Competitions held in the company between employees are an effective motivation tool. After all, the competitive moment is very important. Experts recommend using them actively, as they help to see the purposefulness of employees, assess their motivation, and make various decisions in the field of personnel management. The main thing is to decide on the goal and choose the right competition for it and, of course, the type of encouragement.
From the materials of this article you will learn:
Determine the purpose of the competition
Before organizing a competition, it is necessary to determine what goal should be achieved with its help and what target audience it will be designed for. As a rule, internal competitions are held to motivate employees, develop the competencies necessary for the company, convey corporate values, unite the team, etc. (more on the goals of the competitions in the table below).
Competition goals
| Competition | For what purposes can you organize |
|---|---|
| Professional competition | – Motivating employees to achieve optimal results; – development of competencies necessary for the company; – improving the efficiency of employees; - training |
| Corporate contests (creative and team) | – Creation of an atmosphere of competition; - team building; – identification of creative employees; - increasing loyalty; – revealing hidden leaders; – entertainment |
| Innovative (contests of ideas) | – Stimulation of development; – search for a creative solution to the problem; – improving the quality of internal communications; – development of innovative activity |
Depending on the purpose, there are several types of competitions:
- professional(they are also called motivational);
- corporate(they are divided into creative and team);
- innovative(competitions of ideas).
We propose to consider the listed competitions in more detail.
We take into account the nuances so that the competition is successful
In order to get the expected result from the competition, you must follow some rules.
Rule 1 Design clear and understandable criteria estimates. It is desirable that they be expressed in certain quantitative indicators: sales volume, number of attracted customers, labor discipline, development and implementation of technologies, special achievements, etc.
Rule 2 Make available information about the conditions of the competition. It can be conveyed to employees through a corporate newspaper, mailing list, internal website. If information about the competition is closed to employees, it is unlikely that the goals set will be achieved.
Rule 3 Make the procedure for selecting the winner transparent so that employees do not have questions about why this particular person won the competition. This way you avoid conflicts between colleagues.
Rule 4 H do not change the approved rules holding a competition.
Rule 5 Consider adequate compensation.
Natalia GUROVA, Deputy Director for Human Resources, CorpusGroup (Moscow):
“We regularly hold a variety of competitions: for the best chef, the best enterprise nutrition, the best photo essay, etc. The target audience of the contest participants is divided into administrative and managerial and production personnel. Based on the goals and audience, we determine the technique of the competition, the methodology for involving personnel in the competition. The most subtle point is the choice of rewarding the winners: there is no and should not be a single approach to the selection of prizes, it all depends on the topic, target audience, the time of the competition. In order to make it interesting to take part in competitions, gifts should be different each time. We provide gifts for every taste - from the challenge banner of the leader to household appliances.
Find out who is the best in the profession
Professional competitions are used to motivate employees to achieve high performance in their work (see the competition algorithm below).
As a rule, it is most effective to conduct professional competitions in the field of sales, since the evaluation criteria are quite clear. For example, the titles "Best Employee" or " Sales Representative of the Year” are awarded for achieving specific targets set in the sales plan. But this does not mean that competitions for the title of "Best in Profession" cannot be held in other areas. As mentioned above, the main thing is to develop clear criteria. For example, to receive the title of "Recruiter of the Year", the criterion may be the number of selected and probation employees. For the "Best Marketer" - the number of marketing campaigns carried out, etc.
Do not stretch the competition period for a long time, employees will lose their excitement
Please note that this method of motivating staff should be applied in a timely manner. Professional competitions effective at the stage of stability, when the organization has already passed the period of formation and rapid growth, a positive corporate culture has developed in it, a personnel assessment system has been developed. Otherwise, the competition can contribute to the emergence of unhealthy competition, generating conflicts between employees. Such "motivation" will lead to a decrease in work efficiency.
For example, in one company they established a competition for the title of " Best Manager for work with clients "to increase the efficiency of the work of the staff. But in the end, conflicts began in the customer acquisition department, some key employees even quit, and performance indicators dropped markedly. And the point was that the head did not take into account the fact that the company is at a stage of rapid development, internal communications have not yet been fine-tuned and the recently introduced assessment system for key indicators activities are not working effectively. All this led to unhealthy competition between employees, and the competition became a demotivator.
Elena LYALINA, HR-director of the insurance company INTOUCH (Moscow):
“We hold professional contests among call center operators. The most effective employees are rewarded, and not only quantitative, but also qualitative indicators are evaluated, for example, the quality of a conversation with customers. When choosing a prize, it is useful not to limit yourself to gift certificates. We arrange "star days" when photos of the hero are hung around the office with gratitude from the company. Sometimes even a simple opportunity to choose your shifts for the next month becomes a pleasant gift. We also have competitions that support the company's initiatives. For example, the company led the Responsible Driving Movement by recruiting colleagues and conducting a survey and then a competition for best advice drivers. Engagement competitions are very popular among our employees. They come up with the format themselves: from sports competitions to involving our children in the work of the company.”
Strengthening team spirit
Corporate competitions are aimed at development corporate culture, broadcasting the mission and values of the company, team building and creating a favorable working atmosphere. With the right preparation and creativity, they can be an effective substitute for team building. Corporate competitions are usually divided into thematic and team competitions.
A delicious surprise will also be a good gift for the winners of team competitions.
Thematic contests are timed to coincide with certain events or holidays: the company’s birthday, professional holiday, March 8, New Year etc. The task in such competitions can be different: make jewelry, write a script, poems, songs, make a video about the company, etc. Many organizations hold competitions on Children's Day children's drawing or crafts. Photo contests are very common, the winners of which receive good cameras as a gift.
You can also hold comic contests, where winners in various categories are determined. They will harmoniously complement the scenario of any corporate party. But when choosing nominations, be tactful, the titles of the winners should be harmless. For example, one company shared with us the nominations for a joke contest: "Valuable Element" - employees who have worked in the company for more than 10 years are awarded, "Master of Golden Hands" - a nomination for AHO employees, "Unlimited Resource" - for employees who have the most processing , "The most prudent" - a nomination for accounting staff.
