Managers and HR professionals are increasingly focused on company culture. Hugely successful companies like Netflix and Google have helped popularize this concept of collective values in the workplace. One way that HR professionals and managers are working toward solidifying their company’s workplace culture is by utilizing incentive programs. Incentive programs can be a great way to bring the community of the workplace together. However, there are a few things to keep in mind if you want to avoid workplace incentives that flop.
Before you get to the fun part of planning out your incentives, managers and HR professionals actually need to begin with the end in mind. Consider the objectives of your specific business and how you can reach those objectives from within your company. The goal of your company culture, and the incentives you end up choosing, is to support these objectives and strategies. Tempting though it may be, HR professionals and managers should avoid choosing random incentives or going off of someone else’s incentive model. In order for your workplace incentives to succeed, they need to be conceived and implemented within the context of your business and the context of your employees’ interests. Because employees desire consistency in the workplace, your perks need to make sense for your company’s direction.
Now that you’ve determined what goals you want your incentives to support and you know what motivates your employees, HR professionals and managers should start thinking about the possible pitfalls that could accompany their incentive system. In order to give your perks the best shot at being successful, you need to consider it from all angles. Take tangible incentives, for example. Tangible incentives can be tricky to handle for managers and HR professionals. Receiving a physical perk is certainly very attractive to employees, but they won’t always get them to stay. At first, tangible perks can increase productivity because employees feel happier and less stressed thanks to the exquisite lunches and gym memberships that you provide for them. However, it’s easy for these kinds of incentives to lead to a plateau. Employees may even start to look for bigger and better incentives in another workplace as they get used to what you offer. Tangible incentives should come with a justification and encouragement to stay engaged so that employees make the connection between their engagement and the incentives. Before you choose any incentive, consider any possible drawbacks and see how you can work around them.
Managers and HR professionals should also remember to keep incentive programs flexible. Your company will undergo strategic changes over time. Don’t let your workplace incentives suffer during and after the transition. Think about how your expectations for your employees are changing and update your incentives accordingly. As workplace leaders, HR professionals and managers need to be committed to implementing and abiding by the changes in your perks system and your employees will follow suit.
Incentives can be a great way for managers and HR professionals to boost engagement in the workplace. But they require serious consideration and planning before implementation to ensure their success.