Recognizing Excellent Performance

caliotter3 · Mar 10, 2015

One time in recognition of excellent performance, I was given a raise in pay. That is the one and only time I have ever truly felt appreciated by a nursing employer. It was only twenty-five cents an hour, but it meant something to me (until I found out that they were paying others six dollars an hour more than me, but that is another thread!).

stineknight · Mar 10, 2015

Thank you for responding! It is a huge morale booster to receive recognition whether in the form of a raise, or praise, reward. Does your facility offer incentives for exceeding the standards, going above or beyond your duties? Some places offer the Daisy Award, Certified Nurses Day, Gotcha's. I would like to hear some other ways to value our employees!

caliotter3 · Mar 10, 2015

No. I have never actually worked for an employer that offered incentives. The one time that I received that raise was actually a fluke. I believe that I had the nursing supervisor to thank for it. For some reason, she wanted to acknowledge my work, so she pitched the raise to the manager. I have not seen such before, or since. What I have seen is reported disparities in pay, seemingly not related to quality of work, but to other factors. I have also seen evidence of historical "employee of the month" awards in the form of posted pictures or award plaques, gathering dust on the wall, in facilities.

Swellz · Mar 10, 2015

I agree with caliotter; if you really value me, show me with a raise! It would be nice for my income to rise with the cost of living.

We have the Daisy and other awards you can nominate nurses for. Certified nurses get a lunch once a year, and we get a bag or something for nurses week.

My favorite way to recognize coworkers is our online honors program. Anyone can recognize any fellow employee for teamwork, problem solving, catching med errors before they happen, etc. You get points for every recognition, and you can use them to buy things on the online store. Ok, so you need a ridiculous amount of points to buy anything, but it's the thought that counts. Plus, you can automatically send an email to the person's manager so they know their employee is being recognized.

BSNbeauty, BSN, RN · Mar 10, 2015

We do daisy awards for nurses and rose awards for techs. When a nurse receives a nomination they get a pin and five dollar gift card for the gift shop and cafeteria. If the nurse wins a daisy, a presentation is done for him/her on the unit. It include s cinnabons for the whole unit, flowers, a certificate, and the nurse sign the daisy banner.

stineknight · Mar 10, 2015

We are looking for a parking spot for an "employee of the month" recognition. I like the idea of the online nomination that goes directly to the manager! What a great idea! I was also thinking of memberships to nursing organizations as a reward, based on performance. Others thought 15 minute massage certificates might be nice for smaller deeds. Hmmmm...

kidzcare · Mar 10, 2015

Telling the employees personally is great but money talks.

No Stars In My Eyes · Mar 12, 2015

Lordy, lordy! We used "Pat-on-the-back" awards once, a blank form that would have your name filled in and the reason, like if you did something they considered 'special' or above-and-beyond. They also did Employee of the Month for a while with a little gold star pin with a small red stone in it. And also same for "You make a difference". You could put them on your ID badge or on your collar, but most people didn't. Once all we got was a generic 8x11 page copy of "We appreciate you so much" (yeah, from the very bottom of your printer's ink cartridge.)

Like kidzcare said, money talks. It's been mute for too many years for us!