Team competitions involve group competition, for example, between departments, divisions of the company. They can also be timed to coincide with some event in the life of the company or held as entertainment. As a rule, these are competitions for the titles of "The best bowling team", "The most accurate" (for a shooting tournament), "The fastest" (for a football, volleyball tournament). The competition will be more interesting if there are people in the same team different ages and ranks. The informal atmosphere of such competitions raises team spirit helps bring the team together.
Do not stretch the competition period for a year. It is better to hold professional competitions once a month or a quarter, and then, based on the results, determine the best employee of the year. The longer the competition period lasts, the less transparent the principle of determining the winners. In addition, the excitement is lost.
We identify proactive employees
Idea contests are held to motivate the innovative activity of employees. As a rule, employees can leave their suggestions for improving work in a special section of the internal site. A commission of competent specialists gives its opinion on the feasibility of the ideas. The winners, whose ideas were accepted for implementation, are awarded valuable prizes. Don't ignore employee suggestions. even if they seem crazy to you. Thanks to everyone who took part in the competition.
An idea competition can also be a way to find a solution to a complex technical, marketing, or even managerial problem. One transport company took advantage of this. In the department of regional transportation, the question arose of optimizing delivery times. On the corporate website, we created the section "Requires a solution". We made a mailing list to employees, in which they described the tasks of the new section and what now everyone can talk about difficult situations that arise in the workflow. And that now the help of colleagues from the department of regional transportation is required. Employees of the company actively responded, and about 20 proposals were collected. Three of them were combined into one, and a solution to the problem was found. The authors of the ideas received awards.
Choosing ways to reward winners
As mentioned above, the choice of encouragement is a very delicate moment. If the prize is too small, it will not motivate to achieve the goal; if it is large, the competition can turn into direct competition, which will end in conflicts. Therefore, the most adequate experts recognize the prize fund, which is not less than 10 and not more than 50 percent monthly salary.
But it is worth noting that financial incentives do not always play a decisive role. As a rule, people strive for public recognition, a positive assessment of colleagues. For example, in one company, the authors of the best ideas, in addition to valuable prizes, receive thank you letter from the head of the company.
Thus, the promotion in the competition can be:
- cash bonus;
- valuable prizes (laptop, tablet, mobile phone, TV, video camera, etc.);
- tickets to the cinema, theater, interesting events;
– certificates;
- bowling alley
- the trip;
- a big cake;
- additional vacation days;
– a letter of thanks from the head of the company and information on the internal website.
In addition, it is well perceived by employees that the company bears part of their day-to-day expenses. For example, employees who showed the best results in the quarter, in one trading company pay the cost of gasoline, and for those who do not have personal transport, the cost of travel tickets.
The awarding process is also important. In order to maximize the effect of the internal competition, the awards must be organized at a high level. After all, applause, attention and congratulations from colleagues can be even more valuable than a big award.
The material was prepared by Oksana VILINSKAYA, a leading expert of the Kadrovoe Delo magazine.
Articles
THEN. Serous
The magazine spoke in detail about the introduction of the system "Ordering" in the Group of Companies "Status" (Tyumen) 1 . However, it was not possible, of course, to cover this multifaceted and extensive experience in an exhaustive way. The proposed article is an attempt to fill a gap regarding such an important and urgent problem as the involvement of personnel in the implementation of improvements, in particular, through competitions held in the process of deploying the "Ordering" system.
During the three years of the system implementation at the enterprises of the Status Group of Companies (hereinafter referred to as the Status Group of Companies), eight corporate competitions (between the enterprises of the State Corporation) and more than 40 internal competitions directly at the enterprises were held. Why and how they were organized, and what did it give the Group of Companies as a whole, individual enterprises and every employee?
First of all, it should be noted that the competitions differed from each other in their purpose: when they were held, different goals were set, which determined the frequency and forms of organization of competitions.
1. Summing up the interim results of the work on the deployment of the "Ordering" system as a whole and on individual aspects. Corporate competitions for the best results in the implementation of the system, which were quite a large-scale event, were held at the first stages 2 once every six months, then annually.
Similar internal competitions at the enterprises of the State Corporation "Status" are held on average once a quarter.
In addition, pass creative contests: for the best symbolism of the "Ordering" system, for the best solution of the working group - once a year for the Civil Code, as well as for the best solution of complex technical problems - as needed - within the enterprises of the Civil Code.
When summing up, it is important to correctly identify nominations in which working groups similar in production focus can be evaluated, as well as determine the criteria for evaluating nominees, taking into account the stages of implementation of the "Ordering" system. Thus, the enterprises of the State Corporation "Status", which started implementing the system at different times (two enterprises - since February, the rest - since November 2003), at first were evaluated differently: competitions between "pioneers" and "newcomers" were held separately. Then, when the enterprises of the "second wave" achieved significant results, comparable to the results of the two plants that started work on "Ordering" first, it was decided to combine the tenders. This made it possible to increase the efficiency of the exchange of experience between all enterprises of the Group of Companies (since certain competitions created some barriers), as well as to create additional incentive both for the enterprises of the “second wave” and for the “masters of the “Ordering”, since they needed to prove themselves at a decent level, to meet the expectations of other enterprises.
2. Assessment of the prospects for the organizational development of the company(in particular, determining the degree of readiness for the transition to the next level). For example, based on the results of a corporate competition in October 2005 and based on experience in preparatory stage implementation of a more complex system - TPM (general productive services) 3 - it was decided to postpone the start of a large-scale deployment of this project.
3. Analysis of errors and determination of further directions of work on the implementation of the system in order to promote a more intensive exchange of experience and the development of methodologically successful moments in the implementation of the implementation of the system in enterprises.
