I just discovered this brilliant whitepaper on employee wellness. It looks at a new worrying trend which has companies paying their employees to participate in wellness programmes.
This is of course an incredibly bad idea for many reasons, including these:
For a long time, rewards were the be-all and end-all of motivation. Everyone knew that the way to encourage people to achieve better results were to reward better results. Bonuses, incentive schemes and pay grades were created to implement this.
Then science starts interfering and pointing out that, actually, rewards only motivate … Continue Reading ›› 
When even a staunch defender of capitalism like Forbes Magazine says that "Money is not the best motivator" I consider the issue settled.
From the article:
There is ample evidence to suggest that money may not be the best way to motivate desirable behavior. In fact, … Continue Reading ››
Employees [of Californian home security company] Alarm One Inc. were paddled with rival companies' yard signs as part of a contest that pitted sales teams against each other, according to court documents. The winners poked fun at the losers, throwing pies at them, feeding … Continue Reading ››
Tom Johnson heard my podcast about motivation and wrote that:
This podcast from Alexander Kjerulf, called “Why ‘Motivation by Pizza’ Doesn’t Work,” gave me a major epiphany about the reasons behind motivation. We were on the verge of implementing a member recognition/rewards program in our chapter when Clyde Parson … Continue Reading ››
My store manager implemented an embarrassing (and happily short-lived) safety incentive: Employees caught violating safety procedure were immediately given a two-foot rubber chicken on a string to wear around their necks--in front of customers. To get rid of the chicken, an employee needed to catch another employee behaving "unsafely." The practice quickly … Continue Reading ››