The article in the url below contains a great idea:
“Zappos implemented a ‘Wow’ recognition program designed to capture people in the act of doing the right thing. Any employee at any level who sees a colleague doing something special can award a ‘Wow,’ which includes a cash bonus of up to $50. Recipients are automatically eligible for a ‘Hero’ award.”
What a great way to recognize employee performance in a way that boosts morale across the board (rather than managers selecting individuals to be rewarded via some opaque process that can incite resentment among those employees not selected). The article also contains the following advice for firms seeking to encourage civility, both among employees and towards customers:
“Collegiality should be a consideration in every performance review, but many companies think only about outcomes and tend to overlook damaging behaviors. What behavior does your review system motivate? All too often we see organizations badly miss the mark. They want collaboration, but you’d never know it from their evaluation forms, which focus entirely on individual assessment, without a single measure of teamwork.”
“Collegiality should be a consideration in every performance review, but many companies think only about outcomes and tend to overlook damaging behaviors. What behavior does your review system motivate? All too often we see organizations badly miss the mark. They want collaboration, but you’d never know it from their evaluation forms, which focus entirely on individual assessment, without a single measure of teamwork.”
From what I have read about the firm, Zappos has consistently excellent HR policies and a phenomenal approach to customer service (see Strategic CSR – Zappos). It looks like a great firm to work for and Amazon was smart to acquire it in 2009.
Have a great weekend.
David
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: http://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
The Price of Incivility
By Christine Porath & Christine Pearson
January – February, 2013
Harvard Business Review
p121