Orders on the results of tenders, as a rule, contain a list of activities that need to be carried out when introducing the "Ordering" system in the GC "Status" at the next stage. Among the main decisions taken following the results of the competitions and subsequently implemented, the following can be distinguished:
introduction to the practice of curating working groups;
revision of the composition of the Councils according to the "Ordering" system at some enterprises;
distribution of responsibility between members of the Councils (in the form of a matrix of responsibility or regulations on the Council);
introduction to the practice of cross-excursions of working groups of various GK enterprises;
the beginning of the work of the circle on the "Ordering" system (the circle unites members of the Councils of all enterprises of the State Committee and was created to jointly develop decisions related to the implementation of the "Ordering" system);
introduction to the practice of self-assessment of enterprises and working groups according to the "Ordering" system;
creation of the NOVIK Catalog ( effective solutions, found by the working groups during the implementation of the "Ordering" system) and conducting training on the Catalog;
creation of the Catalog on labor protection;
introduction into practice of thematic inspections according to the "Ordering" system: on labor protection, the condition of amenity premises, inspection of cleaning equipment, etc.;
development of an introductory booklet on the "Organization" system for new employees;
continuous improvement of competition criteria;
development of regulations on competitions and inspections according to the "Ordering" system in accordance with the decisions developed at the "Ordering" circle;
improvement of documentation forms for the "Ordering" system (work plans, self-assessment sheets, evaluation sheets for inspections);
improvement of visual materials on the "Ordering" system (information for stands and methodological leaflets on the "Ordering" system);
carrying out activities to obtain feedback from working groups;
coordination by the Council for the "Ordering" of the applications of working groups for subsequent execution by the services of functional, technical and logistics support.
4. Training and exchange of experience: during corporate competitions, members of the Councils of enterprises lagging behind in the implementation of the system accompany the competition commission during its stay at the leading enterprises in order to use their experience.
5. Increasing the motivation of employees and the level of their involvement in the implementation of the "Ordering" system.
This is facilitated by:
friendly atmosphere of the competition;
awarding the winners in a solemn atmosphere, in the presence of the company's management and representatives of the Councils and working groups of all enterprises of the Group of Companies;
consecration of events and results of the competition in corporate publications and on the company's website;
organization of excursions to the winning working groups;
dissemination of ideas found by the winners of the competition at the enterprises of the Group of Companies.
Types of competitions according to the "Ordering" system, held in the GC "Status", nominations and applied evaluation criteria are presented in the table.
Criteria for evaluating working groups in the corporate competition for the best implementation of the "Organization" system for the period 2003-2005. have been revised several times and the following criteria are currently used.
1. Practical results of the working group, its progress since the previous competition and following the results of inspections. The progress in the implementation steps of the "Streamlining" system is taken into account, as well as the activities implemented over the past period as part of the implementation of the "Streamlining" program.
2. Quality of plan development working group . The content of the work plans, the specificity of the activities, the breakdown of the plan into logical blocks, the relationship of the plans with the steps of the system on which the working group is located, the distribution of responsibility for the activities, the degree of participation of all members of the working group, the specificity of the timing of the work are assessed.
3. Implementation of plans by the working group. The timeliness of the work, the presence of postponements of the work, as well as the fact of the implementation of measures based on the results of the inspection of the territory of the working group are assessed.
4. The level of involvement of members of the working group in the implementation of the system. Evaluated based on the results of a conversation with members of the working group and an analysis of the degree of participation in the implemented activities. With a high degree of employee involvement, the leaders of the working groups in a conversation with the members of the commission should not dominate. All members of the working group should take part in the conversation, talk about how they understand the system, what each of them did as part of the work on the "Ordering" system. And the leaders of the groups - only to supplement their story, giving each member of the working group an opportunity to speak out, to express their attitude to the work done and the system as a whole.
5. Use of self-assessment in the working group. The fact that the working group is conducting a self-assessment indicates a certain degree of "maturity" of this working group, that it has achieved serious results in terms of discipline and self-control. Evaluated use step by step self-assessment(on evaluation forms for the step, the activities of which are performed by the working group), thematic self-assessment(based on self-assessment sheets developed by the working group in order to overcome existing difficulties), and pre-competitive self-assessment- according to the evaluation sheet of the competition in the relevant nomination.
The advantage of these criteria is that they are applicable to the assessment of work groups of both office and production / auxiliary departments, moreover, for all steps of the "Ordering" system, and allow you to combine into general competition different working groups at different stages of work on the "Streamlining" system. In addition, they allow you to accumulate statistics on progress in the "Ordering" system and analyze individual aspects of work.
When evaluating the work of the Councils on the implementation of the "Ordering" system the following criteria are used.
1. Coherence in the work of the Council. The regularity and stability of the work of the Council in all necessary areas (training of working groups, inspections, activities to involve and agitate, etc.), the share of participation of each of the members of the Council in the implementation of the plans, the distribution of responsibilities between the members of the Council, the organization of teamwork in Council.
2. The quality of planning the work of the Council. As in the analysis of the plans of the working groups, the quality of the work planning in the Council is assessed.
3. Introduction to the practice of self-assessment in the enterprise. Assesses how actively self-assessment is used in the work groups of the enterprise as a whole, as well as
4. Visibility of displaying the results of activities in the "Ordering" system in dynamics. The condition of the stands and folders of the working groups, the visibility of the presentation of the results of competitions, inspections, and the display of the results in dynamics are assessed.
5. Implementation of the decisions of the Council and the progress of the enterprise as a whole. The implementation of the measures outlined by the Council is assessed, as well as the degree of mastering the "Ordering" system at the enterprise as a whole over the past period.
6. The level of work of the Council with the working groups. The regularity and quality of conducting educational and explanatory, involving events, inspections, receiving feedback from working groups is assessed.
7. Rating of the enterprise based on the results of thematic inspections and participation in the work of the circle on "Ordering". According to the results of monthly thematic inspections on the Civil Code and the results of the work of the representatives of the Councils at the circle on "Ordering", ratings are awarded to enterprises. The total rating for the past period significantly affects the assessment at the end of the competition. Thus, the stability of work on the "Ordering" system is ensured, in contrast to the "pre-competition fever", which was observed before such a decision was made.
