Compensation vs. Recognition

Today, July 14, 2008, is the official deadline for entries to the 15th annual Nova7 Facility Awards competition. While, each year, the number of entries rises and declines, no doubt due to a variety of factors, I sometimes wonder if facility operators really recognize the importance of this type of award for their facility’s employees.

So, my question for you is, what do you believe motivates your employees more: compensation or recognition? My guess is that the majority of your responses will be split somewhere near the middle. This dissension seems to be caused by a disconnect between what managers think employees want, and what employees really want: cash or other tangibles, such as trophies/plaques and public expressions of gratitude.

The debate between compensation vs. recognition has been ongoing. While many companies realize the need to recognize employees for a job well done, many others take the easy way out by throwing money at employees instead. But, money isn’t everything, especially when it comes to job motivation. That said, everyone has to have a sufficient amount of money to meet their needs. But, rewarding someone by bribing them with cash is hardly an incentive to make them want to excel at their jobs.

The reality is that money pays the bills and buys extras, but it doesn’t make people feel good about themselves. And, everyone wants, or rather needs, to feel good about themselves. Feeling good about their accomplishments is what makes employees want to excel, and then continue to excel.

An online Maritz Poll survey, conducted in October 2005 of 1,002 randomly selected, full-time employed adults (502 men and 500 women) ages 18 to 65-plus from throughout the United States, found that employees who were completely satisfied with their company’s recognition programs were significantly more satisfied with their jobs, more likely to remain with the company and more likely to recommend their workplace to others. Specifically, 55 percent of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that the quality of their company’s recognition efforts affects their job performance. Yet, at the same time, only 10 percent of them strongly agreed that they are completely satisfied with their company’s employee recognition efforts.

According to a MotivationNetwork article, “Webster defines compensation as ‘that which is given or received as an equivalent for services, debt, want, loss, suffering, etc.’ Clearly, compensation is linked to security and safety, for no one feels safe unless sufficiently compensated to meet their needs. Recognition, on the other hand, is defined as ‘acknowledgment and approval, gratitude, etc.’ Recognition appeals to the higher levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, especially social and self-esteem needs.”

Establishing recognition programs can often be time-consuming, especially for independently owned facilities whose owners/managers are already wearing umpteen hats. That’s why I initially asked whether facility operators really understand the importance of such awards programs as the Nova7 Facility Awards. This, and other industry awards, such as the IDEA Health and Fitness Awards and the ICAA Active Aging Awards are meant to take the burden off of you, while, at the same time, provide a service to you. You’re off the hook for developing your own recognition programs, and your employees are recognized not just within your facility, but nationally among the entire industry with trophies and plaques, and, even more importantly, with words of praise in industry publications.

If you didn’t get your staff involved in entering one or more of these awards programs this year, I strongly encourage you to do so in the coming years.

Hiring Gone Wrong

When hiring staff for your fitness center, there are many things to consider: experience, friendliness, hours available to work. But what about citizenship, criminal history or the potential for being creepy? An LA Fitness in the Phoenix, Ariz., area apparently didn’t care about those last requirements, considering it hired an illegal immigrant who was caught spying on women in the locker room.

According to a news item from the East Valley Tribune (May 25, 2007), a man “believed to be an illegal immigrant” who was a janitor at the East Mesa LA Fitness broke into the facility’s ceiling and watched women as they changed. Police also said that he fondled himself while peeping and, on one occasion, stole a woman’s cell phone from her gym bag. The man, Francisco Salgado Martinez, was charged with voyeurism, burglary and theft.

So, how could this have been avoided? LA Fitness should have first determined Martinez’ ability to legally work in the U.S. Next, a criminal background check should have been performed, since voyeurs tend to have committed this same crime in the past. Finally, there should be safeguards in place to keep staff members from having access to the ceilings or walls around locker rooms. At the very least, employees should be accounted for during work hours, since this guy obviously committed the crimes when the facility was open. For more information on hiring and staffing, check out past articles from Fitness Management.

Can you guarantee that something like this won’t happen at your facility? Are you thoroughly screening your employees, and then keeping an eye on them while they are in your facility? Your members expect privacy and safety while in your fitness center. If something like this happened at my fitness center, I would simply quit. I’m sure many of your members would do the same.