My last post got some great comments - I encourage you to give them a read. I was a little surprised, though, that no one bit on my (theoretically) provocative question of

If you don’t reward your employees for doing something, are you telling your Gen Y employees that the value of that task was zero?

We’ve got a pretty cool group out there. I had expected to at least see the word “entitled” make an appearance. But it didn’t, which suggests that maybe my expectations of the managers and supervisors out there need a little adjusting.

That said, my view on this particular question is that you run the danger of creating the “zero value perception” when you aren’t clear in the delivery of your rewards. Certainly, there exists a perception that Generation Y needs a cookie just for showing up on time, but you will ultimately set the norms in your workplace. If your employees learn that rewards are for going the extra mile, they’ll value them. The problem comes when they think that showing up on time is going an extra mile. When you hire new employees, establish clear expectations and tie those to their pay very explicitly. You’re paying these people X dollars/hour, and you should make sure that they know that money is the reward for meeting the bare minimum standards. I might go so far as to use a written “employment contract” that makes this painfully clear.

I’ll write one of these tonight and post a .pdf of what I imagine tomorrow.

People Report tweeted today that 65% of all the companies they survey use gift cards to recognize and reward hourly employees. So, if you’re in the 2/3 of employers doing this, congratulations! Obviously you’re on to something.

But just as with any reward program, if you’re not doing it right, gift cards are just going to be a waste of your resources. Remember: the purpose of any reward program isn’t to make your top performers feel good - it’s to make sure that they continue to perform well, and to motivate others to perform well.

Here are a couple questions I think you should ask about that gift card you’re about to give an employee as a reward to make sure that you’re getting ROI on the gift cards:

Is this gift card to somewhere the employee will want to spend it?

It’s hard to choose gift cards that will please everyone. In fact, common wisdom holds that you can’t please all the people all the time. My advice here: DON”T TRY TO DO THAT. Instead, pick a few different, more specific gift cards, so when your Chipotle junkie wins you a customer for life, he can have a burrito instead of five bucks to the nearest big box.

Is this gift card’s value in line with what the employee did?

A friend of mine once joined a stranger to drag a drowning woman out of her car after she crashed it into a ditch. She later sent him them both checks for $200. He said to me, “I never knew you could put a value on a human life. Apparently hers was worth $400.” When you put a value on a given task by providing a reward for it, your Millennials will do the math. Make sure that the value you communicate to your employees is the value you want them to place on a given task.

A related question I’d like you to consider here:

If you don’t reward your employees for doing something, are you telling your Gen Y employees that the value of that task was zero?

I’ll share my thoughts on this with a post Wednesday, but think about it, and share your thoughts in the comments section!

I just got a puzzling text message from my manager informing me that we’re having a pizza party on Saturday, and that we should try to get another one next week.

I don’t know if it’s a reward for something we did, or if we simply had a pizza budget that we needed to go through. Aside from a random act of awesome pizza-ness (a real word, I assure you), I’m not sure what to attribute this to.

Random acts of kindness make the world a better place. I won’t argue that. But targeted acts of kindness can make the workplace a better place. If I can see that a pizza party is the effect of a certain cause, my goals will shift to meet that cause. So if the cause is a sales goal, or customer service surveys, or punctuality, or anything in my control, I’ll set myself to it. But if I’m kept guessing as to why I’m enjoying the pizza, I won’t know exactly how to respond.

I recall being at the bar with friends once, and we saw the bartender - a guy maybe a couple years older than me - making repeated trips to the jukebox with his tips. For most of the night, he was calling the shots on what we were listening to, on his own dime.

Now, if you’re this employee’s manager, how easy is it to think of something that will keep him around at this point? How many different ways are there to leverage this employee’s love for music so that you can get him to give you his best?

• If he comes in to cover a shift, or he’s having a bad night, why not load the jukebox up with a five spot to let him know you appreciate his work?

• Maybe can give him some credits in the jukebox for every shift he works. (This is a double perk because it leaves extra money in his pocket, too.)

• If you can, turn off the jukebox and let him choose a radio station. He’ll have trouble quitting because he can’t find another job where he can choose the music.

Just because your Generation Y employees value work/life balance doesn’t mean that you can’t bring a bit of their life into work to make things happen.

Last week, I was having a conversation with my parents, and I mentioned off-hand that I had earned an employee of the month award at my retail job. Judging by their reactions, you would’ve thought that I had forgotten to mention to them that I got married last time I was in Vegas. (I’m still looking for the right words.)

The funny thing was that I wasn’t trying to hide it from them. Really, I just didn’t think it was that big of a deal. The most exciting part for me was when the general manager of the store bought me dinner, and the knowledge that I’ve got a little something to beef up my resume.

Since receiving the reward, my work behaviors haven’t really changed. I’m still doing what I was doing. Essentially, then, the return on the time, energy, and hamburger that were spent by the company was zero.

So the question I’d like to leave you with is this: If they’re getting no ROI, why do my bosses still have an employee of the month award?