Chrysler

Awards, and the rituals of presenting them to winners, are a tool of management communication. To give the desired message, you need to think through what you give the awards for, who you give them to, and the mix of tangible and symbolic rewards attached.

Chrysler awards categories are not all self-explanatory, and there some that I just don’t understand. The name of the awards, ETTEE, stands for “Excellence, Talent, Togetherness, Energy, Etc.”

There are no awards under the “Etc.” heading. All the “Talent” awards are given to individuals for “Highest Level of Project Savings.” In other words, the only form of talent recognized is that of individuals to reduce costs.

Under “Excellence,” you have more individual awards for “Trainer of the Year,” “Facilitator of the Year,” and “Most Projects Tracked by an Individual.”

Under “Togetherness,” you have awards for plants and teams: “HHH Best in Class,” “Highest Percentage of People Involved,” and “Excellence in Joint Leadership,”

Under “Energy,” you have plant awards for  “”Highest Percentage of Projects Tracked by Plant, ” and “Most Hosted Plant.” and and individual awards for “Most Training Hours Completed.”

For the “person of the year” type of awards, the name gives no indication of the evaluation criteria, and perceptions of fairness may be as difficult to achieve as in Olympic figure skating.

On the other hand, awards given based on metrics —  like cost savings, percentage of people involved, or number of hours of training taken — have objective criteria that individuals can understand and pursue. The key issue here is whether you really want your employees to do that.