Competitions within enterprises, creative and individual competitions are evaluated on the basis of those criteria that are specially developed before each competition and are discussed at the circle according to the "Ordering" system.
The prize fund of the GK competition and the amount of rewards for winning in each nomination are determined on the circle according to the "Ordering" system and, along with the rules for holding competitions, are approved in the Regulations on competitions and inspections according to the "Ordering" system. Contributions to this fund are made in the same amount by all GK enterprises. The prize funds of other competitions are determined separately, these expenses are planned by the Councils for the implementation of the "Ordering" system within the framework of the budgeting system in force at the enterprises of the Civil Code.
As prizes for winning competitions, both cash prizes and valuable gifts, commemorative symbols (transient and permanent), diplomas and certificates can be issued. An interesting fact is that about 50% of employees (according to the results of surveys conducted by the Councils of Enterprises of the Group of Companies) want to know what the valuable prize will be for the winner (it is better if a photo of the prize is posted on the company’s stand), and this increases their incentive to participate in the competition, and the rest prefer "surprise", i.e., learn about the prize at the end of the competition. When it comes to decisions about how to spend cash bonuses, about 90% of work groups use these funds to purchase something for public needs(for example, a kettle, a microwave oven, a Christmas tree, stationery, etc.), or celebrate a victory with a collective trip to the theater, cafe, bowling, etc., and only 10% prefer to divide money among themselves and spend it on own discretion.
The annual organization of the Week of "Ordering" in the GC is also a significant incentive for the working groups. Another corporate competition ends forum"Open Space - Streamlining", where the solemn summing up and awarding of the winners takes place 4 .
At the end of the forum, surveys of participants are conducted. All respondents note the usefulness of this event, its value for the exchange of experience and the development of new ideas.
In addition, it was noted that the form of the event was well chosen: the playful tone allowed the employees to “free themselves up”.
The main conclusions on the results of the competitions, which were made in the "Status" group of companies, are as follows.
Since the results of the competition have a serious impact on the motivation of employees when implementing the "Ordering" system, it is necessary to achieve maximum objectivity of assessments. Constantly improve the evaluation criteria, following the results of the competitions, give the most detailed comments, remarks and recommendations of the competition commission. With regard to the appointment of the competition commission, in order to achieve maximum objectivity, the nominees of corporate competitions are evaluated only by representatives of the management company.
If an enterprise manages to create a cohesive team (Council for the implementation of the "Organization" system and curators of working groups), in which everyone does what he does best, such an enterprise succeeds in relatively short term make significant progress in the development of the "Ordering" system. At the same time, the accumulated base makes it possible to maintain continuity in work, even if there is a radical change in the composition of the Council (in connection with the start of the implementation of the TPM concept).
The enterprises that started implementing the "Ordering" system later than CJSC "VZKSM" and CJSC "Leader" managed not only to catch up with them, but also to get ahead of them in some aspects, since they had the opportunity to use the achievements of their "pioneer" colleagues.
The production specifics of the enterprise is reflected in the work on the implementation of the "Ordering" system, which, in our opinion, is a sign of the involvement of employees. So, for example, workers representing the security agency "Association of Security", in the implementation of step 4, developed rules similar to this army charter (accuracy of wording, detail).
If the proposals of the working groups as part of the implementation of the "Streamlining" system are accepted and recognized, then the number of employees participating in innovations increases, and their ideas receive further development. Thus, the solutions published in the first volume of the NOVIK Catalog were improved by other working groups by the time the second volume was published. In addition, working groups manage to find solutions that exceed the traditional level in terms of depth of study (for example, based on the principle of color coding with the rational placement of objects in one of the office working groups, the principle of double color coding was implemented).
If the indicators for the implementation of the "Organization" system significantly decrease at the enterprise, then the reason is most often a decrease in the effectiveness of interaction with working groups and the formalization of the work of the Council: in this case, the Council needs to pay more attention to activities to involve personnel in the implementation of the system, meetings with working groups, their training and exchange of experience.
The experience of holding competitions turned out to be very useful for Status Group, and we intend to develop it. We encourage our colleagues from other enterprises to share their experience in organizing events to involve employees in innovation.
On the implementation of the "Ordering" system at the enterprises of the "Status" Group, see: Deryabin P.M. Why is it necessary to introduce the "Ordering" system // MMK. - 2004. - No. 2; Deryabin P.M., Govorukhin D.V. Small groups in the "Ordering" system // MMK. - 2004. - No. 2; Medvedev S.V., Serous T.O. "Ordering": "Open space" // MMK. - 2005. - No. 1, 2; Pshennikov V.V. "Ordering": Day open doors// MMK. - 2005. - No. 7; Melnikova E.V. "Our Experience to Everyone and Everyone" // MMK. - 2005. - No. 9.
The implementation of the "Ordering" system in the State Corporation "Status" is carried out according to the 12-step procedure described in the book by Ratimeshin V.E., Kupriyanova T.M. "Organization. The way to create a quality workplace." Practical guide / Under the general. ed. Dr. tech. Sciences V.N. Shlykov. - M.: RIA "Standards and quality", 2004.
In our publications, TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is translated as "productive maintenance of equipment with the participation of all personnel" - Approx. ed.
Medvedev S.V., Serous T.O. "Ordering": "Open space" // MMK. - 2005. - No. 1, 2.
Previously, showing off on the honor roll was the ultimate dream of every Soviet worker. Beautiful photo, from which the hero proudly smiled, having overfulfilled the plan - such a prospect was tantamount to a modern hit on the cover of Forbs magazine. Thus, they made it clear that the person worked for a reason, his work was noted, praised and ready to honor the hero of the editorial until his result overthrows the new factory Hercules. There were also “black” boards - pictures of shame, wall newspapers, where brawlers, truants, drunkards were hung for educational purposes, and of course, they tried to capture them on these photographs in the most obscene form.
