Strategic Use Of Incentives To Motivate

The following post is courtesy of Bill Higgins. You have probably read a couple of his posts here before. This post is the second of a three-part series about leadership and motivation. There is more information about Bill at the end of this post.

Leadership First!

Of the two factors vital to motivating employees, Part 1 on motivating through leadership that values them is by far the most important. Regardless of what other extrinsic motivation incentives may be in place, if the leadership isn’t one that values and empowers workers, employees won’t give all they are capable of giving.

Incentives Also!

By the same token, tangible incentives are important. Salary is one incentive, and as Christ Himself indicates, “The laborer is worthy of his hire (or wage).” While important, salary isn’t the only incentive.

Salary, to be an incentive, needs to be adequate to start with, but then have room for including incentive pay on top of that. Unfortunately, many organizations are boxed in with organizational pay scales, steps, or levels of some kind where the employee tops out and cannot increase their base pay without a promotion or moving into management. The challenge to that is that some people excel where they are as technical subject-matter-experts and to promote them into management would be to invoke the Peter Principle.

Wise managers devise a way to create a two-tier pay scale. One tier is for those technically oriented folks to be able to stay where they can do the most good and continue to receive pay increases, while the other is an equivalent management tier which promotes those that can be effective with management responsibility. This was becoming popular a few years ago, and some organizations need to resurrect it to fit their system.

Not One Size Fits All

Beyond salary however, incentive programs are not a one size fits all kind of thing. It’s much more fluid. What one person considers an incentive another won’t see any value in. A Tully’s coffee gift card to one is a great incentive, while to another it’s meaningless. Company branded apparel to one will be something they proudly wear and cherish, while another could not care less without this implying they are any less dedicated to either the company or the job.

So what’s the answer? How do you decide how to incent workers who give of themselves and earn this extra motivational boost? Some answers can be found in the biblical text.

Check Scripture

Spiritual Gifts insights: The three passages found in 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Peter 4, and Romans 12 deal with the concept of spiritual gifts. Each passage stresses that the Lord gives different gifts to different individuals. As a result of this, particular ministries that excite one person with one gift won’t excite a person with a different gift to the same degree. What is true of ministries is also true of incentives.

In the original language the concept of spiritual gifts does not have the same connotations as it does in English. The term gift (charismata) has more of the concept of motivation, as well as source of joy or delight. It is God’s infusion of a particular drive and passion in a particular direction. The basic idea of charisma, a person having a dynamic personality and attraction, is true but with a much more technical orientation.

Incentives According To Gifting

This explanation is in part why you will find some people in your church really concerned about missions, others about finances, and others about serving the sick and elderly.

Incentives based on giftedness for example would provide the person with something that fits their drive or passion. The person concerned about missions would love a trip to a mission field. The person concerned with finances would love to have a gift given in their name to a favorite charity or ministry. While the person concerned with serving the sick or elderly would love to have numerous people volunteer to go with them to visit those that are fit that description.

What is true in the church is true in the workplace. Tap into what drives a person and you will find what incents them as well.

Individual Makeup

Another popular passage that addresses raising children applies here as well. Proverbs 22:6 literally says, “Train up a child according to the way he is made,” implying different children are made differently.

For parents to apply this verse, they must observe, listen to, and study each child to see how each is made. What is true of parents in the home is also true of managers/employers in the workplace. They must pay attention to each employee to see what is important to each.

They must listen to, observe, and study what is important to each individual employee. This will enable the manager to use each person most effectively, but also to tailor incentives to them personally.

Workplace Incentive Examples

Here are some examples where both the giftedness and makeup come together in the workplace:

• The person who contributes more than others verbally in the form of questions or comments in team meetings may have need for verbal recognition. Write and read their awards in team meetings.

• The person who tackles writing projects, or finds 800 needed revisions in a written project where others average 350, may have a strong need for written recognition. Write up the reward in a document they can save, and read and present it to them in a meeting.

• The person who reads all the memos, manuals, job aids, and extra material sent along by subject-matter-experts may have a need to see their achievements documented for the team. Have different team members contribute to their recognition by identifying what they have done well.

• The person that likes to discuss the latest gadget they purchased for their home may really appreciate being given the chance to use the latest technology as it applies to their job.

• The person who spends what others might call an inordinate amount of time making documents, emails, reports, training materials, etc. look aesthetically pleasing to the eye would really appreciate an artistically designed certificate they can hang in their cube or home.

• The person who would much rather meet face-to-face than virtually whenever possible might appreciate time with the manager or leader in a lunch or private meeting type of setting.

If you spend time considering what is important to each individual in your work group, you can probably identify these same types of things. Once you have done that, it’s simply a matter of matching a corresponding incentive to fit each individual in particular. Takes time. Takes effort. But is worth so much more than generic incentive programs.

Tangible incentives

In addition to these individualized incentives, don’t discount tangible incentives. Such things as time off, mouse pads, books, gift certificates (e.g., coffee, movie tickets, bus passes), business trips, participation in invitation-only corporate events will appeal to different folks. Letting people choose takes the guess work out of trying to personalize this type of incentive.

Contests to drive production, sales, service and more can also have tremendous impact, especially when done as teams and for desirable awards. Done as teams and with the opportunity for all to achieve some award can be very motivating.

To be most effective these should not pit one team against another, but the program should have set goals that each team is striving for and more than one team can win if they meet the goal.

Right Behavior

Ken Blanchard at one time promoted an incentive program for customer service reps that was a little different and called something like, “Caught You Doing Something Right.” This program gave award presentation capability to every member of the team.

It was based on defined criteria and the entire team kept their eyes open to watch for those that were achieving the types of behaviors designated for incentivizing. When that happened, when someone saw them, they presented them with the “CYDSR” award; a button to signify they were noticed, and any other incentives the organization wanted to link to the program.

This form of incentivizing positive, right behavior, instead of watching for people not complying with rules, regulations, and desired behaviors, can be very empowering and motivating, and create a more positive atmosphere and team atmosphere.

Bottom Line

The bottom line, incentives take on a different form and meaning to different people. You can’t incent everyone the same and expect the incentives to have the desired impact. Beyond the generic incentives of salary raises and performance bonuses, incentive programs must be tailored to the individual.

The final part of this series will examine how Christ incented the men closest to Him as He walked with them and enlisted them to follow Him and to promote His kingdom.

About the Author:
BILL HIGGINS is currently the Managing Director of MindWare Incorporated, an independent training and career coaching consulting firm. He previously served on the pastoral staff of churches in the U.S. and Canada, and worked in a managerial capacity for industry leading organizations.

Bill is a graduate of Biola University and Talbot Theological Seminary and his book; Your Road to Damascus: 6 Biblical Secrets for an Effective Job Search is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and MindWare Publishing websites.