HRD Practices

Recognising in Talent...
and Rewarding Editors
265
P. Surjith Kumar
Contemporary Industries N. Panchanatham
Published by Global Vision Publishing House

Recognising and Rewarding Talent: Best

Practices from some Manufacturing
Companies in India
Neharika Vohra*, Nisha Nair**, T.V. Rao***
and Atul Srivastava****

The paper reports some of the novel practices in recognising

and rewarding employees across some of the manufacturing
companies in India. Various kinds of practices related to
rewards for individual, team based, performance based,
quality focused and directed at promoting desired behaviors
are discussed in the paper. It serves to highlight some of the
existing practices in the manufacturing sector in India from
which both academicians and practitioners can benefit.
Introduction
There is no dispute that people are the most important asset in
an organization. Great organisations have one thing in common the
ability of the organisation to recognise and reward talent so as to
inspire its people to contribute. It reflects the care and concern the
organisation has for its people and is based on the belief system of
the organisation as to whether people will or will not perform given
the right support and rewards. Setting up systems for motivating

* Professor, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

** Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management.
*** Adjunct Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
**** Deputy General Manager (Personnel), Steel Authority of India Limited.
266 HRD Practices in Contemporary Industries

and rewarding people is a challenge for any organisation. To address

this challenge, in addition to learning from experience, it helps to
learn from the effort of other organisations that function within the
same context. This paper is an effort in this direction, presenting
some best practices in recognising and rewarding talent across
some manufacturing organisations in India. It is based on inputs
from participating organisations in the HR Excellence Award instituted
by SAIL and implemented by IIMA as its knowledge partner. The
best practices have been documented in further detail elsewhere
(Nair, Vohra, Rao, & Srivastava, 2009).
The practices for recognising and rewarding talent are discussed
specifically with respect to the manufacturing sector in India.
Manufacturing is at the core of economic development. Economic
history will bear out that high quality manufacturing has been at the
heart of the economic development of any country (Cypher &
Deetz, 2004). The most recent example is that of China. The
economy of China has grown over 10% in the last few years
because of extensive manufacturing of various products. A populous
country like India needs to have a very strong manufacturing base
for its long term survival and sustainability. Thus, it is very important
that academicians and practitioners engage with the question of
how to make the manufacturing sector competitive and what HR
can do to promote and reward talent, given that rewards and
recognition play a critical role in developing employee motivation,
commitment, loyalty and performance (Moorhead & Griffin, 2008;
Shields, 2007). They may also sometimes act in the reverse direction
if not managed appropriately (Cameron & Pierce, 1994; Kerr, 1975).
Recognising and Rewarding Talent
Organisations choose between a variety of rewards to recognise
desired behaviour and boost employee morale. They serve as a
means to motivate employees, act as role models for emulation and
inspiration, and raise standards of performance. This paper attempts
to synthesise what manufacturing organisations in India choose to
reward and how they reward their employees.
Recognising and Rewarding Talent... 267

Recognising and Rewarding Individual Performance

Rewards for individual performance are a general feature in
most organisations. They are referred to differently in each
organisation and the systems for identifying talent also vary across
organisations. Some practices in this regard are discussed below.
A scheme that aims to acknowledge efforts of employees, who
have displayed exemplary commitment in the fulfillment of their
objectives beyond their call of duty, is referred to as People Who
Made the Difference (PWMD) at Schneider Electric India.5 The
objective is to recognise and reward committed employees who
have exerted exemplary efforts in their work. Akin to it, HPCL
(Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited) offers the Outstanding
Achievers Award that seeks to recognise outstanding achievements
of officers in junior grades across the company. It recognises
officers who have achieved outstanding results and have displayed
extraordinary commitment during a particular year in pursuance of
the company’s business interests. Winners are awarded a cash prize
along with a silver plaque. A notable feature of this award is that
anyone can nominate an officer for the award. It could be the
immediate supervisor, his/her colleague or a superior or colleague
from any other department or location. An officer can also nominate
him/herself for the award, the process for which is completely
online. Very similar to it, Honeywell India has a peer recognition
award called the Bravo Award, which is again a reward based on
peer recommendation for acknowledgement of good work. Recipient
employees are given Bravo certificates along with a cash reward.
One of the most prestigious awards in Honeywell is the Premium
Achievement Award, given to few employees who show
extraordinary/exemplary work. Under this reward, the recipient along
with his/her spouse is invited to the United States where the employee
and his/her spouse participate and engage with senior leadership in
team meetings. They are also sent out on a site seeing trip for a
week. For top performing individuals, Dabur India also sponsors
annual foreign trips and has a Bulls Eye Award under which a
laptop is given to top salesmen who achieve set targets.
268 HRD Practices in Contemporary Industries

