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Many managers are feeling under pressure at work due to the current state of the economy. In their desire to boost up morale at work, many of them actually tend to reward bad behavior in the office which can be costly to the company. The following are some well-intentioned practices that tend to backfire and ways to fix them:
1. Employee of the Month: The problem with this practice is that only one person's hard work is rewarded while many others remain unrecognized. Therefore, managers should find a way to motivate employees to work harder while recognizing everyone's hard work.
2. Performance Appraisals: Annual performance appraisals are faulty in more than one way. Most importantly, this kind of system does not recognize performance as it is happening. Therefore, appraisals should be continuous in order to get the best out of employees.
3. Undeserved Rewards: Awarding employees for things such as perfect attendance or a month without an accident are undeserved as they do not require hard work. They are part of the job. Instead, managers should award actions that involve the employee's achievements on the job.
4. "Good job, but...": This is a sentence most of us are familiar with and it never leads to the desired results. Mangers try to appraise an employee's good work and give corrective feedback at the same time. However, it usually makes employees think that their manager is impossible to please. Therefore, the two should be separated. First give the positive feedback and then the constructive one.
5. Favoring Employees: Truly some employees seem to be more talented than others. However, this does not mean that they should be treated differently. Such behavior would discourage others to present their ideas. Therefore, all employees should be treated in the same way because provided the right environment everyone is talented and can contribute.
Managers worldwide are provided with the opportunity to re-think their strategies and to change the way they run their businesses. In order to do this they need to consider the science of human behavior and use it to their advantage.
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