A little over a year ago, many organizations were struggling to deal with labour shortages. Now most of these companies are reporting hiring freezes until the economy improves. In December 2008, average salary increases for Canadian employees were reported at an average of 2.9%. This figure has decreased more than 1% over the past six months and many Canadian organizations are expected to freeze salary increases by the summer if markets do not improve. Employees may begin to feel frustrated and undervalued, because they are no longer being rewarded for their work performance through monetary compensation.

Now, more than ever, it is necessary to turn to employee relations programs to stimulate and encourage employees. Through HR programs, companies can keep their employees engaged, motivated and productive. Many programs may have to be reviewed and scaled back to remain operational within tight budget constraints, but should not be abandoned to appease cutbacks.

COOs and CFOs would not abandon sound operational or financial practices to save a dollar. So why is it that HR practices are generally the first to go? Employees should be an organization’s most valued asset. If HR practices are discontinued, organizations run the risk of losing their valued and highly skilled employees to competitors. This can guarantee further operational and financial decline for any organization. Quality production will decline, customers may be lost and your organization will be in a frantic scramble to fill the vacated positions. Most likely, recruitment best practices will be abandoned and less qualified candidates will be accepted for the roles to quickly fill the need. It is a slippery slope to let these programs and practices slide that will result in a long, hard, up-hill battle to return to former HR programs when the economy recovers.

Organizations that choose to sever their HR programs rather than adjust will undoubtedly face much more difficult hardships within this “bust” economy.

Behavioural reinforcement is a technique that has the capability of contributing to the overall success of a business. Thomas J. Peters, author of In Search of Excellence, emphasizes that organizations striving for success need to “celebrate what you want to see more of” from your employees. In order to do this it is essential to understand the concept of positive reinforcement and its easy integration into your organization.

Reinforcement is a practical learning tool to be used in the workplace, educational institutions and at home in day-to-day life. This process is fundamentally connected to performance or behaviour. A common misperception is that positive reinforcement rewards “good” behaviour and negative reinforcement punishes “bad” behaviour. In actuality, positive reinforcement is the process in which a rewarding stimulus is given to encourage the frequency of a desired behaviour. Conversely, negative reinforcement occurs when the desired behaviour takes place as a result of removing an unpleasant stimulus. It has nothing to do with “good” or “bad” behaviour. Instead, it is the idea that behaviours can be extracted from an individual by providing rewarding incentives (positive reinforcement) or taking away unpleasant stimulants (negative reinforcement). If an employee receives a bonus for achieving a monthly production quota, the employee will strive to achieve those standards the following month so he or she receives the bonus again. The employee’s behaviour has been positively reinforced. Another employee has not met the monthly production quota. Their supervisor approaches them to discuss their substandard performance. To avoid this confrontation again the employee will try to achieve standards for the next month. This is negative reinforcement, because the unpleasant stimulus is removed when the employee reaches the desired performance. Both scenarios resulted in extracting the desired employee behaviour of achieving the monthly production quota.

These two techniques are equally effective in drawing out behaviours. However, positive reinforcement seems to be the most productive and beneficial method for the workplace. It encourages employees to work harder, while negative reinforcement results in employees doing only what is necessary to escape the undesirable stimulus.

There are five steps to implementing positive reinforcement in the workplace:
1. Decide what you want to achieve as an organization. What are your goals and objectives? Ensure that management agrees to support and uphold the decided upon goals and objectives.
2. Explore the appropriate actions, behaviours and approaches that need to be taken in order to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives.
3. Establish and implement programs, policies and procedures that continually emphasize and reinforce the organization’s desired actions and behaviours allowing employees to know exactly what their performance will be measured against. Fairness, clearness, consistency and measurability are essential for any program, policy or procedure to achieve success and employee buy-in. Remember, “one size does not fit all”. Every employee perceives each stimulus or incentive with a different level of value. This is why there can never be one all encompassing program that recognizes desired behaviour.
4. Ensure that your managers have the skills to reinforce the desired behaviour. Provide literature for them to read, send them to seminars or mentor them yourself. Not only are you developing a leader with the appropriate skills to properly manage your employees, but you are also providing an incentive for the manager’s performance to continue. Managers who do not know how to control behaviour consciously and appropriately are managing for failure.
5. Measure the outcomes of positive reinforcement in your programs, policies and procedures with established metrics or employee feedback. Adjust and modify your positive reinforcement techniques based on the findings.