A system for recognising new talent in the organisation has

been instituted in Schneider Electric India under its Rookie of the
Year Award. Applicable to all graduate and management trainees, the
award is given for outstanding performance by new employees in
areas such as taking self initiative to enhance one’s own knowledge/
skills, contributing effectively to team’s success or bringing about
process improvement within his/her scope of work.
Employees demonstrating desired leadership behaviour (as
defined in their leadership framework) and those creating an impact
on the organisation through extraordinary efforts are rewarded by
their line managers at Castrol India with a Spot Bonus Cash Award.
There is an organisational level budget of 1% of fixed salaries
towards spot bonus. Employees have been awarded as high as Rs.
3,00,000. A similar award has been instituted by NTPC, called the
PEARL (Performance Excellence Award for Regional Leadership)
Award.
Employees contributing in a positive way beyond the call of
their duty are rewarded with stars at Honeywell India; these are
actual bronze stars which are given to the employees on specific
achievements. Employees can earn any number of stars based on
their achievements. Stars so earned have points attached to them
and on redemption, employees can collect gift vouchers of the
same denomination. Those who earn above 15 stars in a year
become members of the star club and are given various privileges
for next one year as a member of star club. Along similar lines,
Matrix Labs has a Matrix Achievers’ Club, instituted in recognition
of the dedication and significant contribution made by employees.
The award carries a certificate of membership, cash reward, trophy
and an annual holiday. Alternatively, star performers of ITW Signode
are rewarded by being given first preference in the choice of next
assignment and location, and are promoted to next level when they
are 80% ready.
Extraordinary contributions are also rewarded on a periodical
basis by different organizations. For example, Moser Baer India has
an Employee of the Month and an Employee of the Year award for
Recognising and Rewarding Talent... 269

recognising individuals who have been consistent in achieving

excellence in their work area around the year. They also have an
outstanding manager of the year award. Tata Motors offers a Man
of the Month for consistent performance felicitated in a division
before all employees and Man of the Year selected from all such
Man of the Months. A one time exemplary act in the work area is
felicitated by a badge and certificate under the Exemplary
Performance Award. Similarly, JSPL (Jindal Steel & Power Limited)
has instituted a JEM scheme for recognising the efforts of individuals
on a monthly basis and they also have a Business Executive of the
Year Award. The JEM award is based on nominations by heads of
departments carried out through an evaluation sheet assessing areas
such as contribution to productivity, quality, cost, behaviour,
exceptional work done, discipline, punctuality, etc. The award
includes a display of the photograph of the winner on display
boards located at prominent locations in the plant and a felicitation
at the end of the year in a formal award ceremony along with gifts
such as dinner sets.
In most organisations, there is an attempt to measure
performance and reward outstanding achievers. Such practices help
motivate people and if the reward is fair and genuine employees
strive to become recipients of such rewards. The perception of
these rewards as being special and valuable is important for the
companies to maintain.
Recognising and Rewarding Team Work
Organisations offer team rewards in addition to the individual
rewards to promote team work and ensure energised, enthused and
motivated teams. Some of the various team rewards instituted by
organisations in the manufacturing sector are discussed in this
section.
An award called Quest for Excellence has been instituted by
Moser Baer India to recognise outstanding achievement in business
results and to spur the spirit of healthy achievement across functional
teams. Tata Motors also offers quality linked payments for achieving
high productivity in the manufacture of vehicles, given in groups
270 HRD Practices in Contemporary Industries

