What Makes Work Meaningful — Or Meaningless?

Meaningful work is something we all want. The psychiatrist Viktor Frankl famously described how the innate human quest for meaning is so strong that, even in the direst circumstances, people seek out their purpose in life.

 A recent study by MIT Sloan Management Review showed:

 Meaningfulness was more important to employees than any other aspect of work, including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions. Meaningful work can be highly motivational, leading to improved performance, commitment, and satisfaction.

 Researchers anticipated that the data would show that the meaningfulness experienced by employees in relation to their work was clearly associated with actions taken by managers. Instead, the research showed that quality of leadership received virtually no mention when people described meaningful moments at work, but poor management was the top destroyer of meaningfulness.

 The research aimed to uncover how and why people find their work meaningful. The study showed that meaningfulness was often associated with a sense of pride and achievement at a job well done, whether they were professionals or manual workers.

 “Those who could see that they had fulfilled their potential, or who found their work creative, absorbing, and interesting, tended to perceive their work as more meaningful than others. Accordingly, receiving praise, recognition, or acknowledgment from others mattered a great deal.”

The Five Qualities of Meaningful Work

The study also revealed five unexpected features of meaningful work; in these features might explain the fragile and intangible nature of meaningfulness.

 1. Self-Transcendent

 Individuals tended to experience their work as meaningful when it mattered to others more than just to themselves. Their work was meaningful when it showed the impact and relevance of their work on the individuals, the group or the community. 

 2. Poignant

 The experience of meaningful work can be poignant rather than purely euphoric. The experience of coping with challenging conditions led to a sense of meaningfulness far greater than they would have experienced dealing with straightforward, everyday situations.

 3. Episodic

A sense of meaningfulness arose in an episodic rather than a sustained way. It seemed that no one could find their work consistently meaningful, but rather that an awareness that work was meaningful arose at peak times that were generative of strong experiences.

 4. Reflective

 Meaningfulness was rarely experienced in the moment, but rather in retrospect and on reflection when people were able to see their completed work and make connections between their achievements and a wider sense of life meaning.

 5. Personal

 Other feelings about work, such as engagement or satisfaction, tend to be just that: feelings about work. Work that is meaningful, on the other hand, is often understood by people not just in the context of their work but also in the wider context of their personal life experiences. 

How Does Your Incentive or Loyalty Program Measure Up?

 

Executives want to know what they can expect in return for investing in an incentive, B2B, channel or loyalty reward program. That is a fair question, and one that the incentive industry have had trouble answering succinctly. We can pull from dozens of published case studies and examples, but these are best-case scenarios and not necessarily helpful in setting a minimum expectation — we need a baseline.

The following results come from research conducted and published in the Sept 2021 edition of Sales & Marketing magazine showed some things that could be foundational for program baselines.  Respondents for this survey included program owners and managers from sponsoring brands, as well as design strategists and program directors from companies that provide incentive solutions.

Q: What Kind of Results Can you Expect from Your Incentive Program?

• ·          9 out of 10 Programs Achieve 5-10% Year over Year program lift

o   2/3 of well-designed programs achieve greater than 10% incremental lift

• ·       82% of programs increased retention by 5-10%

o   Half of the expert respondents cited greater than 10%

• ·       90% of the programs achieved ROI’s 2:1 to 4:1

o   One in three of well-designed exceeded a 4:  ROI

With these findings, what is the reason that so many companies implement their own non-cash incentive programs without the assistance of industry design strategists and specialists?  In our opinion the reason is the vast majority of incentive reward companies are devoid of great strategists.  It simply costs too much money to keep them when they have such a difficult time being competitive.  Today you are more likely to have a seasoned veteran of industry calling on you charged with selling you just the “prizes”, which is where most of the budget is.   

Research: Gift Cards Better Than Cash for Employee Wellness

 

When it comes to promoting healthy behaviors in workers, managers should keep their cash and reach for gift cards. That was the finding by a team of researchers at Brigham Young University, who found that gift cards were far more likely to motivate participants in a workplace wellness program to successfully complete their challenges. 

Published online at Management Accounting Research, the study was conducted by BYU researchers Bill Heninger, Steve Smith and David Wood. It tracked an institution that rewarded workers who completed a six-week wellness challenge, giving participants a choice between a cash bonus on their paycheck, a gift card or a material reward of the same value. Approximately 60 percent of participants selected cash, 30 percent chose gift cards and 10 percent selected the tangible reward.

While cash was the most popular choice, the most effective choice turned out to be gift cards. According to the findings, those who selected gift cards were approximately 25 percent more likely to complete the challenge than the participants selecting other rewards, taking into account all other factors.

"You would presume that when people pick the reward type that is the most appealing to them, it would have the most motivational power," Smith said in a statement. "But that wasn't the case. Employees choosing to be rewarded with gift cards actually reaped the greatest health benefits.

The findings add more evidence to the assertions long held by leaders of the incentive industry that gift cards are a more effective incentive than cash. The authors suggest that the gift cards might have proved more effective because they strike a balance between flexible and specific when it comes to entertainment or fun. 

"People keep mental accounts," Wood explained. "If you work and make $10, that's your work money. If you find 10 bucks on the ground, then that's free money. You might go out to lunch with the free money, when you normally wouldn't with your work money."

