reward system

1

UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, LOWER MALL CAMPUS, LAHORE

2

ASSINGNMENT

COMPUTER

TOPIC

REWARD SYSTEM

SUBMITTED TO

SIR SUHAIL BABER

SUBMITTED BY

MUHAMMAD USMAN AFZAL

ROLL #

133

CLASS

MBA (Evening) SEM-1


3REWARD SYSTEM

"The Procedures, rules, and standards associated with allocation of benefits and compensation to employees."

To get maximum performance and productivity, managers can build effective

motivation programs for their employees. For this, they must give them some rewards for their

encouragement, so that, employees can achieve their goals and standards.

The rewards can be either intrinsic or extrinsic.

Intrinsic rewards

Intrinsic rewards may include a feeling of accomplishment and self-actualization.

Extrinsic rewards

Extrinsic rewards may include benefits, recognition, status symbols and money.

Reward systems come in a variety of sizes and shapes. For any reward system to work well, it must address Maslow’s and Alderfer’s lower level needs as well as Herzberg’s hygiene factors. The managers who create these reward systems must also recognize that, as McClelland suggested, individuals have different needs and may therefore require different rewards.

Types of reward system

Following are the types of reward systems.

Merit system Pay for knowledge system Other reward systems

Profit sharing Gain sharing Employee stock ownership plane(ESOPs) Flexible reward system

Merit system

A system in which employees receive rewards as their performance improves.

It can also be said that it is a pay for performance system. In this system the employees receive rewards such as salary increases as their performance improves.


4Pay for knowledge system

A reward system in which employees receive rewards as they learn to perform additional tasks or acquire new skills.

Other reward system

Many organizations want to reward their employees on the basis of their proportional contribution to overall organizational performance.

This type of reward can be in a variety of ways, which are as follows.

Profit sharing

A reward system in which employees receive bonuses based on the organization’s profitability. In this system employees get bonuses when the organization earns profit above the threshold.

Gain sharing

A reward system in which employees receive bonuses on their unit’s performance. This system was devised to meet some of the short comings of profit sharing, reward employees with bonuses based on the performance of their unit, group, division or team. It includes better productivity, lower costs, higher quality and better customer services.

Employees stock ownership plane (ESOPs)

A reward system in which managers encourage employees to own stock in their own companies, providing an incentive for employees to increase the value of that stock through higher performance.

Flexible reward system

A reward system that offers employees the option of selecting the reward they consider most valuable. In this reward system we allow the employees to select their own reward from a menu of choices.

Rewards and employee satisfaction

Gaining an employee’s satisfaction with the rewards given is not a simple matter. Rather, it is a function of several factors that organizations must learn to manage:


5 The individual’s satisfaction with rewards is, in part, related to what is expected and how

much is received. Feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction arise when individuals compare their input - job skills, education, effort, and performance - to output - the mix of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards they receive.

Employee satisfaction is also affected by comparisons with other people in similar jobs and organizations. In effect, employees compare their own input/output ratio with that of others. People vary considerably in how they weigh various inputs in that comparison. They tend to weigh their strong points more heavily, such as certain skills or a recent incident of effective performance. Individuals also tend to overrate their own performance compared with the rating they receive from their supervisors. The problem of unrealistic self-rating exists partly because supervisors in most organizations do not communicate a candid evaluation of their subordinates’ performance to them. Such candid communication to subordinates, unless done skillfully, seriously risks damaging their self-esteem. The bigger dilemma, however, is that failure by managers to communicate a candid appraisal of performance makes it difficult for employees to develop a realistic view of their own performance, thus increasing the possibility of dissatisfaction with the pay they are receiving.

Employees often misperceive the rewards of others; their misperception can cause the employees to become dissatisfied. Evidence shows that individuals tend to overestimate the pay of fellow workers doing similar jobs and to underestimate their performance (a defense of self-esteem-building mechanism). Misperceptions of the performance and rewards of others also occur because organizations do not generally make available accurate information about the salary or performance of others.

Finally, overall satisfaction results from a mix of rewards rather than from any single reward. The evidence suggests that intrinsic rewards and extrinsic rewards are both important and that they cannot be directly substituted for each other. Employees who are paid well for repetitious, boring work will be dissatisfied with the lack of intrinsic rewards, just as employees paid poorly for interesting, challenging work may be dissatisfied with extrinsic rewards.