Positive reinforcement can be achieved in many different ways. Providing flexible scheduling, writing a thank-you note to an employee who maintained a company value in an adverse and challenging situation, taking your team out for lunch to let them know your appreciate their efforts, providing a training opportunity for an employee that achieved an excellent rating on their performance review or providing a merit increase for employees that achieved the measurable goals and objectives for the year are all examples of positive reinforcement.

By noticing and caring about an employee, positive reinforcement has a major impact on employee motivation, satisfaction, productivity and loyalty. As well, it contributes to the overall improvement in the organization’s performance. As all of these outcomes and success factors of positive reinforcement begin to come together, your organization will leap ahead in its increasingly competitive marketplace. If you choose not to integrate positive reinforcement into your organization, you run the risk of encouraging lackadaisical behaviour. Employees are discouraged from giving more, because no recognition or rewards will be given for the extra effort. By clearly defining what is desirable behaviour and providing positive reinforcers to recognize the behaviour, you can create a workplace that benefits everyone.

"Of all the things I've done, the most vital is coordinating the talents of those who work for us and pointing them toward a certain goal."
Walter Elias Disney, Founder Walt Disney

Today's marketplaces and business environments may be more competitive than we have ever seen before. Organizations must me innovative, strategic and continually changing to maintain their piece of the economic pie.

"Roughly one company in ten is able to sustain the kind of growth that translates into an above-average increase in shareholder returns over more than a few years. Too often the very attempt to grow causes the corporation to crash."
(Christenson, Clayton M. and Michael E. Raynor. The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, Mass, 2003.)

This fight for survival is comparable to Darwin's theory of evolution known as Natural Selection. This evolution process occurs in nature where organisms that best adapt to their environment survive and evolve as the environment changes, while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.

A key component to business survival is achieving the best fit between the organization and its environment. Companies spend plenty of time, focus and resources on how to keep ahead of their competitors through marketing and operations, but do they spend enough time, focus and resources on developing their human capital to stay ahead of their competitors?

Learning and development programs are an essential part of maintaining and motivating the work force. Employees' skills, knowledge and abilities need to adapt as the organization adapts. In the initial phase of growth of an organization, learning and development may be technically based. This ensures that employees do their jobs correctly in the most efficient manner possible. However, as business develops, training must be assessed and evolve to accommodate behavioural considerations. Training focuses should revolve around themes such as team building, conflict resolution, time management, leadership, etc.

As employees progress through learning, they become strong, reliable assets to the organization. They are now "long-term investments". Through the right training methods and deliverables, the organization has helped cultivate an employee that is advanced in their skills, knowledge and abilities and is immersed in company culture, values and beliefs. You may try to look externally for this type of employee, but it will be impossible to find. Somebody that knows the business and is as committed to the organization will not be found externally. It takes time, commitment and dedication from both the employee and employer to be engaged in the learning and development process. With the commitment of management, human capital can become an organization's greatest asset.

According to Collins and Porras, in their book "Built to Last", visionary companies invest aggressively in human capital. Organizations such as Merck, 3M, Proctor & Gamble, Motorola, GE, Marriott and IBM make significant investments in their "universities" and "education centres" for intensive training and development programs. Other organizations that are currently successful will not become "visionary" and stand the test of time, because they invest in training, but not as early or to the same degree as visionary companies.
(Collins, James C. and Jerry I. Porras. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. HarperBusiness: New York, NY, 1994.)

Learning and development must be viewed as an investment. The financial impact that well thought out and delivered training will have on an organization is abundant. Take the time to ensure that you are doing what you can to make your organization a visionary company. You will secure better odds of survival in an unpredictable, changing environment. Others will likely become extinct.