Question

Think of a team you have been a part of and discuss how your team was evaluated and rewarded for its successes? Was there a focus on evaluating the individual? The team as a whole? Both? Discuss why you think the chosen reward was or was not motivational to the team? If you were the manager or leader of that team, what would your chosen evaluation and reward methods have been? Explain why you would've done what you're proposing.

Answer 1

I have been a part of a team that worked for eradicating the malnutrition problem from the tribal region of Maharashtra State of India. This was an initiative by the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) wing of a private financial institution.

We were in total 12 members who had a variety of tasks to be accomplished like collecting primary data through sources/ respondents. Placing the findings to the senior manager, meeting the tribal people and making them aware of the situation and providing medical and nourishing aid.

We were evaluated both- as an individual and as a team as well. The individual performance was evaluated on the basis of the daily reporting via telephonic calls and emails, communication quality with the tribal people and feedback of the two doctors which were the part of third party agency.

The team's performance was evaluated on the basis of the reactions/ response of the tribal people which was recorded separately by the HR department's representatives of the organisation.

We were awarded with non monetary incentives in the form of health insurance cover for the whole family- including spouse, parents and children. This reward system proved to be very motivational to the team as something very essential and significant was taken care.

I would have evaluated the teams on the basis of the malnutrition reports after 3-4 months of the work. The difference in the lives of the tribal people and the constructive change made would have been the first facets/ criteria to be considered on priority basis as they seem to be the outcomes of the team's work.

If i would have been the manager or leader of that team, i would have definitely focused on the same kind of non monetary incentives because these incentives are with a strong recall and elevate performance of the employees/ individuals and the teams.