Many companies hand out awards such as "employee of the month," but do they work to motivate performance? Not really, says professor Ian Larkin.
In fact, they may turn off your best employees altogether.Key concepts of this paper include:
- Even simple awards programs can have much broader and complex implications for employee behavior.
- In the study, two highly valued employee groups - the most productive workers and the most consistently punctual workers - suffered a 6-8% decrease in productivity after the award was instituted. This finding is remarkable because it suggests that awards for one type of behavior have the potential to "crowd out" positive behavior in a completely different realm.
- This research suggests that non-monetary but extrinsic rewards such as corporate awards act more like monetary rewards than they do intrinsic motivators such as love for the job or empowerment through autonomy.
- Award programs with a low likelihood of winning may be ineffective because employees do not habituate good behavior, and instead lead to a highly strategic response from employees.
- Companies may fare better just by giving people a nice plaque, sending an email to staff, or calling a meeting to recognize certain workers publicly in front of the whole crew."You can't put a price on that. The recognition of hearing you did a good job and that others are hearing about it is worth more than money."
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