The Final Piece of the Performance Improvement Puzzle
August 14, 2008
Google the words "Improve Employee Performance" and you will find hundreds of thousands of interesting approaches and options to motivation. Everyone seems to have an answer—from training to better communications, to research, to new appraisal software, to 10-step management guides, etc. But while most companies who provide these various solutions have valid methods of improving performance, rarely do you see any of them recommend that you close the loop of performance improvement by rewarding your employees for results.
Award Systems Can Drive Performance
Employee engagement is the big challenge today. Corporations have fewer dollars to spend and are constantly striving to improve performance. Over the last few years, we have seen many articles written on employee recognition as a viable way to improve performance. Studies have shown that recognition is a key element in employee satisfaction, and employee satisfaction is a key element in employee performance. Satisfied employees drive customer satisfaction and improved bottom line results. If it's that simple, why don't more companies include award systems to motivate and recognize their employees for improved performance?
In 2003, the International Society for Performance Improvement conducted the most comprehensive study ever on the effectiveness of the incentive industry. It researched the usefulness of incentives to employers in determining the relationship of incentives, motivation and performance in the workplace. They found, among other important results, that when incentive/awards programs are implemented correctly that individual performance improved by 22 percent. They also found that when there was both an individual as well as a team component that individual performance improved by 27 percent, and team performance improved by 45 percent. Of course, the essential point here is "implemented correctly."
These results did not surprise the incentive industry. The full service performance improvement incentive companies have seen these types of outcomes for years. In fact they have seen results far greater than these. If you could get into the archives of successful award companies you would find literally thousands of unbelievably successful programs. Unfortunately, for a myriad of reasons, these findings rarely reach the eyes of people in their own companies, much less the industry in general. And that's a shame.
A Key to Employee Motivation
For years, the awards industry has followed and preached the works of B.F. Skinner, the famed behavioral psychologist who spent a lifetime of research on behavior analysis. His conclusions showed that positive consequences for achieving the desired behaviors are the only effective means of increasing and improving performance. While some might argue this belief the incentive award industry has grown to over $60 billion believing in and selling this simple concept…because it works.
Manage by Using Consequences
In our everyday work life, we are continually managing by what we want our people to do—the antecedents. It's what we spend 90 percent or more of our time on. It's why we spend hours in meetings, thousands of hours and dollars on training, assessments, measurement evaluation software and why we invent and reinvent so many different types of communications. However, when we manage by only using these antecedents and the facts surrounding them, we can often lose site of the other important piece—the behavior itself and the consequences necessary to motivate that behavior.
So, the final piece of the puzzle is the consequence we use to motivate the performance. It has been proven time and again that behaviors are a function of their consequences. Whether we like or agree with it or not, people do things for their own set of reasons, not ours. When you look at why the performance you are getting is not at expected levels, it might be wise to investigate the types of consequences you are using to drive these results. Many feel that compensation alone should be what achieves our objectives; you pay them, they should perform up to their abilities. But as many have found, compensation is only the contract that brings a person to work, it doesn’t necessarily motivate them to perform at their best.
You Own the Tools
The tools to change employee behavior and improve performance are already in your hands. It is often not much more complex than knowing what you want your employees to do and telling them, telling them how to do it, measuring performance and positively reinforcing them for their results. In conjunction with your suppliers who provide the other puzzle pieces, the incentive industry has many professionals well versed in the art of using positive consequences to complete the puzzle. If done correctly you will drive the results you want.
About the Author
35 years in the business calling on and selling major Fortune 500 accounts from coast to coast. Spent 25 years in sales, regional sales management and corporate management with Maritz Performance Improvement Company. St; Louis MO. Founded Incentives Midwest LLC, a consulting firm that works with clients to create, plan, launch and implement successful awards based performance improvement initiatives. Currently a partner with Incentives, a West Chicago based gift card fulfillment company where he oversees their reseller network.
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