based on the ratings of cross functional teams. For example, a team

award was given when the truck ACE was produced in record
time. The Trailblazer team Award has been instituted by Dabur
India for recognising best performing teams, where teams
undertaking and completing a difficult project or performing an
exceptional act are rewarded by citations and prizes. For example,
in February 2009, they recognised the good work done by their
Jammu Unit team during the political/social turmoil which lasted for
about two months. The team ensured that the production schedules
were adhered to consistently despite the constraints, while ensuring
the safety and security of the employees.
In order to give employees a chance to become an important
part of the organisation by seeing their ideas and thoughts being
implemented in the areas they work in, JSPL has instituted a SMILE
Award given to teams from different units working in harmony to
achieve the common goals of the organisation. They also have a
project completion/production target achievement award that is a
monetary benefit given to employees. This is in recognition for the
extra efforts put in by employees towards the profitability of the
plant. TCG Life sciences offer trophies to teams if they have
performed well in categories like practicing good team work, best
support team, etc. NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation)
recognises the best performance of power plants/units and towards
initiating healthy competition, an award ceremony is conducted at
the corporate level presided over by the chief managing director
and other directors, and trophies are presented to the winning
business unit heads in a formal ceremony. Honeywell India has a
Line of the Month Award given to the best performing team to
promote team sprit and competitiveness amongst various working
teams. All the team members are given gift vouchers.
At NTPC, another initiative which is very popular especially
among young executives is called Business Minds. This is a
management game that develops executive’s strategic thinking and
decision making by exposing participants to simulated real life business
situations that help them discover new skills. It is conducted in
association with AIMA (All India Management Association). Cross-
Recognising and Rewarding Talent... 271

functional teams participate in the game as it is multi-disciplinary in

nature reflecting real life multifunctional role of business. The top
eight winning teams from NTPC participate in the National level
management games conducted by AIMA. The winner and runners
up at company level receive cash prizes along with commendation
letter and trophy. Business suits are gifted to all team members by
NTPC for participating in the national level round.
ITW Signode has a unique award called Dream Project to
encourage employees, vendors, distributors and other stake holders
of the organisation to work on long term prospects/strategic
objectives beyond current year plans and to reward them
commensurately for this stretch. The minimum value of each Dream
Project is Rs. 1 million for key accounts and equipment groups and
Rs. 5,00,000 for distribution. The reward is pegged at 2% of the
value of the invoice.
It has been argued that it would be misplaced to award behaviour
A while hoping for people to show behaviour B (Kerr, 1975). Most
organisations expect people to work in teams but award only
individual achievements. Thus, it is a welcome move among
organisations to also explicitly reward and recognise team
achievements.
Rewards Linked to Performance
In addition to the various individual and team based rewards,
companies have specific reward schemes linked to performance for
both workmen and officer levels. Moser Baer India offers a plant
production incentive linked to variable pay at all its manufacturing
locations. They have formulated an incentive plan such that if
employees work in line with the business targets, they gain tangible
rewards every month. This incentive is based on production,
customer delivery and also on the quality of products manufactured
by the employees. Likewise they also have incentive plans for sales
teams. Variable pay linked to output is a common feature across
manufacturing organisations, as in Bosch India where it is paid on a
monthly basis to recognise good performance of workmen. Their
compensation package has about 35% as variable pay linked to
272 HRD Practices in Contemporary Industries

