Employee motivation: Incentive tactics which take the biscuit

Date: 31/05/2012

The importance of employee motivation should not be underestimated as the recent case of a group of staff who feel underappreciated has shown.

After winning the acute healthcare organisation of the year award, 4,000 staff at Torbay Hospital were given a Kit Kat as a reward for their efforts, reports the BBC.

It is always good to acknowledge when staff have worked hard and done well, but it is important that the incentives and recognition offered are pitched at the right level.

Instead of acting as a well deserved treat, the biscuit belittled their achievements and the GMB union has accused the organisation of being cheap.

When put in context with the fact that 20 of the staff attended the awards ceremony complete with a luxury meal, those left behind with a biscuit were obviously annoyed.

The union received 30 complaints from staff at the hospital, but the chief executive of the hospital, Paula Vasco-Knight, said there was no budget to provide other incentives to staff.

She apologised that the gesture had been taken in the manner of being flippant, saying that she would think of another way to recognise staff.

Paul Raybould, from the GMB union, said: "It's a sign of management not thinking outside the box."

When companies and organisations win awards a sense of pride is shared with all the staff and the hospital may have found that it would be better to leave it at that.

By acknowledging the hard work undertaken, but without thinking about how this was done the management's only achievement was to strip the positivity out of winning.

Recognition and incentives should be well thought out and discussed between a number of people in order to make sure they are appropriate and will be received well.

Failure to do so can mean that employees and their employers can fall out over a biscuit.

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