What a proper incentive needs

Suc­cess­ful­ly im­ple­ment an in­cen­tive re­quires a smart ac­ti­va­tion of the work­force. How that works? Trig­ger this thrilling sen­sa­tion that in­spires peo­ple to ac­com­plish more than just the nec­es­sary.

Set the right in­cen­tives so that height­ened mo­ti­va­tion leads to in­creased sales? That is what in­cen­tives are for. But how can one achieve such an in­crease of mo­ti­va­tion?. The clas­sics are still com­pa­ny voy­ages or trips with the work­force that have a very clear fo­cus on leisure. They make sure to cre­ate a com­mu­ni­ty spir­it, a sense of fam­i­ly in a cor­po­rate en­vi­ron­ment. In ad­di­tion to that, and most peo­ple for­get about this as­pect, a reg­u­lar­ly hap­pen­ing event has a rit­u­al or tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ter that ex­udes pos­i­tive en­er­gy. In­side and out­side.

That thrilling sen­sa­tion

An in­cen­tive pro­gramme is like a stage play: It has to be or­ches­trat­ed. The re­al pow­er of a mo­ti­va­tion­al cam­paign lies in the pos­si­bil­i­ty of util­is­ing it in the long term. This pays off in two ways, fi­nan­cial­ly and cul­tur­al­ly. The form of the in­cen­tive is sec­ondary; you can choose the clas­sic for­mats or in­clude gam­i­fi­ca­tion el­e­ments as well as as­pects of vir­tu­al or aug­ment­ed re­al­i­ty. The im­por­tant thing is that you tell your own sto­ry, your brand sto­ry.

Too much com­pe­ti­tion?

Do in­cen­tives lead to sense­less work, on­ly fo­cussed on re­wards? Does the high com­pet­i­tive pres­sure push ac­tu­al work in­to the back­ground? You can avoid the first prob­lem by mak­ing sure you have the right base. The sec­ond prob­lem is not re­al­ly a prob­lem, ac­tu­al­ly. As a well-known apho­rism puts it, com­pe­ti­tion is good for busi­ness. Com­pe­ti­tion is part of your dra­matur­gy. When the em­ploy­ees ask them­selves: “Am I go­ing to be one of the best this year?” it starts to get in­ter­est­ing. The thrill, the sus­pense, the re­lease. Fol­lowed by the pride and in­cite­ment. Or the short-term frus­tra­tion fol­lowed by the in­cite­ment to do bet­ter next year.

In­creas­ing per­for­mance in a play­ful way ac­ti­vates self-mo­ti­va­tion of the in­di­vid­ual and at the same time ad­dress­es the col­lec­tive un­der­stand­ing of the team. Start lay­ing the ground­work for your suc­cess.