Incentive Programs - Top 5 Things to Remember

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Consider incentives carefully

Not all incentives are created equally, and some might not be good at all, says Rick Brenner and the folks at Chaco Canyon Consulting (www.ChacoCanyon.com) in the Point Lookout e-newsletter. As a matter of fact, incentives are usually less effective than we hope, and sometimes less effective than we believe, Brenner says. Are your incentives counterproductive?

Here are some things to remember when considering an incentives program:

• Remember that motivational power is not always equal to market value. For instance, if you’re hawking an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii, an employee with a chronically ill child is possibly not going to appreciate it because he or she might never be able to go on such a trip.

• Parallel awards programs can cancel each other out. Do you offer several programs but disqualify an employee who has already won one award from winning another? This can discourage high-performing employees. You don’t want to demoralize your employees or cheapen an award you have already given out. Watch that you don’t ruin the chance of getting the results you set out to attain.

• Rewards can be given out too closely together. Space them out. For rewards to have a full and powerful effect, you have to make sure they don’t occur in a fashion that waters them down.

• Give out rewards when they will be most meaningful. Align awards with the work being done. If a project was really an award winning effort, design and give awards at strategic times. If a project takes more than a year to complete, for instance, don’t give out the award too early just because you have an annual awards program scheduled. Appropriate timing will make your award more memorable, valuable and motivating.

• Don’t give out awards that unintentionally demotivate. How can awards negativly influence workers? Well, if you’re only giving out one “Engineer of the Year” award, but you’ve got a lot of top-notch, high-performing engineers on your team, you might be passing over many important contributors. That could leave a feeling of injustice among your unrewarded employees.