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According to a study released earlier this year, the right incentive programs can boost performance among teams of employees by as much as 44%, and among individual workers by as much as 25%.
Drawing on data from 2002-2003, the study by the Washington, DC-based International Society for Performance Improvement found that, when assembled effectively, on-the-job incentive programs can be a major factor in employee motivation and business success.
So what goes into the "right" incentive programs? At the top of the list has to be metrics that prove their value. Despite the $100 billion-plus U.S. organizations pumped into incentive programs last year (according to estimates by the SITE Foundation, New York City), many bosses question just what value they get for the significant investments they make in such programs.
To structure and then deliver effective incentive programs, management has to do much more than shop for the ideal coffee mug to perch on each desk. Rather, it must work hand in glove with its human resource teams to bridge the gap between performance and reward.
Earlier this year, the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement released the results of its survey, The Interaction Between Marketing and Human Resources. According to the Forum, which is a research center based within the Medill Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University, there is an alarming gap in communication between these two corporate functions - one that could have a negative impact on organizational performance.
For example, marketing and HR executives disagree about who is the company's own key customer contact, according to survey results. This raises a red flag...