The 2020 IRF Academic Review offers some interesting peer review research of articles found within the employee engagement industry regarding employee incentives and recognition programs. Some of the significant points this year that could help inform you on the design and execution of successful programs include:
- Gift cards have the potential to capture most – and perhaps all – of the well-known benefits of non-cash rewards. Program awardees categorize gift card awards as “fun money.” Many employers find gift cards easy to give and to administer compared to choosing specific tangible gifts or rewards.
- The greater sense an employee has that a reward they receive is separate from their salary or wages, the greater improvement they showed in their performance.
- Researchers found that workers classify non-cash, tangible rewards as distinct from monetary compensation, suggesting that delivering non-cash rewards is more likely than cash to result in improved performance.
- Gift cards continue to be widely used as awards, with median gift card amount remaining at $100
- For many employees, it has become the soft rewards of work such as culture, relationships, trust, and purpose, education and direct management that matter most to them.
- 94% of executives at top performing firms are strong supporters of incentive programs and consider them a competitive advantage
- Companies conducting analysis on how programs change behavior increased to 44%, compared to 25% in 2019.
- While it’s always difficult to establish direct casualty, most organizations measure results based on correlations. Metrics for tangible benefits include decreased staff turnover, increased productivity, sales, revenue, safety, market share, gains in customer satisfaction, and customer acquisition
- Even more difficult to measure, metrics for intangible benefits that include employee satisfaction, collaboration, and impact on company culture
- Designers are structuring programs with a wider reach, with the goal of each participant receiving recognition or rewards of some kind, rather than exclusively rewarding just top performing program participants.