direct performance. In the event of early completion of projects,

employees are rewarded in the form of additional payments at
IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited). Specific,
measurable, extraordinary performances by groups are also
recognised through cash awards.
The production incentive scheme in Indian Oil grants that every
employee based on the team s/he is a member of, is entitled to get
up to 15% of his/her base pay, on achievement of targets against
various well defined and comprehensive parameters set at the
beginning of the year. For officers, an incentive based on individual
performance has recently been introduced, whereby officers are
rated on their achievement on various key result areas on a five
point scale. Based on this score, there is a payout ranging from 1%
to 13% of the base pay. Team performance and individual
performance are in the ratio of 80:20. The payout to individual
performance is based on the individuals’ rating on Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs).
Based on performance of the organisation as a whole, employees
of NTPC are paid ex-gratia/special incentive and annual performance
linked incentive. This scheme recognises the higher degree of
responsibility at higher levels and accordingly provides for
progressively higher payments at higher grades. Employees in non-
executive categories are also given special rewards inclusive of ex-
gratia/bonus payable. Similarly, TCG Life sciences offers various
forms of bonuses linked to performance such as (a) association
bonus: to acknowledge consistent high performance for five years,
(b) contributory bonus: for project delivery and milestone
achievement, (c) special bonus: to acknowledge outstanding
performance, and (d) recognition bonus (senior levels): to
acknowledge their contribution towards the organisation.
As one of the long term incentives offered at Castrol India,
there is a deferred cash bonus scheme for its managers. Under the
scheme, managers could get as high as 50% of annual basic salary
(approximately 15% of individual cost of company) as Grant for
LTI (Leave Travel Insurance). There is a minimum period of three
years of employment, before employees can avail of the scheme. If
Recognising and Rewarding Talent... 273

the business performance exceeds certain targets, employees could

get as high as 150% of the grant (approximately 22% of cost to
company for superior performers) as LTI payouts. Similarly, the
performance linked component at Philips Electronics India comprises
of productivity linked bonus and team performance pay for both
supervisory staff and management staff.
To promote a performance driven culture, Maruti Suzuki
rewards high performers in the organisation, under an ‘Own Your
Car’ scheme. The scheme facilitates 100% ownership of a Maruti
car, for employees recognised as high performers, through third
party financing. Employees with set levels of high performance
rating in three consecutive years are eligible for car ownership
under the scheme, which not only rewards for performance but
also helps foster pride in the organisation’s product.
Some other performance rewards offered to employees in HPCL
include (a) timely promotions on merit route, (b) deputation/joint
venture assignments, (c) higher positions with more authority, (d)
sponsorships to premier developmental programmes, and (e)
executive MBA sponsorships for employees who are judged to be
performing very well.
When a company does well and exceeds market expectations,
one of the major factors that influence this performance is the hard
work and involvement of its employees. It makes ample sense for
companies to reward its employees especially in those years their
profit margins are high. Also, many public sector organisations
have limited headroom to reward their employees, thus linking self-
development rewards to excellence in performance is an innovation
worth exploring.
Rewards to Promote Desired Values/Attitudes/Behaviour
Recognising the importance of reinforcing and rewarding
desirable behaviour, many companies have instituted rewards for
attendance, punctuality, living the organisations’ values, adhering to
safety, etc. Some such representative rewards are discussed in this
section.
274 HRD Practices in Contemporary Industries

At Tata Motors, there is a Good Attendance Award given to an

employee who reports to work for more than 265 days in a year.
Similarly, Bosch India recognises and rewards regular attendance
based on pre-specified criteria.
In order to promote safety, HPCL has instituted a safety award
for accident-free operations for refineries. JSPL has a Best Safety
Man Award for serving as an exemplar in maintaining highest
standards of safety and Tata Motors has a safety award for safe
working throughout the year.
There are also awards for specifically promoting organisational
values. At Moser Baer India, there is a novel TIPS Award that
stands for their values -Teamwork, Integrity, Passion and Speed.
The award’s objective is to celebrate the spirit of upholding and role
modelling Moser Baer’s values by rewarding those who consistently
live out the core values of teamwork, integrity, passion and speed in
their day-to-day behaviour. It is awarded once a quarter, across the
organisation and there is one award per value. Another such award
is Honeywell India’s Chairman’s Award for Everyday Hero, under
which the Honeywell chairman presents the award to employees
who support Honeywell’s five listed initiatives and 12 behaviour.
Employee receives a plaque and certificate, and employee’s
achievement and photo is also published in their internal magazine.
A cash reward of Rs. 25,000 is also given to the employee.
With the purpose of instilling pride in the national culture and
language, HPCL has instituted a Hindi Incentive Scheme under
which various awards are offered to promote the Rajbhasha (Hindi)
amongst its employees. These include annual incentive scheme for
Hindi correspondence courses and competitions among employees
with awards earmarked for the same.
Schneider Electric India offers various awards for promoting
behaviour deemed as valuable to the organisation’s success, such
as (a) Cost Consciousness: for conscious and optimum utilization
of the resources provided, (b) Time Management: effective and
efficient management of time, (c) Workspace Management:
management of the work space assigned, (d) Responsiveness: the
quality or state of being responsive, (e) Customer Satisfaction:
Recognising and Rewarding Talent... 275