Today, for some reason, the most popular way non-material motivation became an intrusive corporate culture. Colleagues are gathered for trainings, they are forced to celebrate memorable dates together and mass cultural trips are organized. All this is good, but when an ever-depressing atmosphere reigns in the organization itself, rare corporate parties, even with cheerful songs by an invited favorite (boss) group, will not save. But the mood and motivation of employees need an eye and an eye!
Despite the fact that today the best motivation for employees is traditionally a generous bonus and corporate culture, managers who are not deprived of imagination manage to come up with new budgetary ways to motivate employees. After all, happiness is not always hidden at the bottom of an envelope with money, many owners highly paid professions suffer, for example, due to the fact that they were underestimated somewhere, they were not understood, they were not assigned an interesting task. Yes, even under the guise of a careerist, there can be a subtle mental organization that simply craves praise, attention, or an extraordinary vacation.
Plunging into the world of "high" leaders, you can find many interesting examples finding new means of how to make your employees happy. For example, the thoughts of the father of modern animation Walt Disney (Walt Disney) were busy not only with colorful cartoons. His imagination was also enough to come up with new ways to motivate the employees of his company. He perfectly understood the needs and requirements of workers and knew perfectly well that people, regardless of wage conditions, are always happy to run away from jobs where it is not prestigious to work. Therefore, he personally turned non-prestigious jobs into prestigious ones. For example, laundries at Disney amusement park hotels, which were less popular among employees, were renamed textile services, equating them in importance with marketing or customer service. At the same time, it was much easier to get a job in the textile service.
Philip Rosdale ( Philip Rosedale, the founder of the most famous three-dimensional social network Second Life, came up with the idea of introducing an internal software platform in the company - a kind of aggregate for collecting feedback from employees about their colleagues. In this program, everyone could send notes of appreciation and encouragement to each other. All messages are posted in the public domain, so this system of collecting information about the work of employees has become a good tool for management in the labor assessment system.
But marketing companyHime&Co, in turn, he gladly supports the spiritual impulses of his employees. For example, management freely allows employees to take walks for half of the working day, but only if there is the serious reason. Among these, by the way, is visiting seasonal sales. Of course, buy stylish new clothes for the new fashion season- a holy cause, you can not go to work. And if your partner suddenly leaves you (husband, boyfriend - it doesn’t matter), then you will be given time off for the whole day to heal a spiritual wound: to cry enough and come to your senses.
Perhaps in every big company there are special ideas on how to make employees happy.
Here are 10 ideas to motivate employees that you can try to implement in your company:
1. Publicly encourage the merits of a distinguished employee.
2. Unexpected gifts, pleasant gifts for employees, just in honor of the day of good mood.
3. Can't afford to pay the bonus - find a more budgetary way to reward merit. For example, give an employee an unscheduled day off.
4. Can install from time to time valuable employees free work schedule.
5. Instead of a cash bonus, let employees choose their own prize: say, dinner at a restaurant, a subscription to a fitness club, some kind of gift certificate.
6. Organize a corporate sports trip. This is not just a vacation, but the desire for sports victories and achievements. Today, corporate karting, yachting and football are especially in vogue. You can hold dance competitions.
7. Bonuses for those who take care of their health. For example, many Western companies pay employees annual bonuses for not being sick for a year and regularly visiting doctors.
8. Some companies not only reward the best, but playfully punish the worst. For example, they introduce the title "Turtle forever" or the "Get a Skunk" award into the company.
9. Caring for the employee's family. These can be vouchers for children to a wellness summer camp, preferential health insurance for the employee's family. Tickets for concerts, performances...
10. Motivation by entertainment. Look at the offices of world-famous corporations, all of them are equipped not only stylishly, but in such a way that employees can work and relax as comfortably as possible, so that they want to come to work and do not want to leave. In such offices, play areas, recreation and entertainment rooms are necessarily provided. 8 working hours would not be as effective if employees could not relax in time, relieve stress and simply change the environment to a more pleasant and informal one.
Yes, of course, any non-material rewards and incentives are unlikely to compete with Her Majesty's salary in the power of motivation. But the manager should always remember that people usually come to work for the sake of money and a career, but they leave the routine and bad management. Therefore, the creation of an adequate system of non-material motivation is an important thing, even a basic one for creating an effective corporate Dream Team.
And if you yourself want to please the boss, see the instructions for packing a gift for the boss in our video:
Contests are a way we have known since childhood to express ourselves and evaluate the strengths of others. During the competition, we learn to communicate, understand each other, be a team or be a leader.
We learn to win, participate and participate. Competitions also provide one of the important HR components – employee engagement.
How to use the advantages of competitions for internal communications, we discussed with experts and share with you in this article.
Competition goalsInternal competitions in our company are always held as part of large motivational projects, the culmination of which usually occurs during corporate evenings, because. attendance at them is not mandatory, and therefore requires active action to attract participants to them. This is a kind of PR-component of the event itself, pursuing several goals at once:
1. Non-financially reward an employee by publicly declaring his abilities, achievements or contribution to the common cause of the Bank.
2. Involve as many people as possible in the life of the Bank, broadcast the values of the company, draw the attention of the audience to important information or involve the team in the problem and search for its solution.
3. Encourage colleagues to unlock their potential.
4. Create excitement before the final event of the competition, which takes place at a corporate event, by combining informational occasions (details of the competition and details of a future event)
Alexandra Popova, Leading Specialist in Internal Communications at JSCB RUSSLAVBANK (CJSC), spoke about the role of internal competitions in RUSSLAVBANK.
“This year, the FSUE SCSS turns 75 years old, in honor of this holiday, several competitions were held within the company - a quiz, a photography competition, a literary competition, as well as a competition for the best exhibit for the Museum of Special Communications. This activity was implemented in order to familiarize employees with the history of the enterprise. By participating in the quiz, it was necessary to find out Interesting Facts, find information, raise archives and communicate with more experienced workers to give the right answer. We have very talented people who not only excel as special communications operators, but also write well, and are also fond of photography, so we decided to announce a literary and photo contest for them. Since the enterprise has existed for a long time, whole dynasties and many veterans who have worked for several decades have developed inside it. Everyone has a huge story behind them, as well as unique things related to the work that could be demonstrated in our museum, so we organized a competition for the best exhibit. The main task of holding such events is the desire to pay attention to employees, to give them the opportunity to express themselves not only in work, but also to reveal their talents, rally the team and encourage them to actively participate in corporate life,” says Tatiana Parfenova, head of the training and methodological center of the FSUE GTSSS .