Gift Card Rewards Even More Popular in a Touchless World

 

Gift card use in corporate America is having a moment. Actually, as the return to offices has been pushed back by most companies due to another spike in COVID cases, the gift cards moment will likely be extended indefinitely.  

The pandemic has generated a steady stream of stories about managing remote teams, and gift cards are invariably mentioned in most. Gift cards were a common component of employee recognition programs prior to the pandemic, but the forced cancelation of incentive travel programs and gift cards’ ease of use in a world that is not working together has produced a significant increase in their use.

 The Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) reported late last year that since the business world went remote in March 2020, there has been a 26% increase in the use of gift cards in workplace incentive programs. Corporate use of gift cards in the past year range from helping workers equip their home offices, to buying team members lunches for Zoom meetings, stocking up for Zoom happy hours, or providing impromptu spot rewards by managers or in peer-to-peer recognition programs. 

The ability to digitize gift card delivery has existed for some time, but more companies relied on these capabilities during the past year and a half for obvious reasons. The IRF reports that many lessons were learned about the power of virtual engagement:

 “Digital options enable immediate, coordinated, trackable delivery of rewards regardless of geographic location, and groups of employees can receive their reward at the same time such as during a virtual meeting. Digital delivery can also increase control, enhance reporting and reduce overall administration time for program owners.”

Recognizing achievements instantly — or as immediately as possible — is more important in the remote work world. Motivation experts also remind managers that recognizing top performers in front of peers has always been critical. That may have to be done during a virtual meeting these days, but it should be done. If you sponsor a peer-to-peer recognition program, make it easy to use and promote it frequently. Companies risk underutilization of a program if it’s not meaningful and easy to use.

Are You Actually Willing to Empower Your Employees?

 

Everyone seems to agree and supports the idea of empowering your employees.  Leaders want to empower their people. But while empowering sounds good and beneficial, not many leaders are actually empowering their people. 

Much of the frustration that people have today with business is that no one seems to be empowered to get anything done.  Why?  Simply because the reality is that giving up control is insanely difficult. In the business world, empowerment can mean giving up control of tasks, embracing an employees’ suggestions, or even using ideas that come from outside your current company.  We are all guilty of not wanting to give up power. 

In a study conducted by Leadership IQ entitled “The State of Leadership Development” some interesting findings were as follows:

• Only 29% of employees say their leader is always open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve performance.
• Only 16% say their leader always removes the roadblocks to their success.
• Only 20% say their leader always takes an active role in helping employees to grow and develop their full potential.
• Only 29% say their leader’s vision for the future always seems to be aligned with the organization's.
• Only 27% say their leader always encourages and recognizes suggestions for improvement.
• Only 26% say their leader always responds constructively when employees share their work problems.
• Only 20% say their leader always shares the challenges we're facing.

 If you truly want to empower your employees, consider the following three statements:

When employees give me alternatives, I avoid telling them which one I want. Instead, I ask for their suggestions. 

I’m open to using ideas/practices from outside the company to improve our team’s performance.

I encourage and recognize my employees’ suggestions for improvement.

If you are brutally honest with yourself while considering these statements you’ll discover where you are on empowerment or if you struggle to empower. 

 

Corporate Gifts Remain Popular Rewards

 

For the balance of 2021 and probably into 2022 as well, Incentive Magazine’s Gift Survey reveals that reward planners will continue to offer merchandise in lieu of group travel to motivate performance. According to the Incentive Research Foundation, the use of gifts as a motivational reward skyrocketed by 68 percent in 2020, and that trend is expected to continue. 

There is a lingering uncertainty about the pandemic's effect on travel and some incentive travel programs are still being booked, but many companies have preferred to use gifts instead.

 What are the most common problems when using merchandise gifts?

• merchandise was not always available when needed according to more than 75 percent of respondents 
• more than half of those polled cited frustrating reward delivery delays to recipients.

 These problems can be expected to continue, as manufacturing delays remain a global issue.

 Which gifts are most commonly given?

• 61% of respondents favored using apparel, the vast majority of which was shirts with company identified logos.  Past surveys have indicated that while employees enjoy logoed apparel items, many would prefer a choice of awards
• 59% utilize gift cards or gift card systems that allow the winner to order any of the most popular gift cards in the country, and thus use them to get what they really want, not what someone thinks they want.
• 51% use electronics and food-and-beverage items were used by 44 %.
• Luggage and leather items, sporting goods, outdoor equipment and watches were among other prizes preferred by more than 20 percent of respondents.

 How are rewards being used?

• More than two-thirds of incentive professionals use rewards to recognize employees.
• 55% give awards to thank employees for their performance
• 50% use rewards to thank loyal customers
• 50% use them to build morale and increase job satisfaction
• 43% use them as award to motivate increased sales.

 It is always difficult to pick just the right award, and some would suggest that it can’t be done.  There are too many variables and too much diversity of recipients to get it right.  Many planners voiced frustration about the dearth of new gift ideas.  When you offer a gift each year, it's hard to come up with something new!

 One planner summed up why gifts make great rewards. "Choosing the right gift leaves long-lasting positive impressions and memories — and it generates great PR buzz long after it's given!"

While that is as true as true can be, no one can really tell you how to choose that right gift that leaves all those long-lasting memories.  There is a lot of justification to have a system where the recipients can choose for themselves.