Non Monetary Incentives in the Workplace

“Incentives are the cornerstone of modern life”(Levitt and Dubner 12). Levitt and Dubner once mentioned in their book “Freakonomics”. According to Oxford dictionary, incentives are something tends to incite to action or greater effort, as a reward offered for increased productivity (“incentives”). In business field, incentives are something given by bosses to encourage their employees to endeavour in bringing benefits to their business. For a simple example, the employee who hits the monthly or year sales target will get cash or prizes as incentives. Apparently, these incentives are something that motivates employees maintains their great performance and also to motivate other employee, whoever wants to get the incentives, work harder.

As a manager the three motivational methods that should be used would be to provide monetary incentives, employee recognition, and training incentives. Monetary incentives are one method that can be used by a leader or a manager in his or her workplace, these incentives is to reward an employee for his or her outrageous work-related performance. These incentives may include such as profit-sharing within the company, stock options, performance bonuses, and scheduled bonuses. These different types of monetary incentives can increase the motivation of its workers and can lead to more productive, less absenteeism, and may improve one’s quality of service. Monetary incentives when awarded to one employee may also be a morale booster can also encourage other workers to improve his or her work performance, and maintain a healthy, friendly, positive work environment. A healthy workplace is a product of a successful and productive work environment. Working in this kind of economy, monetary incentives is the excellent method to use. However, these incentives may persuade others and may not to some; the result will be the same, increased quality work

Serious issues with incentives also include employees telling their superiors that everything is under control when it isn?t, just to save their bonus. Kohn then states that ?There are very few things that threaten an organisation as much as a hoard of incentive driven individuals trying to curry favour with the incentive dispenser? (1993, p.56).

Recognizing employees for accomplishments such as finishing a major project, reaching sales targets or providing excellent customer service can be an important motivating factor. Set goals for workers to strive for and offer rewards for reaching them. This could be in the form of an employee of the month scheme, a bonus, or a promotion. Some companies conduct meetings where employees are recognised for good work in front of their colleagues. This can help motivate all the workers in the business to strive for success.

Chapter 12 of our textbook is titled “Motivating Employees,” and it encompasses much of what was in Drive. An extrinsic reward is defined as the “payoff, such as money, a person receives from others for performing a particular task.” Extrinsic rewards are what drive the old economy and still influence management techniques within organizations today. These rewards have many benefits but are becoming more and more obsolete in the twenty-first century workforce. The textbook defines intrinsic rewards as the “satisfaction, such as a feeling of accomplishment, a person receives from performing the particular task itself.” Offering only extrinsic rewards is what Pink refers to as “carrots and sticks.” These rewards work well for routine tasks. However, these rewards often stifle creativity (as seen in the candlestick experiment). Modern jobs are increasingly relying on creativity and innovation. Managers can use this knowledge by acknowledging the importance of intrinsic rewards when dealing with employees engaged in more complex

Employees are motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. In order for the reward system to be effective, it must encompass both sources of motivation. Studies have found that among employees surveyed, money was not the most important motivator, and in some instances managers have found money to have a de-motivating or negative effect on employees.  This research paper addresses the definition of rewards in the work environment context, the importance of rewarding employees for their job performance, motivators to employee performance such as extrinsic and intrinsic rewards, Herzberg’s two-factor theory in relation to rewarding employees, Hackman and Oldman model of job enrichment that

Pay and Rewards – pay and rewards attract, motivate and retain staff. The employment contract which lists rewards, whether it be pay, bonus or benefits, can remove animosity amongst employees and employers. However, recent research reveals that employees are no longer motivated by a financial reward alone, but

In-job standards and practices can drive motivation, authority, and influence. However, it is rewards that can serve as the primary motivation lever. The profit centers established to accomplish this must be mutually reinforcing, or frustration and undermining of the culture will occur.

The History behind the 21st Century in Motivating Individuals and Groups at Work. We have learned that although many managers think that cash incentives or threats may be the answers to motivating employees, it is not fully true. Long

Reward Management (RM) has been defined as the distribution of monetary and non-monetary rewards to employees in an effort to align the interests of the employees, the organisation, and its shareholders (O’Neil, 1998). In addition O’Neil (1998) also suggests that a RM system can serve the purpose of attracting prospective job applicants, retaining valuable employees, motivating employees, ensuring legal requirements relating to direct and indirect rewards are not violated, assisting the company in achieving human resource and business objectives, and ultimately assisting the organisation in obtaining a competitive advantage.

Many employers consider work perks to be an essential function of the contemporary workplace (Eberhart, 2015). Ten years ago, Pew Research pointed to a growing discontent in terms of working conditions (Taylor, Funk, & Craighill, 2006). Pew scholars suspected that America was going through a profound changes as “the industrial-era model of secure jobs with good wages and benefits that predominated until roughly a generation ago gave way to a more cost-conscious and globally-competitive workplace marked by stagnant real wages, cutbacks to health benefits and retirement plans, and growing threats of having jobs outsourced abroad” (Taylor, Funk, & Craighill, 2006, p. 1). However, in more recent years, workplace conditions have improved in many industries due an emphasis on implementing extensive work-life policies including work perks within the tech industry (Steiber & Algne, 2016).

And the last but certainly not the least is money bonus. Money is an all-time favourite form of incentive, with various monetary incentive schemes in existence. Organisations, such as Burger King vows to

Employees are happier when they feel that they are rewarded fairly for the work they do. Always acknowledge employee responsibilities, and the effort they put on, and the tasks that they have done well.

Keeping employees motivated in addition to creating incentives and/or additional ways for employees to receive more compensation will create better performance overall within an organization. Contrary if company B gives their employees incentives to perform, without any motivational tactics they probably will not have as many top performances as company A, in addition the company may only seek short term rewards verses have long term success. Lack of motivation for employees within an organization, can cause long term damage for the company’s success. Different things motivate everyone; therefore there should be a system in place to keep employees motivated for the long term success of the company. In the MBM textbook under the concept of incentives, compensation, and motivation, there are a couple of different views of how it should be applied within an organization. We will discuss The Social Role of Profit, Personal Profit and Losses, and the way Market-Based Management view how incentives, compensation, and motivation should be applied and the things that effectively drive employees’ actions while at work.

Being rewarded and recognised for their work or contribution is what keeps an employee motivated to work towards achieving the organisational as well as personal goals. When the employees is motivated by rewards, they will have job satisfaction consequently increasing the productivity of the organisation. It necessitates the need of managers to pay more attention in understanding their employees and come up with suitable types of reward systems for the organisation so that the employees are intrinsically and extrinsically motivated all the time. The hypotheses that I put forward here is to support this statement that effective reward management is critical to