Being rewarded at work is a great feeling! But what about when a reward isn’t a reward? Performance punishment has been the workforce’s top ‘not so rewarding’ reward. Laurel McKenzie, behavioral scientist at CoachHub, explains how to stop the performance punishment cycle.
Everybody likes a reward. Whether a trophy or a pat on the back, a reward can do wonders for a person’s morale. We enact our brain’s reward system when we experience something we perceive as rewarding. When this system is activated, our brains release dopamine, a neurotransmitter that makes us feel good. This reward system involves multiple areas of the brain that work together to make us feel good and encourage us to repeat the behavior we were rewarded for. For example, if you did well on a coding project at work and received praise, your brain is wired to seek that reward again for another dose of dopamine.
But what about when a reward isn’t a reward? When your achievements at work earn you not only a pat on the back but also three more tasks to tackle? Enter performance punishment.Â
This punishment happens when managers “reward†high-performing employees with additional work without proper support or resourcing. While this approach may seem logical, it can have unintended negative consequences for those employees and the company. Smart organizations look for signs of performance punishment to proactively prevent it with tools like digital coaching and stop any ongoing performance punishment cycles so employees thrive, not flounder.
Performance Punishment Indicators
Performance punishment appears in various forms beyond giving more work to shining employees. It can also present a need for advancement opportunities. Managers may impede employees from growing into a new role because they excel in their current position where they’ve proven their value. This immobility can result in employees quitting to find growth opportunities somewhere else.
Performance punishment can also manifest as unrealistic heightened expectations, especially in highly-competitive sectors like tech. Employees may be expected to work longer hours or might receive more criticism when they fail to achieve a specific goal. Leaders may respond more harshly because they have come to expect “more†out of a high-performing employee. This can lead to disillusioned employees with low morale and decreased productivity.
Additionally, when an organization gives employees a heavier workload, they must give them the tools to succeed, such as leadership development training or access to more resources and personnel. If the organization doesn’t, employees could become resentful and burnt out. Upskilling employees is necessary for retention if they’re expected to assume new responsibilities.Â
People want to be good at what they do, with 75%Opens a new window of tech workers identifying upskilling opportunities as important for remaining with a company. When employees need more resources to excel in their new responsibilities, they risk underperforming when it comes to those new responsibilities. Employees who feel unsupported in their roles could eventually quit, leaving detrimental knowledge gaps in their wake and impacting the organization’s ability to operate at peak performance. The tech sector has the highest turnover rate, so providing tech workers with needed support is a particularly pressing matter to ensure worker retention. Â
Employees leaving also costs money. Beyond the expense of hiring and training new workers to replace those who left, the loss of productivity and expertise can cost the organization financially. Additionally, employees leaving can affect the morale and productivity of the employees who stay, further harming the organization.Â
See More: Ways To Achieve Sustainable Productivity
How To Avoid Performance Punishment
Performance punishment prevention begins with a workplace culture that encourages a healthy work-life balance, establishes boundaries, and offers opportunities for learning and development. An organization placing employee well-being at the heart of its culture benefits from an engaged workforce where everyone is appropriately challenged and uplifted.
Digital coaching offers one way to nurture a positive workplace culture. Organizations should invest in a digital coaching platform that uses sophisticated AI to elicit the most valuable results to ensure each employee is paired with the best coach. Once matched, one-on-one coaches can work with employees at all organizational levels to foster a coaching culture, empowering everyone to provide feedback, have open and honest conversations, and grow and develop toward common goals. This culture encourages collaboration and communication to improve an organization’s health.Â
Digital coaching can also help employees impacted by performance punishment by providing them with a safe space to speak up about their challenges at work. Once the problem has been identified, a coach can guide them to develop the self-advocacy skills necessary to communicate concerns to leadership through exercises like role-playing. A coach may roleplay an intimidating interaction, such as talking to a supervisor about an unsustainable workload, to help the coachee prepare what they will say. Alerting leadership to a problem can initiate the conversations needed to revamp work distribution or gain access to the appropriate tools to handle extra work.
When additional work becomes necessary — even in the short term — digital coaching provides the support employees need to address the challenge by identifying skill gaps and offeringÂ
appropriate steps to close those gaps. Some of those skills may include time or conflict management, delegation, and goal setting with coworkers or direct reports. Developing skills necessary for success enables employees to assume more responsibility without feeling overwhelmed or unsupported while trying to meet higher expectations.Â
See More: HR Training and Leadership Development Strategies
Giving Praise When Praise Is Due
Even after management has distributed the work equitably and seen to upskill employees, leaders’ jobs still need to be finished. Companies should elevate employee recognition when individuals are doing well. 65% of workersOpens a new window have yet to receive recognition for their work in the past year. Recognizing outstanding performance or the accomplishment of a goal majorly benefits employee retention and job satisfaction.Â
Workers at organizations prioritizing employee recognition are 56% less likelyOpens a new window to search for a new job and 71% less likely to feel burnt out than those lacking employee recognition programs. Employee appreciation begets happier team members, and happy employees increase business productivity by 31%.
Further, over 40% of American workers said they’d put more energy into their work if their leadership recognized them more often. To keep your high performers content and reduce attrition, acknowledge their achievements and try not to saddle them with excessive work.Â
Performance punishment can appear in many sneaky ways, but being cognizant of the signs can keep it at bay, as can prioritizing a healthy work-life balance and extolling employee accomplishments. Digital coaching can help employees reach goals by sharpening their skills and encouraging a healthy workplace culture, especially in the tech industry. Coaches can also help those struggling with performance punishment by helping with time management or emotional regulation. What is the best way to keep your top performers satisfied and engaged? Eliminate performance punishment.
What actions have you taken to create a truly rewarding work environment for your employees? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!
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