Rewards and motivation

From the organization’s point of view, rewards are intended to motivate certain behaviors. But under what conditions will rewards actually motivate employees? To be useful, rewards must be seen as timely and tied to effective performance.

One theory suggests that the following conditions are necessary for employee motivation.

Employees must believe effective performance (or certain specified behavior) will lead to certain rewards. For example, attaining certain results will lead to a bonus or approval from others.

Employees must feel that the rewards offered are attractive. Some employees may desire promotions because they seek power, but others may want a fringe benefit, such as a pension, because they are older and want retirement security.

Employees must believe a certain level of individual effort will lead to achieving the corporation’s standards of performance.


6 As indicated, motivation to exert effort is triggered by the prospect of desired rewards: money, recognition, promotion, and so forth. If effort leads to performance and performance leads to desired rewards, the employee is satisfied and motivated to perform again.

As mentioned above, rewards fall into two categories: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic rewards come from the organization as money, perquisites, or promotions or from supervisors and coworkers as recognition. Intrinsic rewards accrue from performing the task itself, and may include the satisfaction of accomplishment or a sense of influence. The process of work and the individual’s response to it provide the intrinsic rewards. But the organization seeking to increase intrinsic rewards must provide a work environment that allows these satisfactions to occur; therefore, more organizations are redesigning work and delegating responsibility to enhance employee involvement.

Equity and participation

The ability of a reward system both to motivate and to satisfy depends on who influences and/or controls the system’s design and implementation. Even though considerable evidence suggests that participation in decision making can lead to greater acceptance of decisions, participation in the design and administration of reward systems is rare. Such participation is time-consuming.

Perhaps, a greater roadblock is that pay has been of the last strongholds of managerial prerogatives. Concerned about employee self-interest and compensation costs, corporations do not typically allow employees to participate in pay-system design or decisions. Thus, it is not possible to test thoroughly the effects of widespread participation on acceptance of and trust in reward system.

Compensation systems: the dilemmas of practice

A body of experience, research and theory has been developed about how money satisfies and motivates employees. Virtually every study on the importance of pay compared with other potential rewards has shown that pay is important. It consistently ranks among the top five rewards. The importance of pay and other rewards, however, is affected by many factors. Money, for example, is likely to be viewed differently at various points in one’s career, because the need for money versus other rewards (status, growth, security, and so forth) changes at each stage. National culture is another important factor. American managers and employees apparently emphasize pay for individual performance more than does their European or Japanese counterparts. European and Japanese companies, however, rely more on slow promotions and seniority as well as some degree of employment security. Even within a single culture, shifting national forces may alter people’s needs for money versus other rewards.

Companies have developed various compensation systems and practices to achieve pay satisfaction and motivation. In manufacturing firms, payroll costs can run as high as 40% of sales revenues, whereas in service organizations payroll costs can top 70%. General Managers, therefore, take an understandable interest in payroll costs and how this money is spent.


7 The traditional view of managers and compensation specialists is that if the right system can be developed, it will solve most problems. This is not a plausible assumption, because, there is no one right answer or objective solution to what or how someone should be paid. What people will accept, be motivated by, or perceive as fair is highly subjective. Pay is a matter of perceptions and values that often generate conflict.

Management’s influence on attitudes toward money

Many organizations are caught up in a vicious cycle that they partly create. Firms often emphasize compensation levels and a belief in individual pay for performance in their recruitment and internal communications. This is likely to attract people with high needs for money as well as to heighten that need in those already employed. Thus, the meaning employees attach to money is partly shaped by management’s views. If merit increases, bonuses, stock options, and perquisites are held out as valued symbols of recognition and success, employees will come to see them in this light even more than they might have perceived them at first. Having heightened money’s importance as a reward, management must then respond to employees who may demand more money or better pay-for-performance systems.

Firms must establish a philosophy about rewards and the role of pay in the mix of rewards. Without such a philosophy, the compensation practices that happen to be in place, for the reasons already stated, will continue to shape employees’ satisfactions, and those expectations will sustain the existing practices. If money has been emphasized as an important symbol of success that emphasis will continue even though a compensation system with a slightly different emphasis might have equal motivational value with fewer administrative problems and perhaps even lower cost. Money is important, but its degree of importance is influenced by the type of compensation system and philosophy that management adopts.

