As U.S. companies continue to expand globally, currently employing more than 60 million overseas workers, motivating and rewarding these diverse workforces is a significant challenge to organizations. Managers must be sensitive to differences since what is acceptable in one culture may be taboo in another.
PROMO P&I recently communicated with Bob Nelson, Ph.D., author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees (now in a new edition with 1.5 million copies in print) and president of Nelson Motivation, Inc., San Diego. Nelson offers the following advice on how to successfully motivate a global workforce.
Why is it important to adjust rewards and recognition for multicultural workforces?
If you do the same things for everyone, increasingly you will alienate more and more employees and more often than not, the top performers. One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to employee motivation— that motivate best are those that are most valued by the person you are trying to thank. Culture is thus an important dimension in doing recognition well.
For example, in the Hispanic culture family is especially important, so effective recognition might involve someone’s family: having an open-house celebration, or family picnic, for example, or providing some type of reward that can be shared with one’s family. The Japanese culture is very group-oriented, so a work group-based form of recognition would have greater impact.
What are some of the major differences are between American style reward and recognition programs and those of other cultures?
The big difference is that the American culture is much more individualistic and egocentric. It’s all about “me.” Our culture worships the lone hero, the cowboy, the individual who saves the day. As such, we have a higher desire to be singled out and praised than most cultures.
Individuals in most cultures would shun and be embarrassed or even ashamed if they received the attention we strive for. In Japan, for example, there’s a saying that “it’s the nail that sticks up that gets pounded.”
To other cultures, our egocentricity looks like we must be insecure that our worth and value stems so much on what others think of us, but I would modify that to say those others have to be people we hold in high-esteem, such as our manager or a colleague whose opinion we value.
When I worked in the Far East I found reward programs to be very traditional and paternal. For example, in Jakarta, if a company had a good year, employees would receive an extra month’s pay at yearend. The number of months pay you received was not a function of individual performance, but rather of one’s loyalty to the organization as measured by the number of years one had worked with the company, plus the size of one’s family. Thus if you were old with a large family, the company took care of you better than if you were a new, young and single, high performer who maybe did more to impact the company’s success.
What are the top five ways to energize employees with varying cultural attitudes and business practices?
The most important things managers can do to develop and maintain motivated, energized employees regardless of their culture are basically good management practices. According to my research, employees around the world value:
- Support and Involvement— well you provide information employees need to do their jobs, how well you support your employees when they make mistakes, how well you involve employees when making decisions, and if you ask your employees for their opinions and ideas create the foundation for this item. Employees want more than ever to know how they are doing in their jobs and how the company is doing in its business. Involving employees is both respectful and practical: you increase their commitment and ease in completing the work and implementing changes and new ideas.
- Autonomy and Authority— employees value being given room to do their work as they best see fit. Do you allow employees to decide how best to do their work, give them increased job autonomy and authority, allow them to pursue their ideas or give them a choice of assignments, when possible? These elements all allow autonomy and authority to flourish— provide a powerful motivation to employees.
- Flexible Working Hours— is the new currency for today’s employees, who expect work to be an integrated part of their lives— their entire lives. Given that 83% of employees report wanting more time with their families (according to Monster.com), one way to help accommodate this desire is through greater flexibility of the hours employees work. With technology today, work is increasingly becoming a state of mind rather than a place to be. Consider allowing top performers to leave work early when necessary, have flexible working hours, earn time off from work and grant them “comp time” for extra hours worked.
- Learning and Development— employee development is self-development, learned on-the-job from new opportunities and chances to gain new skills and experience. Do you support and encourage employees to learn new skills, discuss career options and career paths in the organization with them, allow them to participate in learning activities, and discuss what they’ve learned after completed projects and assignments?
- Manager Availability and Time— you available to address employees questions and concerns, take time to get to know them and listen to their non-job issues? Being accessable to employees— getting back to them promptly at times when you are not— critical for building lasting relationships with your employees. Remember, you can’t have an open door policy with a closed mind.
In addition to being relatively simple to do, they each have the benefit of having little or no cost, but rather are a function of how employees are treated on a daily basis.
Can recognition practices be standardized across many countries? Why or why not?
Sure, it can be easy for a corporation to standardize recognition practices across countries, but it’s also likely that the effectiveness of those practices will vary widely. Let me give you an example: A number of years ago the pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert wanted to celebrate a company milestone and decided to give every employee in the organization at that time (44,000 total) a watch with the Warner-Lambert logo on its face. The company spent $6 million on the customized watches, which all employees received on the same day in meetings around the world. What a great gesture and logistical challenge! At meetings, top management emphasized the company’s achievement and appreciation for all those present that helped to make the milestone possible.
I’ve spoken to many WL employees that were proud to be a part of the celebration and valued their watch, yet at the other end of the spectrum I’ve spoken to some employees who didn’t think much of the gift. Some employees from Hispanic cultures said “Those darn Americans— with time.” (In Hispanic cultures time is not the end-all it is in the United States.) When I shared this story with Taiwanese workers, they told me they would never give a timepiece to an employee, because in the Chinese culture such gifts were associated with death and would be like giving out pink slips.
The moral? Go beyond a good intention to see how a potential reward will be received by those getting it and then adjust accordingly. One size reward (or reward program) will rarely fit all today.
Can you identify some successful low-cost recognition ideas?
Yes! Here are some of my favorites:
- Personal thanks
- Thank you notes
- E-mail praise
- Voice mail praise
- Public praise
- Pass around trophy
- Time with manager and/or president
- Car wash by manager or executive of choice
- Employee parking space
- Read positive letters from customers at staff meetings
- Referenced in company newsletters
- Featured in community newspaper
- Name days in employee’s honor
- Wall of fame-photos of achievers
- Team projects scrapbook in company lobby
- Certificate of appreciation
- Balloons and computer banners
- Pack lunch for employee
- Loan your car to employee
- Create an award (Golden Banana, Spirit of Fred, Order of the Extended Neck, etc.)
- Time off (extra break, long lunch, three-day weekend, etc.)
- Do least favorable work (“Dump a Dog” program)
- Victory celebration
- Performance passes to use a lending library for books & audios
- Coupons to bring your pet to work
- Feature in company ads
- Confetti committee for spontaneous celebrations
- Baking cookies, distributing candy, making ice cream floats
- Cook and serve meal (barbeque, breakfast, etc.)
- Management challenge (if goal is met, manager shaves head, dresses in crazy outfit, etc.)
[Editor’s Note: There are 57 pages of group recognition ideas in the new edition of
1001 Ways to Reward Employees.]
What are some of the top group activities used to motivate employees?
All rapport comes from shared activities, so group recognition is important for reinforcing teamwork, group achievements and morale.
Why is it sometimes difficult for managers and executives to buy into an employee recognition program?
On top of the list is they don’t take the topic as seriously as other things they are trying to do to run and grow the business. Even though they would readily agree that “people are our most important asset” they at the same time feel that if they pay people well, give them good benefits and promote them occasionally, they (the managers) shouldn’t have to do anything else! I’ve found that one’s age also plays into the topic; in general, the older a manager or executive is, the more likely they are to undervalue the importance of providing recognition to employees. They operate from a different value base that was established in a different, more stable and predictable time.
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