Employee Recognition - The Golden Banana

Opportunities to create employee recognition are endless as are the options available. For example, Hewlett-Packard has adopted a Golden Banana Award. It came about when a company engineer burst into his manager’s office, to announce he’d just found the solution to a problem the group had been struggling with for many weeks. His manager quickly groped around his desk for some item to acknowledge the accomplishment and ended up handing the employee a banana from his lunch with the words: “Well done! Congratulations!” At first, the employee was puzzled, but over time the Golden Banana Award became one of the company’s most prestigious honours bestowed on an inventive employee.

This example emphasises the fact that it is not essential to provide a significant financial reward. More often it is the prestige, for example symbolised by a simple banana that will encourage staff to engage and contribute more.

It need not be an expensive process to recognise and reward staff who make a positive contribution or go above and beyond. If a simple banana will suffice then the options are endless. Obviously it has to be appropriate, I cannot imagine too many employees being excited by being awarded a banana! Nevertheless recognition in some form should be part of everyday operation and “golden” by exception.