Pay for performance

Some reasons why organizations pay their employees for performance are as follows: Under the right conditions, a pay-for-performance system can motivate desired behavior. A pay-for-performance system can help attract and keep achievement-oriented

individuals. A pay-for-performance system can help to retain good performers while discouraging the

poor performers. In the US, at least, many employees, both managers and workers, prefer a pay-for-

performance system, although white-collar workers are significantly more supportive of the notion than blue-collar workers.

But there is a gap, and the evidence indicates a wide gap, between the desire to devise a pay-for-performance system and the ability to make such a system work.

The most important distinction among various pay-for-performance systems is the level of aggregation at which performance is defined - individual, group, and organization wide. Several pay-for-performance systems are summarized in the exhibit that follows.


8 Historically, pay for performance has meant pay for individual performance. Piece-rate incentive systems for production employees and merit salary increases or bonus plans for salaried employees have been the dominant means of paying for performance. In the last decade, piece-rate incentive systems have dramatically declined because managers have discovered that such systems result in dysfunctional behavior, such as low cooperation, artificial limits on production and resistance to changing standards. Similarly, more questions are being asked about individual bonus plans for executives as top managers discovered their negative effects.

Meanwhile, organization wide incentive systems are becoming more popular, particularly because managers are finding that they foster cooperation, which leads to productivity and innovation. To succeed, however, these plans require certain conditions. A review of the key considerations for designing a pay-for-performance plan and a discussion of the problems that arise when these considerations are not observed follow.

Individual pay for performance

The design of an individual pay-for performance system requires an analysis of the task. Does the individual have control over the performance (result) that is to be measured? Is there a significant effort-to-performance relationship? For motivational reasons already discussed such a relationship must exist. Unfortunately, many individual bonus, commission, or piece-rate incentive plans fall short in meeting this requirement. An individual may not have control over a performance result, such as sales or profit, because that result is affected by economic cycles or competitive forces beyond his or her control. Indeed, there are few outcomes in complex organizations that are not dependent on other functions or individuals, fewer still that are not subject to external factors.

Choosing an appropriate measure of performance on which to base pay is a related problem incurred by individual bonus plans. For reasons discussed earlier, effectiveness on a job can include many facets not captured by cost, units produced, or sales revenues. Failure to include all activities that are important for effectiveness can lead to negative consequences. For example, sales personnel who receive a bonus for sales volume may push unneeded products, thus damaging long-term customer relations, or they may push an unprofitable mix of products just to increase volume. These same salespeople may also take orders and make commitments that cannot be met by manufacturing. Instead, why not hold salespeople responsible for profits, a more inclusive measure of performance? The obvious problem with this measure is that sales personnel do not have control over profits.

These dilemmas constantly encountered and have led to the use of more subjective but inclusive behavioral measures of performance. Why not observe if the salesperson or executive is performing all aspects of the job well? More merit salary increases are based on subjective judgments and so are some individual bonus plans. Subjective evaluation systems though they can be all-inclusive if based on a thorough analysis of the job, require deep trust in management, good manager-subordinate relations, and effective interpersonal skills. Unfortunately, these conditions are not fully met in many situations, though they can be developed if judged to be sufficiently important.


9Group and organization wide pay plans

Organizational effectiveness depends on employee cooperation in most instances. An organization may elect to tie pay, or at least some portion of pay, indirectly to individual performance. Seeking to foster team-work, a company may tie an incentive to some measure of group performance, or it may offer some type of profits or productivity-sharing plan for the whole plant or company.

Gains-sharing plans have been used for years in many varieties. The real power of a gains-sharing plan comes when it is supported by a climate of participation. Various structures, systems, and processes involve employees in decisions that improve the organization’s performance and result in a bonus throughout the organization

Communication and learning are important components of the change process. However even if the change message is well communicated and well received, and people are given the opportunity to learn so they can behave differently in the new environment, it doesn't follow that anyone is going to change their behavior. First, they'll look to see on what basis the carrots and gold stars are going to be distributed. If they see that the rewards are going to be handed out the way they always were - then they're going to behave the way they always did - and they're not going to change.

Communication and learning systems can be a bit theoretical. Of course it may cost something to produce a communication package and to put the learning system in place, but these activities don't actually hurt anyone. It's only when the change process begins to change the reward system that people are going to be in danger of getting hurt and everyone will be able to see if management is really serious about implementing change.

