Incentives Pro & Con

As an industry (performance improvement/incentive) we continually harp on the value of incentives as a way to align and influence the behaviors of employees, channel partners and consumers.

But there are naysayers in the crowd.  Those that believe incentives and rewards are a bad thing - that rewards and recognition decrease motivation.  One of the grandfathers of this point of view is Alfie Kohn - whose books - No Contest (1986) and Punished by Rewards (1992) provide a lot of fodder for this discussion.

I've seen a few posts on blogs over the past months that continue to advance the thinking that rewards and incentives are bad things.  Here is the original post on the Chief Happiness Officer blog that got me started on this path back in December of 2006.  And here is my response to that post. 

There have been others that have jumped in to provide "evidence" that incentives and rewards are bad for motivation.  First from the Chief Happiness Officer again:

One of the most thoroughly replicated findings in the field of social psychology states, the more you reward people for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward.

- Alfie Kohn (Source)

Then there was this...from I'd Rather Be Writing blog...

I am so totally persuaded by this method that I asked my wife to take down the treasure box charts we keep for our kids at home. According to the treasure chest method, if Avery is good by doing her chores and reading books, she gets to advance a square until she eventually reaches a treasure chest square and gets a prize from the dollar store. Seems to work well, but not really. She despises cleaning and it’s always a big struggle.

Today we were doing some cleaning and I made no mention of a reward. The only reward was that I tried to make cleaning fun by cleaning beside her and talking with her. She was Cinderella mopping the floor and loved it. After we finished cleaning one bathroom, she asked if we could clean the other.

Full disclosure - I am not a trained psychologist, social scientist or claim to fully schooled in all the points of view attached to human motivation.  I am however, a 20+ year practitioner in the motivation and recognition industry - done more reading than average on the subject - designed successful (and a few unsuccessful) programs - interviewed many different participants on their needs, desires and motivations and generally spent a lot of time in this area.  Therefore, I believe I can speak with some credibility relating to motivation and the affect it has on behavior.

The big "con" associated with the point of view of Kohn and others is that providing rewards for an activity that someone intrinsically likes to do, will decrease that internal desire to do more of that activity. 

In general terms I would agree with that statement.  But...

We are not children...

What I don't agree with is the transfer of the research data from schoolchildren reading and coloring or children cleaning - to employees, dealers, distributors or consumers conducting business and striving to reach business goals.  It's bad math.  It doesn't add up.

Just because a child can be influenced by making chores fun - doesn't mean incentives don't work.  Did the author even think that spending time with his child in a fun endeavor would be reward for the child?  Of course the child wanted to clean again - and spend time with her father and play a game.  That doesn't prove incentives don't work - it proves that the original incentive was wrong.  It simply proved that time with Dad was a bigger incentive than the treasure box.

We don't always enjoy our work...

The other thing that these types of broad statements assume is that if we just enjoy our work we don't need motivation.  Well, I'm sure most of the readers of this blog will agree with this statement - there is a lot of stuff associated with my job that I don't enjoy.  And maybe, just maybe, having some incentive to do the stuff I don't enjoy may influence my behavior.  It might even get me to keep doing the things I don't enjoy until I get to the point that I'm more proficient (and therefore, enjoy the task) so that it isn't so undesirable. 

Sometimes we need direction...

Incentives provide directional clues.  What the company rewards provides individuals with the information needed to make decisions.  Sometimes the decision is to leave - if you don't agree with the direction.  Each individual has the internal motivation to do what is intrinsically rewarding.  But what if that is in direct conflict with the direction of the organization?  Then you need something other than your intrinsic desire to do the job.  It doesn't decrease your motivation for those things you find "fun" but it does provide a reason to focus a bit more of your time in another area.

Net-Net

Don't use research from schoolchildren - or anecdotal evidence from a single parent/child relationship to determine whether incentives work.  They do.  Ask yourself...

• Have you ever bought something that had a rebate attached in lieu of a product that didn't?
• Have you ever set a goal at a higher level than the last person who did that task?
• Do you root for your professional team of choice?

If you answered yes to any of these questions then you know that rewards work - competition works - not everywhere with everyone - but when applied appropriately they do influence behavior and have a positive affect on the individual and the organization.