SPD Gazette

REWARDS FOR PERFORMANCE (NON-MONETARY)

An employee’s rewards come from three sources: the work itself, fellow employees, and the boss. There are many ways to acknowledge good performance and employee contributions to the organization's mission - from a sincere "Thank You!" for a specific job well done - to a formal incentive and recognition award program. The SBDC strategic objective that focuses on Professional Development and Employee Retention addresses the network’s desire to improve staff development and keep staff satisfied. Both concepts involve rewards for performance.

Once a year, the SBDC presents Counselor of the Year awards to recognize the advisors who have done the best job of serving their clients during the year. Award- winning advisors are recognized for:

Meeting or exceeding their goals in terms of number of clients assisted;
High scores in client evaluation responses;
Investing a significant amount of time in terms of counseling hours; and
Helping clients generate significant impact in dollars and jobs.

Every year, the SBDC also selects a Star Performer – an advisor that has excelled at his or her job - to be recognized by the ASBDC at its national conference. In 2006, the SBDC added a new award, the Lead by Example award, for advisors or directors who go above and beyond expectations in mentoring others, improving procedures and processes, and making their center more effective. All three of these awards are rewards from the boss. They provide a high level of peer recognition for the individuals.

The SBDC does more to reward its staff than present awards once during the year. The SBDC, along with other organizations that strive for excellence, wants to build feelings of confidence and satisfaction in its employees, and in doing that, to keep good employees. The SBDC senior staff and directors understand that frequent and continuous informal, day-to-day or casual feedback can be extremely effective in boosting employee satisfaction and productivity. This informal and daily positive feedback can come from fellow employees as well as bosses, and does a lot to encourage the actions that make the SBDC successful.

Employees who find job satisfaction in perseverance, work planning & execution, sharing challenges with coworkers, being recognized for intermediate successes, and have the overall feeling of a "job well done" are the ones that usually stay with an organization. For many employees, rewards in the form of more enjoyable job duties, an increased role in decision-making and training & development opportunities are preferable to monetary rewards alone. These employees enjoy the reward that comes from the work itself. There are innumerable staff throughout the SBDC network that are dedicated to the mission and derive satisfaction from a job well done.

In order to build and sustain confident staff, the SBDC supports Professional Development to help employees enhance their skills and abilities, and to provide a reward for those with good job performance. It makes good sense for the SBDC to develop the expertise, knowledge, and skills of its staff, because doing so benefits the individual and the organization. It also encourages the employee to stay with the organization and continue to learn and grow. This is another reward from the boss.

A happy, confident, knowledgeable employee is productive, provides good customer service, mentors other employees, and contributes more than just doing his or her job. He or she works to improve processes and procedures to make the organization more effective and efficient. That kind of employee embodies the spirit of continuous improvement that moves an organization to excellence.

People who feel appreciated are more positive about themselves and their ability to contribute. People with positive self-esteem are potentially the best employees. A productive company that provides superior services and recognizes its employees for their role in its success is a team that is hard to beat.