Why is this question of the reward system so important? Because people only work for the reward. For some people the reward may be mainly financial, but for others it will be a question of good company, good coffee, status, brain stimulation, good resorts and restaurants, and free tickets for Buckeye games.

Rewards are great aren't they? But remember, people are enjoying their rewards and having a good life because you're rewarding them for working the way you wanted them to work in the past. Now you want them to work differently and to behave differently. So you'll need to reward them differently. First, you'll need to reward them to change, and then you'll need to reward them to work the way you want them to work in the future. You'll want to reward them for changing - getting the right skills and behaving the right way. You'll want to reward them for going a bit further than average and doing things really right.

And don't forget, they are thinking - if I've got to work to get new


10skills, what's in it for me? How's it going to work if I'm doing a great job, but the other team members aren't - why should I lose out because the others aren't performing? And how am I going to move ahead if there are fewer levels in the organization? What sort of reward will I get? Is it worth the effort to change?

So before plunging ahead with a change project, you need to answer a few questions about the current and future reward systems. First, concerning the current system - What are the current rewards? What is currently rewarded? How do you give the reward? And then about the future system - What do you want rewarded? What are the rewards going to be? What's the scoring system going to be? Who's going to be doing the scoring? How will rewards be given? Who is going to be rewarded? Who will do the rewarding?

CEOs, VPs, directors, managers, supervisors, and Concurrent Engineering team members all need to be informed of the answers to these questions upfront.

And make it plain upfront to the people who do the rewarding that if they don't give a reward that is due, they will be in deep trouble - because it will give the impression that you're not serious about change. And once people start thinking that you're not serious about change, and begin to doubt your integrity, and then no one is going to change their behavior.

The late Judge Tuttle said, 'the professional man's only asset is himself. If he does not contain the quality of integrity he is worthless. If he does he is priceless.' Good change managers must have the quality of integrity, and are priceless.

PERFORMANCE = MOTIVATION X ABILITY

Schneider and Bowen (Winning the Service Game. HBS Press, 1995) say that there are four ways organizations fail to use reward effectively.

They fail to use the full range of available rewards.Incidentally, pay fails the test of an effective reward.

They fail to use the intrinsic reward of goal accomplishment.If a customer leaves with a big smile, it can be highly rewarding to the employee.

They fail to use reward systems to facilitate service quality.The reward system may inhibit rather than facilitate. Remember "the folly of rewarding A while hoping for B." People do the things that are more likely to lead to rewards or less likely to lead to punishment. Behavior that yields rewards will persist. Behavior that fails to yield results will be extinguished.


11 They fail to manage reward systems effectively.

Sometimes rewards or uneven or inequitable.

Definition of Motivation

To be motivated means to be:

Energized Directed Persistent

People are energized by needs: security, esteem, justice.

People are directed by pursuing goals that yield reward that gratify needs.

People persist in behaviors that regularly yield rewards that gratify needs.

TYPES OF REWARDS

Money can gratify security needs. It can gratify esteem needs (if you earn more than someone else in your peer group). It can gratify justice needs (if those who work hardest and do the best work earn the most). These are big ifs and often the conditions are not met. Further, money may not be an available tool for the manager at the time it is needed.

Seven tests of an effective reward are as follows:

Availabilityone needs to be able to give the reward when earned in a large enough amounts to be meaningful.

Flexibilityone needs to be able to give it when the manager wants to, to whom, and how.

Reversibilityone should be able to undo the reward if it becomes clear that a mistake has been made.

Performance Contingencythe reward should be connected to the thing you hope to get more of (i.e., performance).

VisibilityThe reward should be visible and understandable.

Timelinessit should be given immediately after the behavior whose frequency one wants to encourage.

DurabilityThere should be evidence of the reward for a long time after it has been given.


12REWARDS OTHER THAN PAY

Jobs as a Source of Reward

Jobs need to possess five characteristics to be effective sources of rewards for employees.

SKILL VARIETYDifferent activities and different talents needed in carrying out tasks.

TASK IDENTITYCompletion of a whole identifiable piece of work with a visible outcome.

TASK SIGNIFICANCETask should have a substantial impact on the lives of others in the organization or in society.

AUTONOMYConsiderable freedom and discretion in scheduling work and in determining how it will be carried out.

