Business Trends
Get Started with the Rewards and Recognition feature with SAP Compensation
Organisations need to consider a strategic approach along side their compensation planning and management to attract, motivate and retain a skilled workforce.
Compensation is historically driven by the End of Year review; this is the typical kick off to the preparation of the annual compensation and variable pay cycles. There has been a shift in the employment market and most employees need to be recognised throughout the year through Continuous Performance Management and this has become a focal point of Human Experience Management and the Future of Work.
With Reward and Recognition, we are able to reward employees and give recognition at any time during the year with a wizard based, simplistic approach. This can be monetary, points based or with a ‘thank you’ email for the efforts of the employee.
You can choose from eligible award categories while the remaining budget is shown on screen, making it easy to get your job done quickly, and stay within your organisation’s guidelines.
A great experience goes beyond how employees are compensated – it’s about how employees are recognised for their success. To do this, rewards must be personalised, relevant, frequent, and timely. With Reward and Recognition, managers can add a personalised message with the reward which also serves as justification to those approving the action.
(Level 3 Process Hierarchy)
Feature Overview
Once configured correctly, a manager will be able to select a member of their team. This will filter the appropriate reward programmes that the team member is eligible for.
If needed, you can select multiple team members to reward – therefore reducing the time spent, yet still giving meaningful employee experience and engagement.
Next the guidelines will pick up how a team member is to be rewarded. Guidelines can be set on fields such as Country, Reward Category and Level. The manager is then given the recommended rewards in a drop-down list, which is incremental from minimum to maximum, with the budget on screen to assist in their decision.
Finally, the justification for the approver and a personal message to the recipient is required. Once approved, the team member will receive immediate notification of their reward via email. Remember the necessity of personalised and relevant feedback here. This would be an opportunity for the manager to input some detailed feedback such as the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) model.
(System screenshot examples)
Where should you start?
To get your Reward and Recognition incentives started, here are some of the must haves;
- Peer-to-peer recognition – empower your staff to celebrate each other
- Long-service awards – celebrate milestones to shout about loyal staff
- Instant recognition – visible performance metrics to reward employees immediately (rather than delaying until a standardised time such as Annual Cycles or Christmas)
- Rewards – desirable wins so that staff will work hard to achieve them
It’s also important to tailor your scheme to your organisation, to ensure it reflects your culture and brand. Run in the right way, an employee recognition scheme will have a huge impact on your business output.
Key Features
- Reward and Recognition on Mobile! Managers are no longer tied to a desk – This wizard based system is mobile enabled.
- Instant recognition messages to motivate employees throughout the year providing real-time acknowledgment of milestone achievements and outstanding contributions.
- Each Reward is flexible with a multitude of Categories and Levels for reward
- Guidelines can be set against each reward with incremental monetary rewards
- Ability for managers to override the guidelines where suitable
- Opportunity for Points-Based programs as well as Thank You messages for recognition
- Budget Controlled with easy view for the manager, enabling them to carry out their work within organisation guidelines
- Ability to reward your employees and give recognition anytime during the year
- Seamless integration back to Employee Central Spot Awards for Payroll to collect reward data
- Reward and Recognition events are often linked to the same budget, eligibility, guideline, and approval processes as annual events.
Business Value Added
The most efficient way to provide a staff incentive scheme is via a structured employee recognition programme, such as the SuccessFactors Reward and Recognition feature! This places all the information at both management and employees’ fingertips, allowing the entire business to easily engage with it.
Employee Rewards are visible to staff to provide an added incentive to work hard. Performance metrics are also visible to the senior team, so that they can monitor progress and proactively recognise efforts at appropriate times. This kind of platform is straightforward and inexpensive to implement, while making it easy to reward your staff to ensure high performance does not get overlooked.
Blog Summary
Reward and Recognition is an uplift of your Spot Awards found within Employee Central, giving ownership to the teams performing and driving businesses forward and easily configured and maintained by Total Rewards CoE.
Further Reading
- Read the benefits of effective instant employee recognition
- More about why instant recognition matters
- For first look at what’s coming up in the next release, check out the SAP SuccessFactors YouTube channel
- SAP Community topic page for SAP SuccessFactors
- More questions? Ask the community
- More details on the Reward and Recognition implementation can be found within the Compensation Implementation Guide
- More blog’s can also be found within the community
- More on the STAR model feedback
Please use the comments section for any thoughts and feedback. For more blogs in the Total Reward space follow the tag on my profile!
Excellent overview, John!
I'd add to the list the possibility to enable Rewards & Recognition on mobile.
Though a bit restrictive for the Nominees, it can be pretty useful for the Nominators.
Really good call out Alina-Elena! Thank you! With the focus being the future it should have been at the front of my mind!
Mmmmm... Do awards matter that much?
My primary driver is simply making people happy. Hint: It can't always be done. I like to get the immediate feedback. (Either from my boss or users) It makes for a happy day if I can help someone, or a roll-out on a project (eventually) helps them out and they let me know.
Awards? Maybe in a larger company.
I also wonder how you are going to put metrics together. It's not an easy thing to do when it comes to developers.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for the honest feedback!
I see your point of view but I'd challenge the contradiction; you question if awards matter but appreciate the immediate feedback. The Reward and Recognition feature is a way to reinforce the feedback you receive for the hard work you have put in rather than replace it.
If you were told you had done a great job, you would feel enthusiastic and want to repeat the efforts made. If you then received a financial reward the same day with a thank you note that would reinforce the feedback and prolong the feeling of appreciation.
In the links at the bottom these points are covered by leaders in this environment.
As for the developers, once we have a guideline the solution is well structured for the initial build, integration to the employees profile and the maintenance by the appropriate system administrator
I have seen this implemented in the past with a fixed £50 voucher reward once approved by the budget holder.
Agreed. I like that immediate feedback. I am from a small shop. We have one internal developer and many consultants.
I'm still not understanding the metrics. Simply because so many of my previous jobs have tried to implement metrics - just for reviews. In general it works. However, once you get down to the exact details it doesn't.
Here's some example examples:
The rework is only one time. So who causes the rework? The developer? The analyst? (that's me too so it wouldn't be a big deal, in this job) the end user - just plain not knowing what they want? It does happen even if you give them models to look at.
You always finish on time and under budget. See my first comment. I can write as many scope statements or functional specs as I want. Sometimes that doesn't matter, and things get extended. Or something with a higher priority comes up.
You get things done at a fast rate. OK - see one and two. Also getting it done fast does not get it done right.
I could be getting too finite. Perhaps those general rules would work for this as well.
And you caught me. I did not click on the links. They were very interesting.
Hello John, Excellent overview of Rewards and Recognition!!
One question, can we print the reward received? (Like a certificate?) Thanks in advance for your answer...
Yes we can print.