Ask HN: Are you motivated by company-wide achievement awards?

[melonkidney]

My company has a sheme whereby every quarter, a handful of individuals/teams are awarded prizes - let's call them "superstar trophies" - to celebrate innovative working, wide-reaching achievements, exceptional leadership, etc.

While I always feel happy for the winners of the superstar trophies, on balance I find the scheme kind of demotivating. Personally, I don't need the external motivation of a prize, and I'm always left wondering how many people are feeling a little bummed that their hard work hasn't been recognized yet.

So my goal with this question is to better understand how other people feel about these kind of schemes. Does your company have one? Does it motivate you? If not, how could it be changed so as to have a more positive effect?

[kasey_junk]

I think they are particularly pernicious because they almost always go to people either based on popularity or based on being attached to some splashy new thing.

This often means that line operators or customer service folk have no chance of winning even though they can be central to the success.

[mrdependable]

I always feel like management gets stuff like this from a list called "How to get more out of your employees without spending a dime". It reminds me of being in grade school where they only have so many options for trying to motivate students.

[pasbesoin → mrdependable]

Yep. Like the "pick out a toaster for your 5 years of service" awards.

Seriously -- if you haven't encountered this -- there are businesses that specialize in... "administering" service awards to employees, for other businesses -- typically, for larger corporations, where there's enough volume to make it worth their while.( Or, there were such, the last time I was in such a position.) You, the awardee, get so many "points", and there's a catalog, online now, where you can pick from items "costing" no more than the points you have.

It functions, I guess, not just for anniversaries. Although good luck, for many BigCorp managers, getting any kind of budget for any other kind of "reward".

At least the toaster works reasonably well...

But the whole thing was a pretty soulless experience.

I did also receive one of those company awards, at that company. It was actually pretty low key. Perhaps including because my department had nothing to do with it. I helped smooth out a perpetually bumpy cross-department and cross-division business process.

(I got tired of the hassle, set up a meeting, and walked everyone through the process and their roles and facilitated consensus and agreement about same, including deliverables and schedules. It wasn't part of my job description or authority to do so, but what the hell, and everyone else was tired of the problems, too.)

One day, someone outside my reporting chain showed up with the award. (Maybe it was a division-wide / level award, rather than company-wide.) No ceremony, just thanks. I think I got a couple of hundred bucks and a plaque or certificate or something, too.

It didn't really change the way I operated or my motivation -- what solved the problem, in the first place. But, it was nice to be noticed.

That was also the position where my manager just showed up with pay raises -- despite the company-wide pay freeze.

I got sh-t done. He, and she, responded accordingly.

And the pay raises were appreciated. Substantial, and not a one-off "pat on the back".

By the way, further pertaining to the OP type awards. You can get one, and get canned the following quarter. They often really don't mean much.

P.S. And it can be dangerous if you, the recipient, start to believe they do.

[mtmail]

A company I worked had such a scheme. It works the first couple of quarter, then it got weird because senior management tried to find a balance between all departments, all countries and they ran out of candidates. I think it was 5 winners per quarter. They didn't want to reward a person twice. In my opinion over time they just lowered the standard. There've been employees who would've deserved winning every year based on their impact.

It didn't motivate me in particular. Got a nice 3 day holiday (flight+hotel), which was much better than what another person in my office got: an ugly ebike in company colors which failed to run.

[arandr0x]

They have one, it didn't motivate me before I won it (I didn't think I had a chance to) nor after (it turns out the pleasure from winning such prize is less than the pleasure from somebody being spared mental suffering because I helped with their workload).

Honestly those things are different person to person. A lot of people are better motivated by cash prizes, whether or not they're public and known in advance. For some people motivation is feeling like they have the ability to do something, so they're more motivated by being sent to trainings or given more authority or a junior person to train. And some people are like me, and just want to hear thank you.

Anyway, managers don't have the right sense of that stuff. If you feel you must reward your employees into doing more stuff for you, then go all the way and implement operant conditioning. If you want your employees to have a well-deserved vacation at the end of a big project that made you $5M and them $0, make it for everyone. And if you just want people to feel recognized, leave them enough time at work or outside it to form real-life relationships with individual humans who will. You can't scale gratitude.

[nf05papsjfVbc]

- I've never been motivated by external acknowledgement of anything I've done.

- I don't like getting attention.

- I'd gladly accept a non-trivial cash bonus instead of a trophy.

The company for whom I work does not officially have any such trophies but some managers-of-managers in some departments tend to publicly acknowledge some achievements now and then. This is not structured and not regular. However, I know many people who _are_ motivated by praise and kudos. I suppose a good manager will try to ensure everyone in his/her team will feel appreciated in a way that works for that person.

[koliber → nf05papsjfVbc]

I am dealing with this right now at my job.

The company has entered a growth stage, and sales is killing it. Every update is about this quota exceeded, that deal closed, or that person bringing in another stellar contract. Overall, it is a nice place to be.

However, the dev team is having some negative feelings. On the one hand, people tend to be more humble and not prone to self-promotion or auto-marketing. On the other, the word in the hallway is that developers no longer feel appreciated.

I don't know what the solution is. Right now, I am taking the approach of encouraging people out of their comfort zone and owning what they contribute. It is a lot more difficult to make a developer's achievement understood and properly appreciated company-wide, but it is a challenge that I am taking on myself. My goal is to help each dev team member come up with one achievement per week, and we will spend a little bit of time making it presentable and easy to understand.

From personal experience, I feel that I don't want to step out and praise myself. It feels like it won't be a net win. However, if someone else praises me in a balanced fashion, it does feel good. Kind of like getting a bouquet of flowers. I would never think that a bunch of flowers would make me feel good. However, on the rare occasion I did get one, it felt strangely fantastic.

I guess it's important to evaluate how you think you will feel when you get praise vs. how it actually feels when it is delivered tactfully and honestly. Sometimes, we do a poor job predicting how we will feel. I suggest stepping outside of your comfort zone and being a bit vocal about your contribution.

[nf05papsjfVbc → koliber]

The key (for me) to feel appreciated is in performance reviews and (hopefully) logically leading to a promotion if the work is that good. Also, getting greater technical challenges and freedom. The odd occasion where praise or acknowledgement of quality of work did matter to me was when it came from those I considered far superior to me in skills that mattered to my work.

EDIT: In your case, if you have developers working for you, who are doing good work, one thing you could do is to ensure you mention that to your superiors. It really helps if you can help them understand how the good work makes an impact on the business.

[rajacombinator]

I’m motivated by cash money. But having worked exclusively at employers who did not recognize employee performance at all, I’d be interested in seeing how something like this worked. Even if I didn’t get the award I think it would be interesting to know who my employer considers to be top performers and why. Of course the main risk is this becomes a piece of political fluffery. But even knowing who’s winning the politics game could be interesting. Could be a great way to foster leadership and learning opportunities.

[phakding]

These achievements are like pro-bowl selection in NFL. If you are on a losing team, it doesn't matter how hard you worked or what you achieved.