As Published In August 2004

Awarding Relationships
By Aaron Lazenby

Getting the outside world to acknowledge your employees can be more valuable than giving them internal recognition.

Randall Smith's career accomplishments speak for themselves. During his 14 years at Oracle, Smith has helped expand the company headquarters from 3 buildings to 12—and ascended from project manager to vice president of Real Estate and Facilities. Smith now manages Oracle's global facilities and collaborates with local government on transportation issues.

With achievements that anyone would be proud to claim, it seems unlikely that Smith would need extra kudos as a testament to the quality of his work. Nevertheless, in 2003 Smith won Real Estate Executive of the Year from the Bay Area chapter of CoreNet Global, an association of corporate real estate executives that boasts representatives from some of the area's most successful companies. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime award," says Smith. "It celebrates a career's worth of good work."

Recognition from coworkers and managers is nice, and performance-based bonuses or raises send a clear signal to employees about the impact of their contribution. But according to Cindy Ventrice, author of Make Their Day: Employee Recognition That Works, recognition from third parties can bring benefits to your workforce. Affirmation from the outside can give context to the projects your employees are working on, motivate them to put more effort into their assignments, and generally improve employee morale.

"Employees know it's not a popularity contest," says Ventrice. "If they win an external award, they've typically met stringent criteria, and that's one of the things that makes external awards so valuable."

The Importance of Peer Recognition

Last year, Oracle Data Warehousing architect Andy Witkowski and the SQL OLAP team submitted a paper to SIGMOD (Special Interest Group on Management of Data). Composed of top academics and researchers, this competitive group typically accepts only a quarter of the papers submitted. The team's paper was not only accepted—it won Best Paper, for its new approach to extending analytical functionality. Although Witkowski's papers had been accepted before, this was the first time he and his team had won an award. He regarded this award as a significant career success, because it was bestowed by a community of his peers, based on rigorous standards of excellence. Witkowski says that although he is confident his projects are valued by his employer, being rewarded by a group of his peers in the industry is a very powerful measure.

"It's nice when the company recognizes us," says Witkowski, "but for us it is most important that the outside world—that we care about so much—recognizes our work."

Here are a couple of things you can do to help expose your employees' accomplishments to the outside world.

Be an Award-Winning Manager. Ventrice says that managers need to support their employees in their pursuit of external recognition. Monitor trade journals and trade associations and be aware of the awards your staff could win. Make time or money available to help employees apply for recognition or attend award ceremonies. Whether or not your employees win the awards they apply for, your support sends a clear signal that you recognize their contribution.

Promote Employee Successes. When an employee wins an award, make sure you tell the rest of your organization about that person's success. "One of the drawbacks of external awards is that you have no control over who wins," says Ventrice. "What is within your control is what you do when that person does win. Make a big deal about it in the company newsletter. Have a celebration to raise awareness of the employee's success. This gives an award additional value—and makes for an even more motivated employee."