Effective positive reinforcement to strengthen your organisational values

Effective positive reinforcement to strengthen your organisational values

Creating a set of values – corporate, organisational, or similarly-named beliefs sounds like something every organisation should have. They’re designed to rally employees and management around a shared set of common beliefs and desired traits.

Giving positive reinforcement to employees who embody those values is definitely the right way to strengthen employee loyalty and commitment to the values of the organisation. But they must be thoughtfully designed and applicable to your particular workforce in order to support your employee type.

Organisational values form the core beliefs of the organisation

Corporate values often include words like integrity, respect, diversity, collaboration, and similar commitments. They form a framework that explains the company’s purpose and commitment to act on those values as well as serving to reinforce the employer's brand.

Core values drive a variety of decisions that affect employees such as the type of benefits offered, how performance is evaluated, and strategies like rewards and recognition. They can, and should be, very powerful motivators.

Employers are understandably concerned about their customer experience. Without great customer service, there is no revenue.

But employees are the ones who deliver the customer service. So, without positive reinforcement to drive those values in action, there’s a risk that the values can become meaningless. Well-planned and implemented corporate values should first focus on the way employees are recognised and valued by the organisation.

One of the criticisms of stated company values is that they’re not always implemented correctly. In order to have meaning and shared connections, values must be relevant and applicable to the organisation and easily understood. There should be some form of measurement in order to ascertain the effectiveness of the values and how they’re contributing to the success of the organisation.

Positive reinforcement is human nature

Positive reinforcement and its opposite, negative reinforcement, operate on a simple premise – that behavior can be encouraged or discouraged to achieve desired outcomes. Positive reinforcement forms the foundation for a more comprehensive and inclusive employee rewards and recognition strategy.

For example, a performance appraisal system might be considered either positive or negative depending on how it’s structured, the desired objective, the person delivering it and several other factors. Pay increases and bonuses are often tied to appraisal ratings so it can work for employees who are motivated by compensation rewards.

But positive reinforcement has to be specific to the organisation and the individual in order to be the most effective. Employees differ significantly in the way that they value the rewards or recognition that they receive. Some employees are driven by monetary rewards, some value recognition more, and some feel most rewarded when they receive a combination of rewards and recognition.

When individualised, positive reinforcement is a win-win for the employer as well as the employee. Special occasions or milestones like birthdays or work anniversaries are a given and easy to plan for because everyone knows in advance when they occur. But it’s the unexpected recognition that frequently has the most impact.

The employer gains more innovation, productivity, and engagement, along with the byproducts of increased satisfaction and retention.

The employee achieves a level of psychological satisfaction that motivates them to continue that behavior in order to continue to receive positive recognition.

Ideally, an organisation’s core values have been based on beliefs and actions that the company vows to commit to and that employees believe in. The reinforcement and recognition that employees receive should have flexibility and spontaneity built in.

The correlation between positive reinforcement and organisational values

Many Fortune 100 companies use similar core values like integrity, customer satisfaction, and teamwork. They’re great values but, in order to be effective, they must provide a distinct blueprint for employee behavior. How does an employee know when they’re modeling integrity in a meaningful way? How satisfied does a customer haver to be in order for the behavior to align with the organisation’s values?

Positive reinforcement is a feel-good opportunity to do something that seems like it’s just a nice thing to do for employees. In reality, it’s a critical business strategy that needs to be:

·   Well thought out, communicated, and understood

·   Easy to implement

·   Flexible and spontaneous when appropriate

·   Diverse and adaptable to individual preferences and comfort levels with public recognition

·   Measurable to determine what works and what doesn’t

·   Supported and modeled by everyone in the organisation. Especially top leadership.

You don’t have to figure it all out on your own.

Amityeko’s innovative solution provides you with all of the tools you need to ensure that your recognition strategy aligns with your organisational values. Contact us to learn how we can help you customise your rewards and recognition solution.

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