Sofia Semyonova, Head of Internal Communications and Employer Branding at Volvo Group Russia, says that the goals of internal competitions at Volvo Group Russia are different. Thus, the collection of innovative ideas is aimed at improving the business, the competition of commercial teams is aimed at solving commercial tasks, competitions for best project in the field of quality/safety/environmental protection/technology are aimed at promoting the corporate values of the Volvo Group, competitions for mechanics are aimed at improving the skills of employees. There are so-called motivational competitions, which are part of the internal awards system. "We also spend inside corporate contests, the purpose of which is internal branding. Competitions also allow us to solve recruitment tasks - we fill 75% of managerial positions in the company on the basis of an internal competition,” Sofia adds.
By organizing corporate competitions, you can achieve the following goals: increase the level of loyalty and involvement, motivate employees to work better and more efficiently, encourage and recognize the merits of employees, unite the team, broadcast corporate values, develop the competencies necessary for the company and employees, draw the attention of the younger generation to history and prospects for the development of the industry, to form interest and respect for any profession. - Nadezhda Usova, senior manager for internal communications at X5 Retail Group, argues. – The topics of competitions can be very different: photo contests, a contest for the best creative idea on a given topic, a contest for the best employees, contests unusual entertainment etc. Participation in competitions sometimes reveals people from an unexpected angle: for example, we can see a strict pedantic accountant in the role of an extreme travel lover, a solid sales director in the role of a miniature car collector, etc. Contests allow employees to get to know each other more and better, which contributes to team building and building more effective personal relationships and communications between departments.
Thus, competitions are of interest to both management, employees, and the personnel department, because With the right setting of goals and implementation of the project, several diverse tasks can be solved. But at the same time, competitions held “for show” are ineffective both for the company and for employees.
Inescapable success
Give examples of the most successful competitions in your practice, and what did these competitions give the company?
The most successful competition in RUSSLAVBANK was last year's "Employee of the Year 2013". The essence of the competition was to identify and encourage the best workers bank based on the assessment of its colleagues, i.e. only those employees who were nominated by their colleagues were represented in the nominations. The competition was held in 3 stages: from September to October 2013, colleagues anonymously nominated the most suitable person in their opinion in previously known nominations, substantiating the reason for their decision. Then, from among the names sent in the nomination, only the 3 most common ones were selected. From October to November, the final stage of voting took place, in which it was necessary to give preference to one of the 3 finalists. In early December, during a corporate evening in honor of the company's birthday, the names of the winners were announced and prizes were awarded. - Recalls Alexander Popov.
As a result of the competition, we received incredible results. Firstly, a maximum of regional offices and representative offices were involved in the race for the main prize - a trip to Moscow at the expense of the company for the presentation of statuettes + a paid 3-month internship in the capital in any department of the winner's choice with a further opportunity to get a job at the Bank's head office. It was the regional employees who were most often among the finalists. Secondly, labor efficiency has increased and communication between colleagues has improved, because. employees nominated each other as nominees based on the results of their work and the quality of service. Thirdly, we identified talents and helped the career development of "gray mice" - employees who did their job well, but were not previously noticed by management due to their personal qualities - modesty, shyness. They more often than others ended up on the list of the most hardworking and responsible, which we certainly told their leaders about. Thus, 4 nominees were promoted, and one girl from Kaluga got a job in Moscow. Fourthly, thanks to the active communication strategy of the competition, which included a teasing PR campaign for the corporate evening (newsletters, a special section in the corporate magazine, flyers and invitations, Internet banners on the internal website, creating an understatement effect and provoking further news tracking), an absolute record was set in terms of the number of people present - 550, which is 137% of the target audience (initially it was planned to attract 400 people). It was, dare I say it, a colossal success!
In general, with the help of this competition, we managed to make it so that 3 months before the company's birthday and a month after it, everyone was talking only about participation in it, and some managers even called "Employee of the Year" the biggest event in recent times, dreaming of receiving the coveted prizes and his moment of glory.
It is worth noting that the competition formed the basis of the concept of celebrating a birthday, turning it into an Oscar-scale ceremony with a red carpet and other attributes of the life of the rich and famous. Everyone was very pleased!
For St. Valentine's Day, we held a contest "Confess your love X5". The main goal of the competition was to increase the level of employee loyalty to the company and create a positive image of X5 Retail Group as an employer. Employees with different lengths of work in the company shared their impressions about why they chose X5 Retail Group as an employer, what they like about the company, what are the advantages and what they value in our organization. The competition was held on the intranet, so the coverage was wide: for best recognition employees from different cities, offices, shops and distribution centers competed in love. They expressed their love for the company in the form of short phrases, poems and even prose. All declarations of love during the day were published on the corporate portal, and online voting took place at a predetermined time. Employees themselves determined the winners, who received certificates for the best restaurants in their city for two persons. In Moscow, we chose the Pushkin restaurant. As a result, more than 3,000 X5 declarations of love were submitted to the competition, which reflected the advantages of the company. Thus, through the competition, we managed to form a positive attitude towards the company, increase loyalty and strengthen the X5 Retail Group HR brand.
As a rule, staff turnover in retail is higher than in other areas. This situation has a negative impact on employees' knowledge of the company's history: key dates and development milestones, key figures and achievements. We faced this problem and developed a communication plan that would increase the level of knowledge of the company's employees. One of the tools was the "Learn more about X5" quiz. On the one hand, we identified the best experts, on the other hand, we motivated employees to learn more about the company. The week during which the quiz was held was very active: employees found out, clarified certain facts, shared their knowledge, sources of information, etc. So, with the help of the competition, we managed to increase the interest of employees in the history of the company. - says Nadezhda Usova.
