24 Apr 2016

The Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC) has moved Botswana forward in terms of achieving national objectives and aspirations set out in Vision 2016.

Speaking at MYSC excellence awards ceremony, Mr Olopeng said he had set high standards for the ministry.

He said the leadership must provide guidance and direction to their teams adding that driving results did not just involve putting pressure on teams to perform but also involved guidance, coaching and mentorship.“Recognition and rewards are a critical part of performance management as they touch on individual officers and teams who actually do work on the ground,” he said.

Mr Olopeng said rewards could be a powerful tool for employee motivation and performance improvement citing that the primary goal for reward and recognition was to motivate employees and induce behaviour that led to improved performance.

Thus, he urged the ministry leadership to continuously use rewards and recognition in managing performance and observing that while many type of rewards and recognition had direct costs associated with them, non-monetary rewards may be less tangible but effective.

“These non-monetary rewards include formal acknowledgement, opportunities for professional development and increased role in decision making,” he said, adding such rewards could be meaningful to employees and highly motivational for performance improvement.

Meanwhile, permanent secretary at the ministry, Mr Kago Ramokate said it was through hard work and commitment that the ministry continued to change lives of young people, sports persons, artistes and those who patronised in arts.

Mr Ramokate also said awards and recognition systems were key part of performance management systems of every employee organisation. ENDS