providing good service in a pleasant manner and meeting the

customer’s expectations, (f) Accessibility: easy to approach, reach,
or speak with, and (g) Adaptability and Flexibility: able to adjust
oneself readily to different conditions or being responsive to change.
Behaviour deemed desirable and warranting recognition vary
across organisations. There is a Mentors Samman Award given in
NTPC to encourage exemplary mentoring by senior employees.
JSPL has initiated a Bravery and Courage Award for recognising
those exhibiting outstanding bravery or courage. Schneider Electric
India offers an Office Etiquette Award to employees who best
adhere to basic courtesy and also to the code of conduct as defined
in the HR policy of the organisation. There are also awards for the
most punctual, most energetic and most methodical at Crystal
Phosphates. Being best attired to work is another award given in
some companies, such as Honeywell India, where the Best Attired
Employee Award is given to employees in the operations area, based
on nominations and winner receives a grooming kit or a gift voucher.
In order to enhance the commitment level of employees,
companies have instituted service rewards on completion of milestone
years of service. This is with a view to reward loyalty and express
gratitude for employees’ long association with the company. The
practice of recognising long association of individuals with the
organisation for milestone years of service is followed by various
companies such as Tata Motors, Bosch, NTPC, Moser Baer, etc.
HPCL rewards employees with more than 15 years, 25 years, 30
years, 35 years and superannuation of service. Giving substantial
awards such as gold coins are in practice. IFFCO offers service
awards in the form of gold coins, cash and to and fro airfare for
self and spouse to any destination limited to Rs. 15,000. Schneider
calls it the Hats Off Long Service Award and Tata Motors offers a
Retirement Award consisting of a silver coin and plaque to
commemorate long years of service and commitment to the
organisation.
Attempts to make employees behave as per the values and
norms of the organisation may be termed as social engineering.
However, for organisations to foster the desired behaviour is a
276 HRD Practices in Contemporary Industries

challenge, and innovative, non-coercive methods have to be thought

through. Thus, the various examples of companies rewarding desired
behaviour or internalisation of values bear consideration.
Rewards Linked to Quality and Improvement
For manufacturing organisations, where quality of products is
a critical factor for success, rewarding for quality becomes all the
more important. At NTPC annual contests are organised at project
level, regional level and company level in which quality circles from
all over NTPC compete with each other. JSPL has a Best Quality
Circle Award to reward top quality efforts. They have also instituted
a Best Contractor Award for rewarding contractors who provide
excellent services with high quality of work. Regular quality and
Kaizen competitions are also organised at Philips Electronics India
and Bosch has awards linked to Six-Sigma to assure higher levels
of quality. There is an award called Gunwatta Rakshaks in Tata
Motors, which accords weekly recognition to employees detecting
faults in quality coming in from the suppliers end. Of the winners,
members who get recognition most number of times are then
felicitated annually by top management.
Many organisations also have suggestion awards that serve as a
step towards continuous improvement. JSPL has a suggestion
scheme called Mera Sujhav, a way to reward any individual
irrespective of grade or group. The scheme provides an individual
the opportunity to think out of the box and offer solutions where
there can be a possibility of cost saving and other benefits to the
organisation. They also have a Young Thinkers Award given to
anyone providing maximum number of implementable suggestions.
Similarly, Moser Baer India, under its suggestion award,
acknowledges employees for their suggestions that improve
productivity, quality, increases production and saves on time and
material leading to cost reduction. There is a similar quality suggestion
scheme at HPCL recognising and awarding best suggestions. The
National Open Competition for Executive Talent (NOCET) at NTPC
is another such award. It is a three tier theme-based team event
held to solicit ideas on latest issues facing the organisation. A theme
Recognising and Rewarding Talent... 277

