice.”

Show me the money! (or not)

While money is important to employees, it is not the motivator that drives high performance. Studies have shown that what tends to motivate employees to perform and keep performing at high levels is the thoughtful, personal recognition that represents true appreciation for a job very

well done.

Recognition need not come from your bottom line, but well-timed, thoughtfully presented, meaningful recognition can have a positive impact on your bottom line.

Rewards and recognition make it more likely that the performance of your employees will meet or exceed your expectations. If your employee’s performance meets or exceeds your expectations, then reward them; give the reward as soon as possible (ASAP); change the reward to maintain its impact; and give the reward only some of the time to ensure the desired performance will occur even when you’re not there.

Start rewarding and recognizing your employees today and your practice will reap the rewards.

Keith Curran is a partner with Harkcon LLC, a human performance consulting firm and developer of the Chiropractic Competency Toolbox. Keith has over 25 years of experience in a variety of leadership roles in public and private sectors. He can be contacted at 800-380-5337 or through www.harkcon.com.

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Potential rewards

To help determine reward options to use in your practice, review the following list and check those you would be comfortable using with your employees. Write down any others that aren’t on the list and use them when appropriate. Also consider passing this list around to the employees in your office and ask them to fill it out too. Doing so will help you determine the most popular reward methods in your office, as well as rule out those who don't get any check from your staff.

• Recognition

[ ] Certificate of accomplishment

[ ] Formal public recognition

[ ] Informal acknowledgement

[ ] Letter of appreciation

[ ] Award

[ ] Being selected to represent the practice at external meetings

[ ] Praise

• Job tasks

[ ] Assignment to new duties

[ ] Relief from duties the employee doesn’t like

[ ] More frequent assignment of duties the employee likes

[ ] Assignment of partners the employee likes to work with

[ ] Approval of job-related tasks

[ ] Opportunity for training

• Job responsibilities

[ ] Opportunity for more self-management

[ ] More authority to decide or implement

[ ] More frequent decision making or participation in decision making

[ ] Greater opportunity to select own goals or tasks

[ ] Greater opportunity to set own priorities

[ ] Greater access to information

• Tangible rewards

[ ] Merit increase

[ ] Cash bonus

[ ] Prizes

[ ] Meal paid for by the practice

[ ] Company donation to charity of the employee’s choice

[ ] Paid trips to professional meetings

• Status indicators

[ ] Larger work area

[ ] Promotion

[ ] Supervise more people

[ ] Status symbol

[ ] New title

[ ] Invitations to higher level meetings

• Personal activities

[ ] Longer breaks or lunch periods

[ ] Leaving work earlier

[ ] Time off with or without pay

[ ] Privileges

[ ] Engaging in creative activities

• Social activities

[ ] Invitation to practice outings or parties

[ ] Invitation to practice’s organized recreational activities

[ ] Dinner with the boss

• Relief from disliked policies or procedures

[ ] Exempt from practice control procedures

[ ] Exempt from close supervision

• Relief from disliked work environment

[ ] Move to another work area

[ ] Better lighting

[ ] Less noise

2 keys to finding an effective reward

The first key to finding an effective reward is to recognize that you have a wide range of reward options available to you (see inset on page 44).

The second is knowing what your employees will find rewarding. There are three easy ways to discover that:

• Watch what they do. Observe how employees spend their break time at work.

• Listen to them. Listen to what your employees talk about.

• Ask them. If you don’t know your employees well enough to guess, then just ask them.