NEW DELHI: The Modi government last week had asked all ministries and departments to motivate their "industrious employees" by instituting ' Employee of the Month ' awards as is done by corporates and install " Idea Boxes " in the ministry corridors to receive innovative ideas from employees.This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi , in a meeting with Secretaries to Government on June 4, had emphasized the need for team spirit and urged the Secretaries to be leaders of their teams, as per a PMO statement issued then.The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had on June 18 written to all ministries to consider adopting such initiatives as a Human Resource Management Tool, saying that the DOPT had itself implemented the same.It has been suggested that a monthly non-monetary incentive, wherein one employee from across all categories of the level of Under Secretary and below will be designated as 'Employee of the Month'.The awardee will be given a certificate and his photograph will be displayed under the relevant link in the intra-Departmental (employee) Portal of the Department, "realizing that recognition of meritorious performance of employees is a critical tool in human resource management," the DoPT letter says.This will be in addition to an annual award of "Certificate of Excellence" to recognize the contribution of its meritorious employees of the level of Under Secretary and below."Under both the initiatives, nominations of eligible employees would be called for from all Wings of the Department and the work performance and outcomes achieved by such employees would be examined by a Committee," the DoPT has said.Further, the DoPT has advised that 'Idea Boxes' be installed in all ministries for soliciting "out of the box solutions" to various issues in order to improve the functioning of the department and to create a "conducive work culture", says the DoPT letter.Citing its own example of organising a two-day Retreat at a training institute in Mussoorie in October 2013 for its junior officers, the DoPT has encouraged all government departments to do the same."The objective of the Retreat was to discuss the stakeholders' perception about the Department and develop an action plan to positively change the orientation of the Department towards service delivery," the DoPT says.The communique also mentions that "mentors" could be appointed for new joining employees with a view to "sensitize the incumbent" about the Department. "The mentoring process is for a period of six months. The mentor is to be an officer two levels above the incumbent," the letter says.It has also been mentioned that non-gazetted employees of every department should be provided a platform at regular intervals to interact directly with the Minister concerned and other Senior Officers of the Department.