for the competition is decided and a topic that is relevant to the

organisation is chosen. Three to four member teams are formulated
that compete at unit, regional and corporate levels. A panel of
judges comprising of top NTPC executives and external experts
judge the teams on their concept. Trophy, cash, training of choice
and wide scale publicity is awarded to winners. In addition, various
companies such as Honeywell India and Moser Baer hold
competitions around 5S to improve efficiency by eliminating waste
and reducing process unevenness.
Another route to continuous improvement and growth of the
organisation is rewarding innovation and recognising the creativity
of employees. The Innovation Award of Moser Baer intends to
recognise employees who have successfully converted their
breakthrough ideas from concept to reality, and have tangible results
to show for their creative efforts. Similarly, ABB offers patent
money and rewards of Rs. 25,000 for every inventor after filing of
a patent. A plaque is also issued for each filing, mentioning the title
and the inventor’s name.
Involvement of employees is not only to be found in the
responsibilities assigned to them but also in their suggestions and
ideas for work improvement. Employees who work day in and day
out in an area have the best suggestions for improvement.
Organisations are well advised to have processes in place to set up
mutually beneficial employee suggestion schemes.
Low Cost, Token Appreciation Rewards
Not all rewards are monetary or incur a sizable cost to the
company. There are many awards that fall into the low cost and
low value awards, but those that are high in recognition and visibility.
Companies often offer such rewards like appreciation letter,
publication in in-house journal, awarding star of the month, etc.
JSPL offers gift vouchers and appreciation cards and certificates
to the deserving employees. Maruti Suzuki has a practice of sending
out ‘thank you’ cards to signal appreciation of a job well done.
There is also the practice of giving out dinner coupons and movie
278 HRD Practices in Contemporary Industries

tickets to around 8% of best performers in each division/group.

Schneider Electric India has instituted a Moment of Fame Award to
recognise professional attitude and behaviour that add value to
employees, processes and the organisation. Dabur India also has a
Hall/Wall of Fame. Special recognition like appreciation letters by
top management, dinner with family and head of department,
coverage in cable network, posters with pictures of award winners,
and quality circle scarf/belt/cap are given by NTPC to award
employees. They also have a programme called Guest of Honour,
under which quality control members with outstanding contributions
visiting other stations are given guest of honor status by providing
accommodation in the guest house, hospitality facility and to and
fro travel, etc.
In order to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts put in by
the operations staff in the field towards attaining operational
excellence, HPCL has a system of recognition called ‘Celebrations
of Small Wins’ at plant locations. The small wins are celebrated as
and when there is outstanding performance/achievement by the
team or individual members with regards to various operating
parameters such as stock loss, scarp disposal, irregularities,
innovations etc. During such celebrations, all team members get
together and relish the success of the team/colleagues. Similarly, at
Philips Electronics India, many times sweets are distributed across
the unit to celebrate outstanding performance by any department/
team for a day or week. To promote an attitude of appreciation
amongst employees, Honeywell India has a Peer Appreciation board
where any employee can post appreciation about any other
employees. This has become a way of life in Honeywell and the
board is full of appreciations each day. Another novel practice for
celebrating good work followed at Tata Motors is the issue of
‘WOW’ slips as well as ‘well done cards’ given for recognising and
appreciating the work done by team members and subordinates.
Not all rewards need be very large or expensive. Even small but
significant tokens can communicate to people that their work is
being noticed and appreciated.
Recognising and Rewarding Talent... 279

