Recognition, Rewards and Incentives
Recognition, Rewards and Incentives
Opportunities to give or volunteer compete against other priorities in a person’s life that carry equal or greater value. While an employee may want to give or volunteer, they only take action when the perceived value of prosocial activity is equal to or greater than the value of their competing priorities.
When it comes to rewarding and recognizing more experienced volunteers, there are nuanced ways to motivate them while simultaneously achieving the program’s desired results. For example, let’s assume we decide to award every employee who serves on a board 1k to donate to the non-profit of their choice. The company’s purpose is to affirm the value of the employee’s time on that board and encourage that behavior across the company. The intrinsic motivator for the employee is the company’s affirmation of their actions. Additionally, donating philanthropic dollars through employees is a signal that the company wants employees to continue and increase their prosocial behaviors.
It goes without saying that there is a dollar amount that incents new behavior, but – unless you have unlimited Dollars for Doers budget - it’s not always worth it. So, how do you decide if your company’s rewards and recognitions are achieving the right outcomes? Determining whether your programmatic elements are achieving the right outcomes requires a step-by-step analysis – it’s simple, but it takes some time!
