Notes

1-) I believe differentiating employees and rewarding them are two important factors of performance management in order to meet the maximum capacity of a company. I have been working for International Student Office at University of the Incarnate Word for more than a year as graduate assistant. i believe that differentiating employees and rewarding them would be a great approach in my workplace. the reason i believe that is my personal experience about how i started working at my current job. me and other 6 students were only hired for orientation week to help the office to run the errands outside of the office rather than being an important part of the office crew. for example my job description was to organize the place for the event such as moving seats and carrying flags. yet i was going out of my way to socialize with new students and I asked my supervisor if i could be of any more help. even though it was not my dream job, I was very enthusiastic and excited for the opportunity that I got. by the end of the orientation week, only i was offered a position in the office. now i have been working there a little over a year, my job is to handle with international students` paperwork, create and plan events for them. by giving this example, i would like to analyze differentiating and rewarding people in the work environment. according to Welch, there are three kind of employees;
A`s who are competent and useful for company,
B`s who are not overly enthusiastic but still responsible,
C`s who are incompetent and disrupting workflow.
i would like to give an example of a type a behavior in my understanding. when i just started at the office, I was not getting hours. i was running errands for other people. i could not choose my preferred days off. i was disappointed and unenthused. i was going to work but i was not useful at all. i was a type C. there was a situation when our computer broke. it was not in my job description to fix it. instead of just waiting for my shift to end, i wanted to show myself to take responsibility for fixing the computer, even though i did not get any special treatments or such. another situation was that during summer break, i initiated to learn the workflow and processes at the office in order to contribute more. i believe i am a type A employee as i am very enthusiastic and useful now. as a result i am being rewarded now. the examples of those benefits are:
-more working hours
-flexible schedule
-preferred day off
i would not be motivated and enthusiastic about my job, if i did not get these rewards and differentiating. knowing that positive behaviors are realized and rewarded by the supervisors keep me motivated and provide a great workplace i can contribute more and more.
as a result of differentiating and rewarding experience of mine, Type C`s can be turned into a type A`s. Also type A`s can sustain their successful performance by the help of rewards and differentiating.



2-)
i used to work as a salesman for a toy company five years ago from now. rewards are the biggest incentives and motivator at sales business, since success is highly depended on employee`s performance. we had plenty of rewards and quotas for our salesmen. i would like to point out some of the rewards we had:
-after a salesman hit his quota, his commission rate would increase, unless it is christmas, because in christmas time sales are not based on salesman, as much as it is generally.
-managers were always informed what other organizations pay and what their incentives are to their salesmen in order to provide external equity. our biggest rival`s reward was a Europe trip to their employee of the year and our company took the idea and sent the employee of the year to Thailand.
-The rewards did not vary in an organization to which were doing similar works. quotas and commission rates were the same for salesmen who are doing similar works.
-supervisors` quota and commission rate was a little bit higher than salesmen to assure hierarchy
-our supervisors were also providing smart phones, tv`s, paid vacations and many different types of rewards.
-one other incentive applied was that longer the salesmen work, higher hourly wage they get.
when i first started to my job, i was so enthusiastic and energetic. my energy and enthusiasm was helping me sell more. the more i sold, the more money i saved. the more money i saved, the more i sold. rewards and incentives kept me motivated for so long until i was not able to be motivated with money. i needed some special treatments rather than money, since i lost my interest and enthusiasm in selling. i was expecting to be promoted and become a supervisor. after i served for so long for the company, i could not get the position i wanted. this fact broke my enthusiasm and belief in the company. even though my paycheck was very generous, i did not want to work for that company anymore. from my point of view, this is a general mistake of what companies mostly do. companies think raising the employees wage will be enough to motivate them. it is true but until one point. after some point, companies must come up with incentives or rewards which will make their employees feel special such as providing them a personal parking spot or bigger office.


Reflection

the most important thing i learned from this reflection is that rewards or incentives are crucial to keep people motivated. by experiencing the differentiating and rewarding employees at first hand at my current job, I can not refuse its influence on employees.
if my supervisor did not realize my hard work and contribution, i would not be working at my current job. there are two facts i have learned from this reflection:
1-) this reflection got me thinking about how my current supervisor rewards and motivates me not only financially but also verbally. she always appreciates hard work and says "good job" after each difficult and complex task i handle. from an employee viewpoint, these small verbal supports have helped me a lot to keep myself motivated. also, her awareness on my effort to become better at my job and rewards I got turned me info a type A, which is a desirable employee, from a type C, which is a non desirable employee.
2-) money is a great motivator but it is not the best incentive to make employees feel special. especially for the employees who already make decent amount of money, money is not the best incentives. some alternative incentives must be provided such as bigger office or private parking spot etc,.