Employee-driven Employee of the Week

I was observing production at a manufacturing plant recently, and noticing that there were a lot of opportunities going to waste. Workers taking pauses between their particular tasks to wait for someone else to do their job, or chatting with the guy next to him. It seemed like the place could really benefit from a healthy dose of helping one another, beyond their own specific job description.

If you're waiting on someone else to complete their task so you can step in with yours, and there's anything you could do to help while you are waiting, you would generally see production, quality, efficiency, and even morale. Without neglecting your own duties, offering help to another can generally improve a workplace.

Now, we certainly have to be aware of accountability, particular abilities and, as mentioned above, still getting your own work completed, but is there any production facility, or any workplace for that matter, where each person and job is perfectly matched to the workload and timed to 100% efficiency?

And that is not a rhetorical question... If you have a response, feel free to share it.

But what, I wondered, could help even out this allocation of effort? How can each of us be motivated to fill the the gaps and mitigate overload?

I began to envision an employee-driven employee reward structure. Briefly stated, each employee can nominate another employee to receive a cash reward at the end of the week. And that pot is filled by each employee's nomination, because each vote costs one dollar.

This sounds crazy, I'm guessing, but we're brainstorming here. We're tossing ideas up on the dry erase board to evaluate the feasibility of an idea.

Why would it cost a dollar? Because the person placing a vote needs to have something invested in it. And while charity can't be valued (nor rewarded with a sense of fulfillment) with any monetary currency, we have to start somewhere.

It's an action that can be taken to, perhaps, inspire a feeling.

So if someone goes out of their way to help you at work, particularly when they were not obligated to do so, wouldn't it be worth a buck to tell someone that their contribution was appreciated?

But, you say, responding with a "Thank you" and a word of appreciation doesn't even cost a buck. I say this infrastructure would not replace the need for kind words and thankful regard.

But, you say, workers should be doing this anyway. Okay, but are they? They should be helping each other when they have time and ability, but how often do you see it happening?

If, as a manager, you see it among your team, then congratulations! No action required. But if there is a change desired, won't some action be required? Could this arrangement possibly provide this desired change?

There are certainly many potential drawbacks, or obstacles to be considered.

What if someone abuses the system? What if a group of employees find some way to manipulate the process to force some outcome that serves only that group?

I suggested this concept to a few individuals in supervisory or management positions, and there were a lot of naysayers.

Clearly, they know their jobs, facilities, and employees, and are the best equipped to point out all of the potential problems with a plan such as this.

But aren't they also the best equipped to find ways to overcome them as well? Aren't they also the best person to introduce a program that will foster camaraderie among the team in a way that won't let a few bugs or kinks stop them?

So the questions become, and this is the questions I ask of you, are as follows:

• Would an employee-driven, employee reward program have potential to improve a workplace?
• What would be the main challenges?
• How would those challenges be overcome so that something that is ultimately good, can be achieved?

It seems like an interesting concept to me. One that deserves vetting. And traditional rewards programs (those administered by the company) oftentimes end with an employer questioning the value of the program, while employees question the integrity.

Not in every case, I'm sure, but that might be a good follow-up question: How is your employee rewards program working for you and your team? Have you never tried it? Or have you discontinued it for some reason?

I'm looking forward to your insight on the topic.