Incentives that work: 3 blogs that show us how
Reward good behaviour and punish bad behaviour. Seems easy, huh! 
Turns out getting the team motivated isn’t as easy as we’d like. But what makes for a good employee incentive? Is it financial, prestige, promotion, competition, or a combination of factors? And how do we tell if the incentives we’ve implemented are even effective (hint: did we attain the desired result?). This month, we’re going to take a closer look at three scenarios where an incentive program was good, bad, and odd. Read on to learn how to properly construct your next employee incentive program.
The Good – Rewarding Your Employees: 15 Examples of Successful Incentives in The Corporate World
Robinson Research Group discovered some brilliant incentive ideas by looking at what the “Fortune’s Annual 100 Best Companies to Work For List” are doing to retain their employees. Imagine doubling production rates by offering every employee a check for $100,000. Or one of my faves, the Mayo Clinic’s on-site personal massages. Yowzers, when can I start?
The Bad – 5 Ways to Screw Up Employee Incentives
Inc.com runs us through 5 of the most common ways employee incentive plans can produce the wrong results. Take the example of creating conflict between departments. The goal of one team may completely conflict with the other team. Working to avoid this is key to a successful program.
The Odd – Do Financial Incentives Encourage Weight Loss?
When I first read this blog about incenting employees to lose weight with $20 a month, I did a double take. To my surprise, a new Mayo Clinic study discovered that offering people a modest amount of money can actually contribute to higher weight loss. With obesity rates on the rise, and by association the cost of health care, it’s in the best interest of all parties to get the slim-down going on. Making employee health a priority, especially via incentives seems oddly smart to me.
Any way you slice it, incentive programs, whatever they might consist of, must be effective. If they are not achieving the final result, it’s time to try something new.
What incentive techniques work for you? Feel free to leave a comment below or shout out to us on Facebook or Twitter. Of course, you could always write your own blog post on the subject and share it with us… We’d love to read it!
