Incentive and reward schemes
Many organisations believe that salary is a motivator. Well, bad news! Salary is not a motivator. It is only enough for the employee to do the minimum that can be done for his job. It really sounds scary, but this is the truth. A salary cannot increase motivation, productivity and performance. And more than ever, it can never create engaged employees.
A good salary was enough some decades ago. The introduction of incentive schemes, though, has increased the performance of employees in many industries. An incentive programme is actually a formal scheme used to promote or encourage specific actions or behavior by a specific group of employees. An incentive and reward scheme does not always include money.
Examples of rewards and incentives
Besides the monetary rewards such as bonuses and commissions there are other types of rewards as well. Especially during challenging times, when organisations struggle, these types of rewards may be more effective. Non-monetary incentives are used to reward employees for excellent behavior through opportunities. Non-monetary incentives may include flexible work hours, payroll or premium contributions, training and development schemes and health savings. If it comes to environmental behavior for example, often labeling and recognition certificates are used. This may include stickers, T-shirts with banner logo etc. These among many others can increase motivation of employees and therefore performance. Employees may also be rewarded for discovering new ideas for implementing a task at work using small gifts. Finally, a reward that does not cost anything at all and is really easy to implement is to celebrate your employees successes and show them appreciation.
Advantages of rewards and incentives
There are many advantages for implementing a reward and incentive scheme
For the organisation the advantages are:
For staff:
Corporate incentives and rewards have always had a significant role to play in creating engagement, but now they have to be smarter and work harder than ever before.
Aspasia Simillidou Theodosiou
Programme Director
Many organisations believe that salary is a motivator. Well, bad news! Salary is not a motivator. It is only enough for the employee to do the minimum that can be done for his job. It really sounds scary, but this is the truth. A salary cannot increase motivation, productivity and performance. And more than ever, it can never create engaged employees.
A good salary was enough some decades ago. The introduction of incentive schemes, though, has increased the performance of employees in many industries. An incentive programme is actually a formal scheme used to promote or encourage specific actions or behavior by a specific group of employees. An incentive and reward scheme does not always include money.
Examples of rewards and incentives
Besides the monetary rewards such as bonuses and commissions there are other types of rewards as well. Especially during challenging times, when organisations struggle, these types of rewards may be more effective. Non-monetary incentives are used to reward employees for excellent behavior through opportunities. Non-monetary incentives may include flexible work hours, payroll or premium contributions, training and development schemes and health savings. If it comes to environmental behavior for example, often labeling and recognition certificates are used. This may include stickers, T-shirts with banner logo etc. These among many others can increase motivation of employees and therefore performance. Employees may also be rewarded for discovering new ideas for implementing a task at work using small gifts. Finally, a reward that does not cost anything at all and is really easy to implement is to celebrate your employees successes and show them appreciation.
Advantages of rewards and incentives
There are many advantages for implementing a reward and incentive scheme
For the organisation the advantages are:
- Increase staff motivation, morale and loyalty
- Boost productivity
- Link individual and business performance
- Focus employees on achieving targets
- Build teamwork
For staff:
- Enhancing the quality of working life
- Increase in motivation
- Adding value to the employment contract
- In these troubled times it’s more important than ever to keep your staff engaged with your business and goals. Unfortunately a down turn also makes it much more challenging to be heard over the noise and financial pressures to win genuine advocacy from your employees, customers and partners.
Corporate incentives and rewards have always had a significant role to play in creating engagement, but now they have to be smarter and work harder than ever before.
Aspasia Simillidou Theodosiou
Programme Director