Department of Natural Resources

"Reward and Recognition Program"

The Department of Natural Resources began implementing a Reward and Recognition Program in January 2004. The first meeting consisted of OHR presenting the Reward and Recognition pilot to the Deputy Directors at their monthly meeting. The Deputy Directors agreed that the agency needed to revise their current plan and proceeded with putting a team together to create a new plan. The team was formed in February 2004 and met seven (7) times. The committee consisted of ten (10) employees from all over the state and from several divisions of the agency. The goal was to develop a proposal for a reward and recognition that would offer a formal and an informal program that would be consistent and eligible to all employees. The team surveyed nearly two hundred employees regarding what they would like and appreciate as recognition. The data was gathered and reviewed for approximately 180 employees and the team found that the responses for very consistent across the agency. The employees stated that they would value monetary awards, time off, verbal or written thank yous from supervisors, gift certificates, peer recognition, public thank yous and outdoor experiences. After determining what mechanisms should be used, the team recommended a theme for the program. The theme recommended was You’re a Natural.  The following matrix shows the various types of recognition elements:

  Person-to-Person Management Driven Team Based
Formal Quarterly Lottery from Thank yous Spot Awards, Service Awards, Outstanding Employees Natural Team Award
Informal Thank you post-its Thank you post-its Thank you post-its

Person-to-Person: This is the cornerstone of the overall program. All DNR employees can participate by giving the notes and all employees will be eligible to receive the notes. You can redeem thank you post-its for one dollar apiece in $5 increments for gift certificates of $5 or $10.  You can roll over up to 4 from one fiscal year to another. Each employee will be given a packet of 20 to give out per year. Thank you post-its can be given to individuals or each team member. All thank you will be required to be dated and signed by the giver.

Management Driven:  In addition to thank you post-its, managers at the Section Level and above will be permitted to give Spot Awards ($25 or $50 gift certificates) for good performance that is considered worthy of more than a “thank you.” Each division will have a specific budget for these awards.

Team-Based: Natural Team Awards can be presented to any ad-hoc (project) team or work unit for outstanding team achievement (examples: meeting challenging deadlines; saving money; or improving teamwork or communication in the agency). The team would receive a food reward (i.e. catered lunch or breakfast) or possibly choose a DNR Group Experience.

Proposed Measures and Evaluation Schedule

Proposed measures for the program are as follows:

  1. Number of employees receiving recognition (quarterly based on sign-ups for the lottery drawing)
  2. Number of Thank you post-its given/received (random sample of 10% of DNR employees)
  3. Program expenditures (by quarter broken down by component)
  4. Number of Level 1 and Level 2 team awards (by quarter reported by division)
  5. Employee satisfaction (questionnaire at 6 months and one year interval)

In addition to the recognition about the team has identified the following ideas as Potential DNR Experiences:

Individual/Family ideas

The team believes that the above proposed program will significantly improve the overall recognition behavior in DNR.  In addition, the team believes that both the employees of the agency and the agency itself will benefit from increased employee satisfaction and productivity.