JOB FEEDBACKperforming the job itself should be a source of direct and clear information about how well the work has been done.

Ways to Reward Employees

Your firm's employees work hard (well, most of them). And in a world where corporations like to boast about running "lean and mean," it may seem nearly impossible to compensate employees for doing good work without breaking the budget. The good news? You don't have to. A January 2007 survey by staffing firm Accountants found that “frequent recognition of accomplishments” was the top non-monetary compensation named by full- and part-time office workers, with “regular communication” coming in at No. 2. Both activities can make your staff more productive without shaving one millimeter off your bottom line.

We talked to management consultants, HR pros, career coaches, book authors and bosses from a range of industries to glean the 25 best ways to reward employees without breaking the bank. Here's their hard-earned advice.

Flex those hours

If there's one free reward that rises above the rest, it's flexible work schedules. Nearly every expert we contacted suggested flex time as a perk that offers the most gain with the least pain.

“Give a little latitude in determining work schedules and to take time for family or


13personal issues (such as doctor’s appointment and banking errands),” advised Richard Martin, president of Alcera Consulting Inc. “As long as the employee is deserving and doesn’t abuse the privilege, this can go a long way to building trusting and mature relationships with key workers.”

Send a handwritten note

Supervisors should ask top brass to write a personal note to employees who deserve recognition, advised Cindy Ventrice, author of "Make Their Day! Employee Recognition That Works." For example, Advanced MD CEO Jim Pack handwrites his thank-you notes to employees on a $2 bill. “In three years of doing this, only one employee has asked if he could spend it,” said company spokesman John Pilmer.

Make work fun

“During a business coaching engagement, I found employee morale to be way down,” said Terri Levine, president of The Coaching Institute. “We created a weekly event to boost morale. One week we asked everyone to bring in a baby picture, post it on a wall, then pick which person matched each picture. Everyone was having fun and socializing while productivity went from 58 percent to 72 percent — all in the same week.”

Help them connect

Introducing employees to key suppliers, customers or someone in senior management can help make an employee's career, says Ventrice — and it won't cost you a thing.

Lose the shoes

Kaerie Ray, an account executive with the Echo Media Group public relations firm, said implementing a “no-shoes policy” can make employees feel right at home with each other, which translates into increased productivity. (But she suggests keeping the footwear handy in case clients come in.) “It's great to be in an office where employees are more concerned about doing quality work than what shoes or jewelry they have on,” she said. “We get so much done.”

Send them to the showers

(As in parties, not lathering and rinsing.) “Every birth and wedding deserves a shower,” said Ray. “Echo employees always leave early on shower days, and the food is on the house. No need to make up the time.”


14Reward effort as well as success

Even if their ideas sometimes fail, you want employees to keep producing them, said Alan Weiss, president of the Summit Consulting Group Inc. “When I consulted with the CEO of Calgon, we created an annual award for 'the best idea that didn't work' and presented a loving cup at the annual awards dinner. This stimulated innovation and positive behavior, not 'winning.'”

Give them a free pass

Levine suggests giving out a certain number of free days off to employees to use as they see fit. “Employees get a few of these a year and can use them as they like,” she said. “They don't have to pretend to be sick. They can go to the beach, read a book, play with their kids ... it doesn't matter.”

Dole out cream and sugar

During the busiest times of the year, executives at the Cigna Group push coffee carts around the office, serving drinks and refreshments to their colleagues, noted Steve Harrison, author of "The Manager's Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies." As they serve, executives coach and encourage colleagues and hear about real consumer issues.

Blow out the candles

Cisco Systems Inc.'s CEO John Chambers hosts a monthly hour-long birthday breakfast for any employee with a birthday that month, says Harrison. “Employees are invited to ask him anything. They feel recognized, and he gains loyal employees who share their ideas.”

Spread the love

Ask co-workers to write something they truly like or admire about an employee on a scrap of paper, then frame them along with a photograph of the employee, suggested David Russell, author of "Success With People – A Complete System for Effectively Managing People in Any Organization."

Offer a swap

Giving your best employees a chance to pick their own projects or trade tasks with a colleague empowers and rewards them at the same time, said Harrison


15 Applaud their efforts — literally

If someone has done something really worthwhile, have your entire staff give them a standing ovation at the next meeting, suggested Sharlyn Lauby, president of HR consulting firm ITM Group Inc.

