1. Underperformance May Be Temporary: Underperformance can be a temporary phase or relative; these employees may need more motivation than others.
2. Fairness and Unbiased Recognition: Ignoring underperformers for rewards can be unfair; significant achievements should be recognized regardless of past performance.
3. Potential to Motivate: Rewarding underperformers for notable achievements can motivate them to improve and re-engage, rather than solely focusing on top performers.
4. Recommendation: Awards, especially spot awards, should be based on immediate achievements, not past performance records.
Many line Managers and HR Partners face the dilemma of rewarding underperformers for significant achievements as part of the employee rewards and recognition program. In most cases, the rewards and recognition policies might not state anything explicitly, leaving it to the better judgment of the concerned managers.
An important point to note here is that consistent underperformers might rarely be around in the system since the performance assessment process would take care of that.
Hence, underperformance might be a temporary phase or it could be just relative. And more than other employees, these employees need more motivation.
Managers often tend to use all available resources to motivate their employees.
This might result in managers ignoring the underperformers and focusing on the top performers regarding rewards and recognition.
Hence a truly deserving employee might miss out on a spot award for a significant achievement, due to his or her overall performance history.
Not rewarding underperformers for their record is not only unfair but counterproductive as well.
The manager might be missing out on an important opportunity to motivate an underperformer and put him or her back on track.
A top performer who might not truly deserve the award might get an award because of their track record, but this might not significantly change their motivation levels.
Hence, we recommend that awards, especially spot awards, be given based on the immediate achievements of the employees and not their past track records.
Awards should be treated as awards – it okay to reward underperformers for their achievements if they meet the criteria!
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked in leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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