Employee of the Month

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Corporate Canada likes rewarding employees that increase profits. That is why they have awards called Employee of the Month and Employee of the Year.

Employee of the Month could be for selling a large number of units in a particular month for example, Peter sold 20 microwave ovens in January. Thami sold 11 and Lee 9. That is easy. It is quantifiable. Therefore, giving Peter the Employee of the Month Award is justifiable.

These awards are an incentive for employees to go the extra mile to help the company stay afloat. Unfortunately it rests with human beings: managers.

Sales departments cannot deviate from the criteria of giving these awards because numbers speak for themselves, like in Peter’s case but in other departments e.g. Finance or Human Resources, it is easy for managers to be subjective.

Let’s use another hypothetical case. Thika in Finance is the first in the office every morning and puts in long hours, crunching numbers. Tate is not a born again Christian. Call him a born again lazy person, but he makes the boss laugh, babysits her dogs and fetches her kids from school when she is tied up at the office.

Tate is named Employee of the Month twice in one year and also bags the Employee of the Year award. This happens regularly in most companies to such an extent that it becomes a joke, but it is not funny for men and women who are dedicated to their jobs, but are not recognized because they don’t massage the boss’ ego.

As a manager, are you fair? Do you say things like ‘I can’t stand her?’ Not liking your employees is only natural, but it has no place at work. Productivity is the only thing  that matters, and it should be acknowledged objectively.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.


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