At the age of 15, I held my first job. My only incentive for giving up my weekends at the time was money. Later on, during my eight year stint in the retail industry, the money incentive still held, even more so since bills and rent now had to be paid. Beyond that, I always looked forward to that twenty five dollar gift certificate all employees got at the end of the year. It was, of course, the company’s way of saying “Thanks for a whole year’s worth of labor.” Yes, that was sarcasm. But I didn’t think much about getting rewarded on a regular basis. I had a job, I went to work, I collected a paycheck, I called it good.
Times are changing though, and nowadays, a wage and a sense of personal pride are no longer enough to keep employees happy. In “A New Kind of Perk: Online Gambling” (Inc., Dec. 2006: 38.) Ryan McCarthy draws our attention to a new work fad that seems to be keeping people in the labor force happy. Several companies have begun offering an incentive point system for employees that go above and beyond the call of duty. At the call center McCarthy discusses in his article, employees track their call statistics and earn points immediately based on what they sell during that transaction. Those points can immediately be used for online gambling where workers can use their earned points to try to make even more points. Once they’ve racked up enough, they can redeem them for prizes or time off work. Advocates of this method of rewarding their employees say it not only helps keep track of job slackers, but the instant gratification method works better than say a yearly or even a monthly bonus. Critics argue of the possibility that the novelty will wear off and employees will find themselves back at square one in dealing with worker apathy.
The idea obviously holds merit, though. The Incentive Marketing Association (IMA) is working with select suppliers and educating businesses on ways they can improve team morale by using such programs. The company discussed in the article, Snowfly, offers ways that employers can give their employees certain goals or tasks and track whether they do them or not. By completing these directives, employees earn eTokens and can then use them to play Snowfly games. Once the points are accumulated, they are given the chance to choose prizes from a custom made company catalog. Anywhere from 2 to 5,000 points can be earned at one time and the company will have a way to monitor employee behavior changes to see if this program works.
It’s easy to turn a nose up at this program and say “What’s wrong with a little hard work? Who needs a reward for it?” Which admittedly is what I did when I first read the article. However, I became open to the possibility that the thought was sour grapes on my part as I wondered if I could get my company to try this program. If the idea has surfaced before this, the trend seems to only now be catching on. Even employees who go to work everyday don’t necessarily do it to the best of their abilities. Yes, long term incentives work for putting in your days at the office or the store. After all, you still want to be around when that big gift certificate bonus comes during the holidays. But the little things that employees do for the good of the company often go unnoticed on a regular basis, and after awhile, an individual eventually gives up without any positive reinforcement.
Sites like MyPoints and programs like HiPoints can attest to the fact that society is driven by acquisition. We seem to be looking for ways to get something for nothing, even if we have to put a little time into it. Doing a few surveys is nothing if you can rack up points to buy a CD player at some point. Just opening a link will give me five points towards a dining card? Heck, yeah, I’ll do it! Pair this with all the people who play games as a way of killing time, and you suddenly make work almost bearable for those who are part of the daily grind. Though I can’t speak for the world, I would easily shave five minutes off my lunch or offer to take an extra shift if it meant access to some on the job gaming time with the chance to grab a nice DVD player later on down the line. I have a feeling that many people might share that opinion. In a way, it’s a manipulation, but not necessarily a bad one. If you give a child a reward for doing something good, they continue to do it. If you give a worker a reward for going an extra step in their job, you’ll get the same results.
Contrary to my original “sour grapes” opinion on the matter, I think the developers of these idea are onto something that benefits everyone. Employers get workers who do a good job, society gets efficient companies to deal with, and employees get to play games and earn prizes. McCarthy highlights one manager who found out that once the incentive program was in play, she found her employees interacting with her on a more personal basis. Could these incentives lead to…dare I say it…happier employees overall? Only time will tell, but getting these types of reward systems going in big corporations will be a big step towards change…for better or worse…in the workplace.
