A recent Today Show story addressed a new program in Texas that pays high school students $100 for each advanced placement class they take and pass. The benefit to the student, aside from the cash incentive, is to receive college credit for those classes.

However, the incentive program is not without controversy.  

Opponents are concerned that it appears to be bribery and can cause psychological damage by sending the wrong message – do what you’re suppose to do (go to school and study), and we will reward you.

So I started wondering about the impact of incentives on employees, and I remembered something a friend recently told me.

He said that he had been advised that he was receiving a 3.5% salary increase. That would be fine news except that  he was also told by a co-worker, who just happened to be on final written warning for poor attendance, which she had just been told that she was getting a 3.5% salary increase.

What kind of incentive is that?

Now maybe the boss didn’t think employees would talk or maybe because of the company’s high turnover rate they wanted to try and retain even the worst performers, but it struck me as very de-motivating to incentivize everyone at the same level regardless of performance.

That’s when I heard about the school incentive program and thought: why not train them young about what it’s like in the real business world? Why not encourage them not to just perform at an acceptable level but to exceed expectations and take on new challenges and by doing so be rewarded?

That is unless they go to work for my friend’s company where they obviously don’t put any thought into the process.

However, for organizations that are concerned about incentivizing and motivating employees, there are methods for doing it properly.

Incentives can vary greatly and include such things as providing real and timely feedback about performance, offering recognition for a job well done through both verbal appreciation and small rewards (think gift cards), and implementing benefits and practices such as flex time and telecommuting.

But however your organization chooses to motivate employees and whatever incentives you select, just be sure that your programs and benefits are actually motivating, not de-motivating your employees.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 10:45 am and is filed under Benefits, Compensation. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.