In Incentives that work Paul Weald
Is it all about the money? No – it’s about finding the right combination of: Reward Recognition Real time feedback
What does behavioural science teach us? Behaviour is influenced most by Engaged employees immediate consequences • want to know the desired expectations for • A pay rise is immediate their role so they can meet and exceed them • Your boss praising you is immediate • are naturally curious about their company • But when that immediacy is lost, there is and their place in it nothing new or additional to compel that • perform at consistently high levels behaviour any longer • want to use their talents and strengths at • The scientists tell us that the absence of work every day continual immediate consequences is usually the first and the biggest breakdown in an • work with passion, and have a visceral employee’s self -motivating behaviour connection to their company Daily immediate consequences – in small relevant bites – condition the heart and minds of staff
Sales examples Key attributes In the run-up to Christmas, a retail client wanted to maximise the efficiency of their call centre at the same • Relevant time as incentivising agents to sell. Good agents could earn an extra £2 per hour through individual orders taken but only if they achieved threshold targets for availability and schedule adherence. The scheme ran cumulatively for • Daily updates a month and each day the ‘scores’ for each agent were produced. The whole bonus would be paid at the end of the month, but only if the agent achieved their cumulative thresholds. The results for the centre were astonishing. • Conditioning behaviours Not Ready time was halved; sickness was negligible and orders per hour were up across the board, and most agents had a nice Christmas as a result! Example that worked
Service examples Key attributes A centre manager in a public sector organisation asked each employee to answer the question “If I gave you £5 as a special treat, how would you spend it?” All agents had to • Meaningful take part and write down their individual requests. What the manager did then was to set a series of different challenges that, if the agent exceeded them through their • Peer group competition performance, resulted in their ‘prize’ being purchased and presented to them. This indeed generated high levels of employee engagement, whilst keeping within the financial rules of the organisation! • Organisationally compliant – not necessarily cash based Example that worked
What can go wrong? Dis-engaged employees are CAVE Beware the risks dwellers • Could just be temporary compliance C onsistently • Rewards that ignore reasons for under performance Against If our goal is excellence, no artificial incentive can V irtually ever match the power of intrinsic motivation. People who do exceptional work may be glad to be paid and even more glad to be well paid, but they do not work to collect a pay check. They work because they E verything love what they do. Harvard Business Review
Case Study example Active Digital use a combination of: • Company iPad – every employee provided a company iPad with Active Hub app Most recent employee survey scores reflect these efforts: • No Work ‘It’s your Birthday!’ – an extra days leave • 100% of employees are • Monthly Joker days – play “Joker card” to leave the office early proud to work at Active once a month (no questions asked) Digital • 93% of our people rated • Feet Up Friday – Drinks and nibbles at the local pub on last Friday team spirit as “good or of the month higher” • Celebrate Success – lunches & champagne for team achievements • Power Snacks – weekly company delivery of fruit and healthy snacks • Flexible working – staff encouraged to work flexibility on a rota (to allow time to focus on customers) • R & R Days – Work from home days
Active Hub Technology supports the engagement approach • Positivity Wall – where employees can post/share anything positive about their day • Little Victories – colleagues leave comments, and give each other a ‘high five’ or emoji • Analysis of team results – reviewing customer feedback
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