Non Monetary Incentives In The Workplace

Do Not Show Me the Money: The Growing Popularity of Non Monetary Incentives in the Workplace

With the growing decline of economy, more employers are using non-monetary incentives to motivate employees, yielding positive results. While everyone needs money for the expenses of everyday life, most current and long-standing employees rarely view cash as good motivation. If an employer pays fairly, employees desire appreciation and other non monetary rewards in exchange for a job well done. This trend is becoming more popular as businesses explore ways to motivate employees without breaking the budget. The benefits are far greater for business to offer what employees desire: opportunity to grow, flexible hours, recognition, opportunity to contribute, and autonomy, than to compensate employees with cash. This paper will discuss the advantages of using non-monetary incentives in the workplace.

Monetary Rewards

Although everyone needs money to obtain the smallest of essentials to live, employees prefer the benefits of non monetary gifts and incentives for motivation in the workplace. When employees receive money as a reward, the money is generally spent on bills and other expenses or purchases that the employee needs. The reward is considered an impersonal gift, as it will not be spent on something that the employee will enjoy. Monetary incentives also discourage creativity in the workplace. Employees concentrate on compliance rather than risk taking. More employees may be motivated to do things just to get the money, instead of doing things “because it is the right thing to do. This may destroy relationships between associates because they are transformed from coworkers into competitors”, (Ballentine, 2007, ¶ 8 ).

Monetary incentives may also be a compensation for poor management in the workplace. For example, an employer offering a monetary incentive to increase sales in that department may be to a cover for poor management in that department. The employees are called upon to pick up the slack so that the minimum sales quotas are met. This may cause employees to become insubordinate, because they are doing the jobs of upper management (Ballentine, 2007).

Non Monetary Rewards

Although businesses experience some of the same hardships with non monetary incentives, the extremes are far less. Therefore, the advantages are far greater in using non monetary gifts in the workplace. Non monetary gifts tend to promote creativity among associates in the workplace. If employees know that the reward they receive has no monetary value, they will work harder to go above and beyond, rather than just comply with the guidelines that are given, to complete the task.