Tatyana Parfenova: “In the year of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the company, all competitions were successful, now we are summing up the results. However, the most successful can be called a quiz. In order to win, people needed to gather information and familiarize themselves with the activities of the enterprise. It was not easy, because in 75 years there have been many changes and events. As a result - good awareness, understanding of the processes, knowledge of the history of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise GTSSS and showing interest in the company. When you learn the story, you begin to delve into not only the work, but also notice other processes. You get to know your colleagues better, you understand how the work of the entire SCCC works, what important decisions were made, and then you see the result of these decisions. This helps a lot in the work, because knowing the history, you can predict the future, offer new solutions. At our enterprise, such an initiative is very welcome, so all employees are involved in the process and take part in competitions with pleasure, perhaps this is what distinguishes the FSUE GTSSS from other companies, because first of all they pay attention to the needs of people, they try to make the work process as comfortable as possible and exciting."
Prizes, praises and laurels
How to encourage and reward the winners? What place should be given to tangible and intangible rewards?
Alexandra Popova: “Incentives should be comprehensive and depend on the competition itself. For example, for winning the competition for the best corporate song, it is enough to write about the winner in the corporate media and present souvenirs with the organization's logo. If the competition is aimed at increasing profitability and labor indicators, then here beautiful mug you can’t get by, you also need a material component - a premium or a serious prize (tourist ticket, expensive equipment, car). The contribution of the employee received as a result of the competition should be correlated with the reward for which he will have to fight.
Parfenova Tatyana: “All people are different, someone is pleased with material rewards, and someone wants to prove themselves and demonstrate their talents for the recognition of colleagues. The ideal option is a combination of material wealth and recognition. We have all the winners receive cash prizes, the results of competitions and works are published in corporate newspaper, a general distribution is made. Our employees receive both attention and a nice bonus in the form of extra money.
Sofia Semenova: “Depending on the competitions, incentives can also be material, such as, for example, a prize for best idea or a paid trip for the winning team, a certificate for training, souvenirs with the company logo, prizes. But, in my opinion, recognition from colleagues or management is an obligatory part of encouraging the results of the competition. Recognition does not cost money, but it makes the employee understand that he is valued and respected at work, his ideas are significant.
Nadezhda Usova: “The choice of a prize largely depends on the size of the company and the budget for the competition. At the same time, it is best to study the needs of your employees, identifying certain factors that motivate them. Generally speaking, a tourist voucher or a vacation certificate combined with an internship in foreign country, where there is a division of the company, certificates for the study foreign language with carrier, gold badges with company logo. For thematic contests, you can choose promotion in the appropriate style: for example, a photo contest - a high-quality camera, flash drive, etc. In order to add value to the gift and encouragement in general, awards are best done in the presence of management and the majority of employees. For regional employees, a trip to Moscow for a general meeting can be a motivating gift. corporate party. This is especially true when the number of invitations is limited and / or the list of event participants is formed based on the position level. As a rule, such an unexpected gift for an ordinary employee is a strong motivating factor for further work and increased involvement.
Not all contests are created equalWhen choosing an idea for a competition, you need to think first of all about its potential benefits for business, and not about entertainment. The idea may be bright, but completely “idle” in terms of business tasks. In order not to waste time and energy in vain, let's figure out which ideas of contests are still better to refuse.
“You should not hold contests that do not solve business problems or will be too difficult to take part in them. Wasted budget and low returns are only part of what you get as a result of such work. Everything that an internal communicator does should be subordinated to 2 things - broadcasting the mission and values of the organization in which you work, and solving business problems, which ultimately affects profits, ”says Alexandra Popova.
Here is what Tatyana Parfenova says about what not to do: “There is no need to hold contests that do not make any sense. Competition for the sake of competition is completely useless and will be of no interest to employees. When starting some kind of activity, it is always important to understand what result you want to get and focus on people and their interests. No one will waste time just like that, a valuable prize is also not the most important motivation. In addition to material values, there are such important points as recognition, the desire to convey information to colleagues, demonstrate their talents, attract attention, and stand out. If the competition does not give anything except wasted time and, moreover, is implemented obsessively, most likely the result will be negative.”
“It is better to abandon the idea of the photo contest “How or where I spent the summer”, “Favorite cat/Cute kittens,” adds Nadezhda Usova.
We wish you successful competitions!
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Internal competitions are an excellent tool for solving many personnel and professional tasks. With their help, you can stimulate employees to achieve the best results, develop the competencies necessary for the company and broadcast corporate values. In this article, we will describe in detail the main types of internal competitions, talk about the purposes of their conduct and methods of organization.
So, depending on the objectives of the internal competitions can be divided into several types and be motivational, targeted and corporate. Let's take a closer look at each of them.
Motivational contests
This type of competition is based on one of the basic psychological needs of a person - to receive recognition of their merits from others. Competitions for the title of "Best in Profession" encourage staff to achieve higher performance in their labor activity, which in the future directly affect the growth of the organization's profit and are expressed in specific figures. The most popular are such events in the field of trade, where the title of "Best Employee" is awarded to employees who have achieved specific financial indicators in individual plan sales.
However, it is important to note that motivational competitions should be held at a certain stage of the company's development, when it has already experienced a period of its rapid growth and has reached some stability. By the time motivational competitions are held, internal communications should be established in the company and a favorable corporate culture should be formed. Otherwise, the elements of competition that are present in such competitions may lead to conflicts and unhealthy competition between employees, which will ultimately reduce the effectiveness of their work.
Target contests
Competitions of this type are held in order to solve specific tasks or actual problems facing the company. Target competitions are innovative, personnel, informational and disciplinary.
innovative competitions encourage employees to generate new ideas or look for innovative approaches to solving complex problems. With their help, the company's management identifies innovators and enterprising employees, the realization of whose potential can be of great benefit to the company in the future. Innovation competitions provide an excellent opportunity for talented people to express themselves, especially if, due to some circumstances, they are forced to be “in the shadows”.
