Myths About Employee Incentive Programs

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photo credit: alicepopkorn ( in and out )

I recently came across an article located on Open Forum that I can’t help but disagree with. It’s an article regarding the top 10 myths about offering employee incentive programs in your company, where they basically state that providing employee incentive programs is a bad idea. Even today I hear people talking about a recent job interview where they state that they wished the employer had offered more incentives. Lets take a look at some of what they say are myths about employee incentive programs.

  • It boosts morale. Well I can’t say that I’ve ever hated a company for offering incentive programs, can you? They state that the underlying problem of low morale is actually due to bad management, and has nothing to do with compensation. I’m sorry but I can’t agree with this, if I work for a company and they do not compensate me according to the work and time I put in, I will not have a good morale.
  • It boosts productivity. Open Forum suggests that low productivity is due to something other than compensation, something like missing equipment, wrong equipment, bad management again and many other reasons. Those do contribute to low productivity but so does lack of compensation!
  • It provides motivation. Claiming once again that compensation such as an incentive program will only provide temporary motivation and that the motivation will be for the wrong reasons. Well, most people do strive for as much money as they can get especially in today’s economy, and with continued compensation and incentives then the motivation will continue… makes sense.

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