“Employee recognitions”- 4 June 2013
A friend Maitree who works in a multi- national company and lives abroad had a surprise call from her parents one day from India. They sounded very happy and excited after so long. She had never heard so much enthusiasm in their voices as they spoke to her about the reason for their call. Her mother and surprisingly her father were choking with pride as they told her about the letter that they had received from her office abroad. The company she worked for sent a mail by post to her parents in India without her knowledge of course, thanking her parents for giving them a wonderful gift in the form of their daughter. The letter stated how happy and grateful they were to them for raising such a lovely daughter and giving her the best of work values and good human nature. The letter went on singing praises about their daughter and expressing gratitude to them. Her parents really felt blessed and all their miseries of their young girl staying abroad vanished. That was such a thoughtful recognition from the company.
Most employees would love to receive recognitions and rewards. The rewards need not be always monetary and material gifts. Many companies would recognise their employees with variety of rewards programme such as gifts, retail vouchers, holiday packages etc. Increments, bonus which is expected is always much awaited by people but there ought to be surprise recognitions coming their way once in a while. Appreciation such as the above mentioned are equally effective if not more than material rewards.
A few persons would work only for job satisfaction and enhancement of creativity. Their main focus would be on self improvement and development. Such types would be eternally intrinsically motivated and would not look for rewards. Their source of inspiration lies deep within their heart and soul as they main goal in life would be self actualisation and nothing more. They are aware that once accomplished the material rewards will flow naturally and one does not have to fight for it really. They would search for organisations that would provide them the platform for such an action. They would search out companies that give their employees such opportunities for growth and development. They would aim for excellence alone as nothing else matters in life. Such evolved persons are certainly few in numbers who have clarity of goals and intrinsic motivation to achieve them. For such persons appreciation and rewards are important but not the final goal of work.
Mayank was in a great hurry to make it big. He had big dreams of being the richest Indian one day, owning many cars and having a huge palace to stay. He wanted to make it big by hook or crook as he said. He has many areas of interest which were as varied as chalk and cheese. He had a lot of goal confusion and no clarity of mind. He had enthusiasm but it all sounded misdirected. He had already changed many jobs as he found fault with all of them. He felt they did not recognise his talent and therefore did not promote him. He was frustrated and depressed with his progress. His mind was actually focused on the long term gains and material success but he had no work goal for which he was passionate about. He was only passionate about ‘money’. As a result he was not reaching anywhere at all. For, he was distracted and was chasing mental illusions. People such as Mayank do not make it big as they do not know what they want from life. Money does not come by asking for it from your employer or by praying to God. Money does not come by being focused on it. Neither do rewards and recognitions.
