What rewards are available to workers in your organization? When are they used? Are they effective? What alternatives would you use if you could change the reward system?
There is no doubt that working in a nonprofit organization differs greatly from for-profit organizations. Obviously, a crucial difference can also be seen in the way both types of companies motivate their workers and reward them. I would like to dwell upon the system of rewards in my organization and also to make some suggestions for its improvement.
It is a common knowledge that a lot of business leaders consider money and all kinds of financial benefits to be driving force to make the job more worth-while. Nevertheless, it has already been proved that this type of motivation works only for simple straight forward tasks, mostly where mechanical skills are involved. On the contrary, if work demands creative thinking or any other cognitive ability, money will not work as a motivation or reward in this case.
I strongly believe that there are a lot of rewards that help effectively encourage employees to work harder and be interested in the result of their efforts in my organization. First of all, our company appreciates employees’ really worthwhile actions. Accordingly, when someone does such a thing, all the colleagues around literally give her/him a standing ovation. To my mind, this gesture of appreciation helps to ensure worker’s good will. Furthermore, there is a Wall of Fame in the hall. Every month the photos of the best workers are put on the Wall along with publishing their successes under the photo. This helps to appreciate the results of hard job. Moreover, our boss tries to make our working place fun and comfortable: we have ‘Fun meetings’ weekly where everyone should tell 3 best jokes of the week. This creates a perfect friendly atmosphere where everyone smiles. Additionally, what I consider to be the best reward ever, we are allowed to develop our own projects based on our own ideas and then present them to top-management. Every half a year the best project is chosen and the organization invest money in its development. Thus, workers are able to be self-directed and independent. What is more, each month the best employees are given additional days-off for having rest.
All in all, I am completely satisfied with the reward system of my organization. I personally get pleasure working for it and this is the best reward for me. The only thing I would like to suggest about reward system’s improvement would be that free trainings should be implemented where all the achievements and contributions of each worker could be singled out and, besides, each employee could challenge and better his/her mastery.