Say it with flowers

Professor Linda M. Lopeke, principal of SmartStartCoach.com, said she used to reward top employees by bringing in flowers from her garden and arranging them in a spectacular crystal vase on their desks. “Everybody knew what having the custody of the flowers meant,” she said. “Surprisingly, even the men competed fiercely for custody of the flowers.” In the winter, she'd substitute a showpiece display of floating glass fish

Walk it as you talk it

The City of Dallas sponsored a walkathon where employees set goals for walking a certain number of steps each day, offering a free gym membership to those who walked the farthest. Not only did they get fit, they turned their daily walks into traveling staff meetings, says city spokeswoman Danielle McClelland.

“Group members were able to update one another on projects, solicit team input and improve their fitness,” she said. “The organized program ended after three weeks, but the work group still holds their traveling staff meetings two months later.”

Pass the bucks

Handing out monopoly money that can be redeemed for gifts and other goodies may not be strictly free, but it pays off handsomely in the long run. For example, associates at Bank Atlantic can pass out “WOW! Bucks” to colleagues who've done something outstanding, said bank vice president Gregory Dalmotte. The bucks can eventually be traded in for real goods. “There's a clear correlation that words of encouragement have created associates who perform at a higher level,” he says.

Share the memories

“My team created a scrapbook chronicling the impact I'd had on their company and gave it to me on my last day in the office,” said Lopeke. “People who’d worked on my teams wrote testimonials and creative graphics highlighting some our team successes. It's the best gift I ever received in my 40-year career.”

Elect them to the Wall of Fame

Several experts suggested setting aside a public space inside your firm and placing photos of employees who've accomplished something truly special, along with


16the details of what they did to earn their place on the wall.

Create your own "Club Med"

Set aside a quiet space or unused office in your building where employees can meditate, chill out, nap or otherwise re-center themselves, said John Putzier, author of "Get Weird! 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work."

Stoke their passion

“Great employees are not mercenaries,” said Dr. Richard Chang, CEO of Richard Chang Associate’s Inc., a performance-improvement consultancy. “They don’t just want to enjoy their work, they want to be passionate about it ... if you want your employees to feel valued and inspire their passion on your behalf, encourage them to make their own decisions. You can have systems in place to control the implementation of ideas, but you must be certain not to compromise the enthusiasm, creativity and hard work that make them possible in the first place.”

Give them a place to park it

Reserve the best parking spot for employees who've done something truly worthwhile, said Lopeke. And if it's next to the CEO's Lexus so the employee can chat him or her up on the way into work, so much the better.

Remember the spouses

Independent management consultant Nan Amish recalled one time when she had 16 employees trapped in a hotel lobby on a Sunday night, waiting for the ballroom to open so they could set up a trade-show booth. “I bought flowers at a farmers market, a nice $6 bouquet of roses for each person,” she said. “I told them to take them home to their significant others, apologizing for me taking them away from their families on a Sunday. The next day I got thank-you from most of them. One wife sent a letter saying I could keep her husband until Friday.”

Publicize their successes

“We like to publicly recognize employees so the whole company can share in their accomplishments,” noted Scott Ragusa, president of contract businesses for staffing firm The Winter, Wyman Companies. “Each week, nominations for our quarterly 'Clutch' award are shared with the whole company. The Clutch nominations are a way to recognize our administrative and no managerial professional staff members who have come through in the clutch in supporting their departments or the firm.”


17Let them phone it in

Telecommuting programs can relieve stress and make workers feel more appreciated, as well as more productive. “Reward the employee by starting with one day of telecommuting, then adds additional days as performance heightens,” suggested Brian Margarita, president of IT staffing firm Talent Fuse Inc. “Having the option to cart the kids to soccer practice, visit the beach during the afternoon or cut out early to avoid traffic congestion is becoming more important than working an 80-hour week for a larger paycheck.

Remember the secret words

“The two most underused words in corporate America that get the highest ROI (return on investment) and ROT (return on your time) are the simple words 'thank you,'” noted Michael Gold, president of the Gold Resource Group author of "The Million Dollar Media Rep: How to Become a Television and Radio Sales Superstar."

While telling your employees you appreciate them should be obvious, added Amish, no one does it enough or is specific enough about what the employee did. “So when you share your appreciation, be specific about what you really liked, so they not only feel appreciated but can do it again.”


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