A reward and recognition program can be the missing link in motivating your supply chain/value analysis teams
By Robert T. Yokl, Chief Value Strategist, Strategic Value Analysis in Healthcare, www.strategicva.com
For some unknown reason (maybe it’s because most hospitals are non-profit and think it isn’t consistent with their mission), reward and recognition programs are almost non-existent with healthcare supply chain/value analysis teams. Yet, other industries have found that incentivizing their teams with non-cash rewards and recognition (their time in the spotlight) can go a long way to developing team loyalty, cohesiveness and even higher performance.
When most people think about reward and recognition programs, they think about cash awards, but believe it or not, cash awards aren’t motivating to everyone. In fact, they can be hard to administer, cause dissension and lose their luster in a very short time. It’s much better to have an on-line catalog of prizes that team members can redeem by exceeding (not just meeting) their management’s expectations.
There is one big misconception with rewards: that you get a non-cash award for meeting expectations, such as, hitting your weekly, monthly and annual team goals. Well, that is what is expected of you and shouldn’t be rewarded. On the other hand, if you exceed your weekly, monthly and annual goals you should then qualify to have a non-cash award.
Non-cash awards are usually granted through points (e.g., $1:00 = one point), so you could get 100 points for attending every team meeting for one year, or 100 points for exceeding your individual savings goal by 10% or whatever positive outcomes you decided to reward. The good news is that non-cash rewards don’t need to be expensive. We suggest that you budget 5% of your savings goal to have adequate dollars available for prizes and since you pay them after your team members have achieved your monetary goals, the rewards really costs you nothing.
Recognition (plaques, Atta boy or girl, dinners, lunches, etc.) is cheap, long lasting and available for everyone for work well done. I remember a president of a hospital who surprised his value analysis team members with a visit to their meeting and then gave them tickets to a local movie, just as a thank you for work well done. This recognition was as good as getting a $500 gift card for some team members, because it was thoughtful, unexpected and very personal.
Roy Saunderson, an incentive expert, reminds us that “Rewards are outcome driven. Recognition is focused on behaviors. Rewards are used to reinforce the occurrence of achieved results. Recognition can happen anytime someone notices positive behaviors of another. People want to know how they are doing before results are achieved.
If your hospital, system or IDN is adamantly against non-cash rewards, you still can give a free reward, like half day off for exceeded expectations, since time off is one of the really attractive alternatives to non-cash rewards and it never hurts to send a thank you card, provide a free lunch or tickets to a movie as the hospital president I just mentioned did, if you want to motivate your supply chain/value analysis teams to the next level of performance.