Spot bonuses in a city require a month of stacked approvals, so managers have stopped nominating anyone. What should HR redesign?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
A birthday card that arrives in July is just mail. Spot thanks that take a month of signatures stop being spot, so managers quit trying. Keep a trail—just make the trail short enough that the thanks still means something.
Full Explanation
Process friction kills recognition programs even when budget exists. Spot bonuses that require a month of stacked approvals train managers to stop nominating; redesign should pair delegated authority and post-audit sampling with a short cycle time so recognition occurs close to the contribution while remaining auditable. Speed and trust controls beat ornamental governance in city hall processes.
Adding council review for each bonus inserts political and calendar delay that will finish the program's usefulness. Restricting spot bonuses to annual budget development calendar-gates timely thanks into a once-a-year ritual. Freezing all spot pay until managers complete a year-long documentation course substitutes training theater for usable controls and leaves contributions unrecognized for a full cycle.
Exam caveat: faster delegation still needs clear dollar caps, prohibited uses, and sampling—speed without audit recreates slush-fund risk. Document the decision path so council and auditors can see why the design changed. Operational check: set a service-level target from nomination to payment (for example ten business days), publish cap and criteria, sample awards monthly for compliance, and track nomination volume before versus after the redesign.