Week 2: Does Financial Incentives Drive Company Performance?

           Incentives are considered to be an object or item of value that encourages an employee to do more by the employer through chosen incentives.  There are four types of incentives, Compensation, recognition, rewards, and appreciation.

What can Incentives do for us? Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense, tells us that incentives can motivate more effort, provide people with information about what the organization values and what its priorities are, and lastly attract the right kind of people and repel the wrong kind. I found the motivational effect more interesting this week.  The motivational effect is assumed when people began to work harder for a greater financial reward. “What workers want most from their employers beyond anything else is high wages’. People work primarily for money and financial incentives are the most important of all motivators. Increasing motivation through employees helps them try harder, to get better results. However, I do believe that incentives do not always have to be a financial reward. Depending on the job, I think that incentives could be considered in other forms of gifts or prizes and still have the same effect. For example, at Barnes and Noble, our incentives were never a financial award. They were more of recognition incentives, which we praised employees and announced their achievements through our meetings with the other booksellers. We also included reward incentives, such as gift items or monetary rewards.

On CIO.com, Paul Glen describes how to get projects done by motivating  his employees to perform no matter where their loyalties lie. I found this article to be interesting because as managers, your thought process focuses on getting the project complete regardless of who is doing the work. Glen goes on about how he pays his contractors lots of money to deliver product and that their motivation is their own business. Some ways Glen kept them motivated consist of:

·         “Including them in all the project-related activities that employees in the same role would be included in. Keep them informed about relevant project and business issues. Involve them in the relationship with outside stakeholders.

·         Explaining his expectations of them in terms of the roles he wanted them to fill rather than the deliverers he wanted them to produce. They will interact with the team very differently when you explain that you want them to serve as the QA lead on the project rather than defining their work as developing and executing a test plan. Then manage to the behavioral expectations rather than only to schedules and budgets.

·         Acknowledged that he understand their concerns and aspirations as contractors. Let them know that you know that references and referrals are essential to their ongoing well-being. Also, assure them that you understand that predictability is helpful for them; commit to giving them as much notice as you can about when you'll need their services again or when you won't need them anymore.”

I found this week’s study to be very informative in learning more in-depth about motivating others. I have worked a lot with motivation in the past with past employees to help push for certain goals the company was looking to achieve. It became more intriguing when I began to put the videos on happiness and thing weeks readings together to figure out that all of the key emotions makes a big difference when you’re motivating others. Some questions I found myself asking were; how do you motivate employees who are bitter? Or how do you continue to motivate employees who are considered sweet without driving them away from the job because we are asking for too much? I believe that every once in a while; managers should get a refresher on incentives and motivating others.

Citations:

Glen, P. (2014, March 10). Motivating the Mercenaries. . Retrieved , from http://www.cio.com/article/2378058/project-management/motivating-the-mercenaries.html

Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. I. (2006). Hard facts, dangerous half-truths, and total nonsense: profiting from evidence-based management. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press.