Mobile Device

It is another holiday season right now. Many companies are busy to reward their top performing employees by offering rewards, gifts, even organizing paid vacations. The companies believe doing the reward and recognition will improve the employees’ morale, keep the top performing employees and therefore maintain the sustainability and in a better position to general higher profit next year.

However, in my own opinion, I would argue that giving incentives to the employees might not generate the desirable result at what the companies are hoping for.

One I was in China, every holiday, particular, the Chinese New Year Festival, you will see people carry cases of apples, bottles of cooking oils and bags of rice walking on the street. They received these award from their employers for their hard work of the year. However, if you ask them whether they are satisfied with the “awards”, their answer surprisingly would be “no”. They also argue that their managers did not receive those low monetary value gifts, they simply receive either TV or other high end products. Some of them even receive cash directly. Some people will also tell you, they do not need any more apples or rice or oil. Clearly, the award not only did not improve the employees’ morale, but also even turn the reward into complaint or a kind of “sour grape” mentality.

The different picture but similar results happen on this side of the pound. Recently, there was an article on the Globe and Mail about the controversy surrounding the sales people’s reward from the insurance company. There is a concern in the insurance industry that the insurance companies have to spend lots of money to reward their top performance salespeople. The perks even include whole family vacation at a resort. The companies’ concern is that if they do not give enough incentives, the sales people will not promote their products, and therefore, their profits will be negatively impacted. We would wonder the motive behind...