It’s tax season, and for the ARM industry, that means its crunch time. Collection agencies across the country are trying to reach individuals who are receiving their income tax refunds in the hopes of getting them to use that “found money” to pay off old debts.
In those offices, agencies are ramping up the incentives and contests to try and increase the efforts of collection agents. Prizes for the biggest payment of the day. Giveaways for the most promises to pay. An award for the individual who gets money in the door first. There are an endless number of different ideas that are being put into practice.
But the recent “scandal” at United Airlines — the company tried to replace a standard bonus for all employees with a lottery that would give nothing to most of its roughly 90,000 workers while awarding lavish prizes, like $100,000 in cash and Mercedes-Benz sedans, to a few lucky winners — backfired in a very big way and that has experts speaking out about the right way to try and use competition and motivation to get employees to perform better.
The New York Times has published a fairly exhaustive article about how different companies use motivation and competition as incentives, and some of the reports cited in the article are very interesting. One study, for example, revealed that productivity rose for a group of employees who were simply thanked for their “hard work and great achievements in yesterday’s shift” than if they were given about $25 in cash.
The article looks at different tactics tried at T-Mobile, Uber, Walt Disney, and others, and how those tactics either increased or decreased worker productivity.
In theory, competitions can be a useful tool to help motivate a workforce to perform better. But it is important to understand the psychology behind the tactic to keep it from blowing up in your face. Just ask United.