Personnel contests , As a rule, they are carried out by the HR service in order to select candidates for newly opened vacancies in the company. Sometimes they are organized to form personnel reserve. The approximate scheme of personnel competitions is as follows:
- Need to define requirements for vacant position and develop Regulations on the competition (if it is held for the first time).
- Approximately one month before the start of the competition, HR employees must inform the staff about a new vacancy and notify employees about the conditions of the competition. Depending on the requirements for candidates, information about the vacancy is sent either to all employees or to target groups, which may include people only of a certain profession, working in a particular department, etc.
- All interested candidates who meet the established requirements apply to the HR service with an application for participation. Employees personnel service analyze the received data and select people who will be allowed to participate in the competition.
- Personnel competitions can be held in several stages: the implementation of a practical task, its defense before a specially created commission and a final interview.
Competitive procedures can be simplified or complicated depending on the level of the vacant position. But their main task remains to prove that the candidate with the best results will successfully cope with the work in a new position.
Companies that have established a mechanism for personnel competitions significantly reduce the cost of recruiting personnel and increase the motivation of employees striving for career growth.
Informational contests are used when all staff need to be informed about changes taking place in the organization. They can be used to draw the attention of employees to important event. Does it open corporate portal whether a new one starts trademark whether the system of assessment or motivation is changing - in the development of such innovations, the help and participation of employees is extremely important. Information competitions help to involve more people in the process of change, they enable employees to feel their importance and ownership of what is happening, as a result of which organizational changes are perceived more calmly and are more constructive.
Disciplinary competitions are designed to change undesirable patterns of employee behavior and eliminate minor violations in work. Regular lateness of employees, too frequent "smoke breaks", a markedly increased number of "sick leaves", premature departure from work, neglect of functional duties - such violations contribute to the creation of a non-working atmosphere and reduce the overall level of productivity. As practice has shown, internal competitions are much more effective than penalties in terms of improving discipline.
Corporate contests
Events of this type are held to develop and strengthen the corporate culture, they enliven the working atmosphere and contribute to the rallying of the workforce. With a competent organization and creative approach, such competitions become an excellent alternative to expensive team building trainings, which are often ordered by company executives for their employees. In addition, unlike one-time “purchased” trainings, corporate competitions form a tradition in the company of holding joint events that create a friendly atmosphere in the team and strengthen relationships between people.
Corporate competitions can be team or thematic.
Command competitions are based on group competition; they can be timed to coincide with some significant event in the life of the organization or carried out “on an occasional basis” (the best bowling team, the winning team in a volleyball / football match, etc.). Participation in the same team of people of different ages, having different positions and ranks, gives such competitions a special originality and significance. The informal atmosphere present at such events perfectly raises team spirit, promotes team building, energizes employees much more than the usual feast, the end of which is not always predictable.
Thematic contests, as a rule, are timed to coincide with certain holidays or events. The reason for holding such events can be a professional holiday, the day the company was founded, traditional holidays - New Year, March 8, Navruz, etc.
Some HR managers are very creative in organizing holiday events. So that the celebration does not come down to a traditional feast, they try to create a bright, memorable holiday, involving all employees. People make it "with their own hands" - they write scripts, prepare poems and songs, come up with prizes, make jewelry. The light friendly atmosphere that arises both during the preparation and during thematic competitions contributes to the disclosure of employees, sometimes from the most unexpected side. The whole team is charged with positive, and working days literally “come to life”.
Organization of internal competitions
The process of organizing competitions includes several key points. Before the start of their holding, it is necessary to develop evaluation criteria, designate participants, determine nominations, think over the awarding procedure and select awards.
1. Evaluation criteria. The determining factors in their development are the clarity of wording and accessibility for understanding. Evaluation criteria must be communicated to all participants before the start of the competition. In the process of its implementation, the criteria should not change, and the conditions for participation in the competition should remain equal and transparent for all employees.
2. Participants of competitions. After determining the goals of the competition and its format, outline the circle of possible participants. So, for example, it is recommended to hold a competition for the title of "Best Employee" among employees with the same functional responsibilities. It is also desirable that employees of all divisions of the company be involved in various competitions - this will give each employee an opportunity to receive recognition of their merits.
3. Nominations. The number of nominations and their name should be chosen taking into account the objectives of the competition, the total number of employees and the available budget. If the goal is to develop and consolidate specific skills among employees, focus on them by choosing the appropriate nominations.
4. Award procedure. Public praise has a significant impact on the future behavior of a person, and recognition by the manager of the merits and successes of an employee increases the value of the victory and enhances the motivational effect.
The award ceremony following the results of the competition can be held both in an official and informal setting. Usually, honoring the winners and summing up the results of the competition is timed to coincide with some holiday and is included in the script for its holding. The announcement of the names of the winners can be entrusted to one of the employees or a guest presenter. But the awarding process, especially for outstanding professional merit, should be left to management. This will emphasize the importance of the moment and consolidate the success of the winner in the eyes of colleagues.
Awards. The choice of gifts for the winners must be very careful, regardless of their positions. It is desirable that prizes for different nominations do not differ too much from each other in value. When determining the prize fund, it is important to take into account the merit of the recipients. The budget allocated for the award should be adequate to their contribution to the development of the company.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the organization of internal competitions should be treated with great seriousness and responsibility. Only with a clearly defined goal, careful preparation for the implementation and observance business ethics these activities will lead to positive changes in the company and will be a truly effective and useful means of increasing staff motivation.
Compliance of the type of competition with the objectives of its conduct
| Competition type | View | Target |
| Motivational | "Best in the profession" | Encourage people to achieve high performance at work |
| Target | Innovative | Generate new ideas, solve pressing problems |
| Informational | Draw attention to the problem, identify an initiative group | |
| personnel | The most efficient way to close a job. | |
| Create opportunities for career development employees | ||
| Disciplinary | Improve labor discipline | |
| Corporate | Command | Teambuilding |
| Thematic | Build trust in the team. | |
| Organize an interesting joint vacation |
Prepared by specialists of the UzJobs project based on materials from the Internet media