Awards and incentive programs can improve performance and motivate employees to increase
sales, reduce accidents, boost productivity and give customers better service.
In 1994 Baylor University randomly surveyed 1,500 people, asking their opinions
regarding employee awards and incentives.
FINDINGS
Survey
recipients were asked to rate how most employees feel about awards and
incentives. The TRUE statements are those with which respondents agreed; the
FALSE statements are those with which they disagreed.
| TRUE |
FALSE |
| Employees like awards and incentives. |
Employees are not interested in the awards or incentives, so the program
has no impact on their behavior. |
| Employees are motivated to win the awards. |
Employees do not believe they have a chance to
win an award or incentive, so they don't even try. |
| Employees work hard to win the awards. |
| Employees encourage each other to work
toward awards and incentives. |
Survey
respondents also listed the reasons they believe award and incentive programs
sometimes fail. The top two reasons for program failure are:
This
indicates that effective employee award and incentive programs will feature high
employee involvement during the development of the program and timely feedback
to employees during the contest.
REAL WORLD SUCCESS
STORY
Objective:
To motivate truckers to
drive safely and complete their log books correctly.
Strategy & Execution:
Drivers at the trucking
company’s two terminals in Atlanta and Tampa had a perfect record: None had ever
completed a month without at least one breach of safety or had ever correctly
completed their log books. "Seems like something had to be done."
Strategy & Execution:
Drivers at the trucking
company’s two terminals in Atlanta and Tampa had a perfect record: None had ever
completed a month without at least one breach of safety or had ever correctly
completed their log books. "Seems like something had to be done."
Imprinted merchandise was
used in an incentive program to improve safety performance. The items selected
were high-quality, embroidered wearables intended to draw peer envy.
Eighty driving hours
without a nicked fender or traffic ticket earned employees a polo shirt and hat
embroidered with a Walpole logo. Continuing safe performance was rewarded with a
black satin jacket. By driving safely and correctly completing their log books,
driving could also win watches with the corporate logo.
Results:
Fifteen percent
of the drivers qualified monthly for the awards, and the company's insurance
premiums dropped by $250,000.
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