Years of Service.
In stable, predictable times, in organizations where employees have
a job for life, marking milestones toward retirement makes a lot of
sense. Today few, if any, employees take jobs expecting to be there
20 or 30 years later. Some incentive companies are quick to point
out that almost every North American company offers
length-of-service awards. ItÂ’s as if this fact, in and of itself,
is some sort of proof that they work.
Just because such recognition programs exist, that doesn't
necessarily mean they are a source of motivation for today's
employees. In one Fortune 500 organization with which I recently
worked, over half of all surveyed employees didn't view
years-of-service awards as a form of recognition at all. In another
organization, a long-term employee told me they had to go to
personnel and demand their 20-year pin! (She showed it to me--it
was still in the box.)
In most organizations today, years-of-service awards have become
more associated with endurance than performance. They've become a
badge of honor that "I survived"--all the more so if the
organization has experienced a merger or layoff in recent years.
Sure, you want to retain your employees--especially your top
performers--for as long as possible, but it's increasingly not the
clock they get on their 10-year anniversary that keeps them with
the organization and energizes them to do their best work.
Holding celebrations and giving gifts for employee retirements or
new-employee orientation are versions of the same thing.