Rewards Linked to Career Advancement/Development

Some rewards are in the form of opportunities for career and
professional advancement. TCG Life sciences have a system of
rewarding star performers with nomination for knowledge/skill
enhancement training, and for Ph.D. training. NTPC also encourages
its employees to pursue higher education by suitably rewarding and
providing monetary incentives and cash lump sum in recognition of
acquiring higher qualification. Further, it offers special awards/
recognition to members winning overall positions in the company
level competitions by sponsoring the team to a study tour of some
reputed organisation/power plants abroad/ within the country. There
are also sponsorships on offer for external trainings to deserving
individuals/teams. At IFFCO, employees giving extraordinary
contribution are considered for foreign assignment/fast track
promotion, including joint ventures and their services are put at the
disposal of the organisation beyond the normal period of service.
Good performers at HPCL, irrespective of the salary grade to which
they belong, are provided with enhanced opportunities to learn by
way of sponsorships to high profile, high value training programme,
to top-level institutes like IIMs and training programmes conducted
abroad. It also nominates bright and good performers to joint
ventures and deputation to joint ventures/foreign assignments to
provide them with an opportunity to have varied experience.
Similarly, at ITW Signode, rewards are in the form of learning
opportunities that include nomination to MDP programmes in top B
schools, tuition assistance, new technology training, and sponsoring
attendance at international seminars and conferences.
People feel that the company values their contribution when it
makes long term investments in their growth. Such investments
though not expensive also benefit the company in the long run.
Communication of Rewards
An important part of rewarding employees is timely and visible
recognition for high impact. The manner in which the rewards are
announced or communicated, adds as much, if not more to the
280 HRD Practices in Contemporary Industries

value of the reward itself. Some practices with regards to the

announcement/delivery of the reward are highlighted below.
Moser Baer India has a system of On the Spot Award to
encourage and recognise any effort, stretch, or notable contributions
made by employees within or outside their job responsibilities. In
order to communicate the launch, process or results of any scheme,
various methods are used such as puzzles which generate a sense
of inquisitiveness amongst employees, posters, intranet, rewards
and recognition boards, spreading awareness though departmental
meetings and the company newsletter. Public forums such as open
houses are also utilised to felicitate the awardees. Important members
of the senior leadership team attend the event and employees are
awarded among large groups of people. HPCL too uses the system
of sending out formal emails through the public relations and
corporate communications teams, outlining and commending the
concerned individual/team for his/her efforts, and also by printing
the names of the award winners in the annual report. Another
practice followed by Honeywell India to recognise and make visible
contribution of employees, is sending out a note of achievement
along with his/her picture to family members for every award an
employee receives.
Alternatively, some companies have an annual day and a formal
award function for recognising significant achievements. At JSPL,
all the award winners are recognised publicly either on 15th August
or 26th January by the managing director where external dignitaries
are also invited. Philips Electronics India too has an annual recognition
day for felicitating best performers in the presence of the entire
unit/organisation.
CONCLUSION
It is not just the reward but also the process of rewarding that
makes a difference. A reward that is delivered clandestinely may
make the awardees feel not so good about the award or others
finding out about it may think that something must be amiss. Proper
and timely communication of rewards adds to the efficacy of the
reward itself. While the organisations discussed in this paper are
Recognising and Rewarding Talent... 281

from among the 43 participants in the SAIL HR Award for

Excellence, 2009, the practices are representative of Indian
manufacturing organisations with adequate representations from large,
medium and small-sized organisations. The authors acknowledge
that other manufacturing organisations, for which data was
unavailable, may also engage in similar practices. In sum, there
seems to be a lot of innovation in recognition and reward management
systems. Given the ever changing motivational pattern of people
and the law of diminishing returns (nothing can motivate for ever)
that operates for human beings this is one area where there will
always be a need for more and more innovative thinking and
experimentation. We hope that this paper leads to more detailed
discussions of indigenous and relevant HR practices related to
organisations operating in India.

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Cypher, J. M., & Dietz, J. L. (2004). The process of economic development:
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