Using Incentives to Motivate Employees
Saturday, June 28th @ 2:00 AM
Using Incentives to Raise Morale and Achieve Objectives
In the business world, it seems to be getting harder and harder to bring employees together to achieve a common goal. Whether you are trying to increase sales, reduce waste, eliminate downtime or improve efficiency, without the proper motivation it can be very difficult to accomplish any of these goals. I found that a good incentive program can induce people to work smarter, faster, harder, and overall more efficiently.
There are many different incentives that have been used to help motivate employees, including gift cards, vacations, clothing, health club memberships, catered lunches and good old cash. In order to keep a business functioning well, it is important to keep morale high and incentive programs can help do this.
Incentives do not need to have high intrinsic value to be effective. For instance, early in my career I worked at a company that offered a $50 incentive every six months to all employees that met attendance and punctuality expectations. Although $50 really is not very much money, I strived to make sure that I met those expectations. It was more about the principle of earning the money than the actual money itself. Later, the company dropped this particular incentive program and attendance worsened.
Not all programs will work for all companies. It is very important for business owners or managers to evaluate every incentive idea to determine if it will help or hinder their objectives. Most importantly, incentive programs have to be fair. If employees do not have an equal opportunity to earn the incentive, morale may worsen.
Since many people and organizations have difficulties dealing with changes in the work environment, you may consider using an incentive program in conjunction with changes in the work environment. With the right incentive program, employees may embrace the change and the transition may become much smoother.
If you are not using incentives in your workplace now, I strongly suggest that you consider using them. If used appropriately, they can help you achieve your business objectives and also improve the morale of your employees.
