The Hindu Business Line : `Spot reward', for a change

Training, knowledge harvesting, recruiting, participation in quality audits and assessments and external certifications qualify for reward points based on certain defined parameters.

A company gifting a small mug or a t-shirt with its logo may not be a very big thing for an employee who has decided to leave the organisation. But, for those staying on, such gifts can make a lot of difference.

Take a Friday morning walk through the Tidel Park information technology park in Chennai, and you will notice people wearing t-shirts with the logos of various companies located in the complex, Friday being the day they are allowed casual wear. "It is nice to wear my company's t-shirt. It inspires me and is also a way to show that I work for such-and-such company," says a software engineer who got the t-shirt as an instant reward.

Giving instant gifts to reward employees is catching up.Cognizant Technology Solutions and Perot Systems, with large software development centres in India, have used the instant reward scheme to motivate their employees.

`Outwahing others'

Wah! Cognizant is an incentive scheme for Cognizant's employees. The instant reward is for contributing to the company, above and beyond the call of duty or for any exceptional performance.

The scheme follows Cognizant's earlier incentives for employees, such as iPods, cruises to the Bahamas, chartered trains to Pondicherry and chartered flights to Malaysia.

Designed on the lines of a frequent flyer programme, Wah! helps Cognizant employees to earn reward points that can be accumulated and redeemed against Cognizant merchandise ranging from denim shirts to signature coffee mugs, watches to jackets, or even a DVD player, says Bhaskar Das, Vice-President, Human Resources, Cognizant.

On its employee information portal, Cognizant publishes the reward points that employees can obtain for the efforts that they put in, beyond their core work definition. For example, works such as training, knowledge harvesting, recruiting, participation in quality audits and assessments and external certifications, qualify for reward points based on certain defined parameters.

"Wah! has been a big hit in Cognizant, so much so that it is one of the projects to be expeditiously institutionalised after being piloted in Hyderabad. "It simply has outwahed every other spot reward and recognition programme attempted by Cognizant earlier," he says.

Wah! was piloted at Cognizant's Hyderabad development centre in early 2005 and was institutionalised across all of its development centres in India early this year. Till date, 8,250 of the company's associates have been awarded Wah! points that can be redeemed for Cognizant-branded merchandise.

As one enters any of Cognizant's offices, the branded merchandise is prominently displayed to remind and motivate employees to earn the gift of their choice, he says."This motivation prompts them to excel and take active interest in contributing to multiple areas such as certification, quality or training. Even prospective applicants or interviewees notice the array of gifts that adorn the reception area," adds Bhaskar.

For a company recruiting over 200 professionals per week, such things make a big difference in ensuring employees are rewarded and motivated for effort, at all times.

"The Cognizant branded merchandise that I have redeemed against my Wah! points include jackets, mugs, t-shirts and a denim shirt. The bulk of the Wah! points that I accrued were for activities such as conducting interviews for experienced hires, travelling across India and conducting campus interviews, and training at our in-house corporate university, Cognizant Academy," says Upadhyayula Sriram, an assistant project manager at Cognizant's Hyderabad centre.

Reinforcing positives

Perot Systems' reward point, called Vision$ (the name Vision comes with Perot acquiring the Chennai-based Vision Healthsource India Private Ltd in August 2003) is also similar to an airline frequent flyer programme. Supervisors and managers are allowed to allocate dollars/points to help reinforce positive behaviour in the organisation, says Vardhman Jain, Managing Director, Perot Systems' Business Process Solutions.

The programme was started about five years ago and over 3,000 redemptions have been made until now. For instance, 100 per cent attendance and staying back to help during a high-volume day are some instances that attract rewards. Similarly, an employee coming on a Sunday could be appreciated by his manager and given an instant reward point, he says. There are pre-defined rule sets for allocation of dollars and the entire rewards points programme is transparent and automated. Associates accumulate these dollars to redeem them for equivalent gifts/vouchers. Further, the company has made Vision$ the currency of all of its rewards schemes, such as best of the month, dream team and associate referrals.

The company has an in-house redemption portal where associates can redeem their Vision$ for vouchers equivalent to the price of different aspirational goods such as shoes, mobile phones, stereo systems, sun-glasses, chess boards, jewellery items, watches and apparel.

It also periodically ties up with retail chains to allow associates an opportunity to get more out of the vouchers, says Jain.

"We never look at branding these items. The items that are branded with the company's logo are generally given away free of cost to employees for participating in various company events. These reward programmes foster healthy competition and positive behaviour among employees and various teams," he says.

The company, which is in the BPO space, has a large number of young people, mostly in the age group of 21 to 28 and hence the need to reinforce positive behaviour and inculcate a sense of discipline and healthy competition, he says.

raja@thehindu.co.in

Illustration: Satheesh Vellinezhi

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