Employee of the Month: A Lesson At Jim Halpert's Expense

December 16, 2009 by Hinda Incentives in Employee Motivation, Employee Recognition

Jim Halpert: recently promoted to the co-regional manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. In last Thursday's episode, fellow employee Andy suggests starting an employee of the month program. Thinking how this could improve office morale and by judging performance based on completely unbiased metrics, Jim makes an executive decision to implement the program.

What's an Incentive?

December 02, 2009 by Hinda Incentives in Incentives, Industry News

On the Influence Insiders blog talk radio show this afternoon, a very basic yet potentially puzzling question was brought to surface: What is an incentive?

Taking "Trophy Value" Literally

December 02, 2009 by Hinda Incentives in Employee Motivation, Non Cash Rewards

While most claim to work harder for cash, studies have proven that tangible, noncash incentives have a more positive effect on performance. According to the University of Chicago study cited in our Trophy Value Continuum post, people tend to prefer cash but perform at much higher levels when in pursuit of a noncash incentive. I wanted cash for running but worked harder for noncash options. The same holds true for your employees.

Running for Noncash Incentives

November 20, 2009 by Hinda Incentives in Employee Motivation, Non Cash Rewards

What does running have to do with the incentives industry? Directly...not much, if anything. However, my "pre-professional life" was consumed by competitive distance running for my school. Reflecting on that time of my life made me realize that I actually learned a lot through those experiences about performance motivation via noncash rewards.

Coffee and Employee Productivity

November 11, 2009 by Hinda Incentives in Incentives, Random, employee engagement

Pondering this predicament made me think about coffee in the workplace. Many workers can't function without a hot cup of joe in their hands. Our office, like many other offices out there, provides free coffee to employees. It's not a major incentive, something minor, but a nice noncash motivator.

Trophy Value Continuum

November 03, 2009 by Hinda Incentives in Employee Motivation, Non Cash Rewards

"I used to be bad at sports. Then I realized I could buy trophies. Now I'm good at everything." -Demetri Martin

10 Myths?

October 22, 2009 by Hinda Incentives in Employee Incentive Programs, Incentives, Industry News

Within the last few weeks, a blog titled "10 Myths About Employee Incentive Programs" has circulated around the blogosphere and Twitter fairly quickly. Many people in our industry are already aware of the article, first seen on www.wisebread.com and then more recently posted on the AMEX-Open forum (where it was seen by most people). Several responses from the industry have already surfaced, including a good blog post from Paul Hebert.

Hinda