Incentive - March 2008 - (Page 47)

MY TURN Motivating or Bribing? BY BRUCE TEPPER CITE, CTC PROFILE BRUCE TEPPER, CITE, CTC is an industry consultant, facilitator and speaker in the meeting and incentive industry, and the author of The Complete Guide to Selling Meetings, Incentives & Corporate Events, available at www.joselyntepper.com he incentive industry (merchandise, travel, cards, certificates, etc.) has amassed considerable data demonstrating how effective noncash incentive programs are: how they motivate performance and do so at a lower cost than cash, how they recognize achievement and unlike most marketing tools, can be structured to almost always produce a positive ROI. And yet the latest data from the Incentive Federation (released in November of last year and based on research for 2006) shows only 34 percent of American businesses are using noncash incentives. T to sell one product over another? Is it ethical for a carpet maker to encourage dealers to push its brand over the competitor’s in exchange for gifts from a catalog? When I was selling incentive programs, I approached a well-known bicycle manufacturer with the suggestion of meeting with me to see if we could help the company via a customized incentive program with noncash awards—hardly a novel idea to anyone under the age of 90. His response was along the lines of, “Let me get this straight—you’re suggesting I bribe the dealers to promote our product? Is that legal? It sounds highly unethical.” (Incidentally, this was long before Eliot Spitzer.) “Is it right for an insurance company to use a terrific group trip to entice agents to sell one product over another?” Obviously some people aren’t sold on the concept and believe cash is still the best choice, while others may still believe the “stick” works better than the “carrot”—you know, the ones who say, “Our incentive program is that you get to keep your job.” However, in this age of skepticism about business ethics and integrity, perhaps an old idea that we thought was gone is still very much alive. Perhaps some of that 66 percent that don’t use noncash incentive awards avoid them because they see incentive programs in general as a form of bribery. Is it right for an insurance company to use a terrific group trip to “entice” agents Granted, his comments were also an unusual exception to the typical objections we hear, but I always wondered if others felt the same way and just didn’t want to tell me the real reason as to why they didn’t want to use noncash incentives. Sometimes there’s a fine line between motivation and questionable behavior. Two incidents from the ’90s come to mind. One involved a major automotive repair franchise that rewarded service writers for the total dollars of work generated when they inspected cars that had come in for routine maintenance. Evidently pressure was put on the service writers to find something wrong. The second involved a program for one of the regional phone companies that offered incentives for cross-selling services to new customers. Customer service representatives were “encouraged” to sell every option they had, often to customers with a limited knowledge of English who might not know what they’re getting. Both incidents led to legal actions and fines. In my opinion, the overwhelming majority of businesses are professional and ethical, and the incentive industry is no exception. Incentive programs reward people for behavior but don’t ask anyone to do anything unethical or questionable. However, legislators seem to want to get in on the act more than ever before because of a few. I find many of them hypocritical for opposing the concept of incentive awards while happily accepting frequent flier points from their airline of choice. So what do you think? Does our industry have an image problem? Is the perception that we’re doing something unethical or illegal affect potential customers? We’d like to hear your thoughts on the subject, so let us know. Give your opinion at : www.incentivemag.com/Tepper s incentivemag.com | March 2008 | Incentive | 47 http://www.joselyntepper.com http://www.incentivemag.com/Tepper http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - March 2008

Incentive - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note: Delivering on Diversity In The News Cover Story: Leveraging Diversity in the Workplace Incentive Interview: Paul Levesque on Why Awards Fail Case Study: AEIS’ Max!-imum Incentive Program Mine Employees’ Creativity with Innovation Incentives Incentive Must-Reads The Third Annual Gift Card Roundtable My Turn: Motivation or Bribery? Everybody Get Together In Her Shoes: Why Bosses Should Be Flexible Incentive Primer: Passport Problem-Solving potentials Here and Now Is CES Electronics Heaven? China and Crystal: More Than a Pretty Face Travel News Florida: What’s New on the Beach? Smooth Sailing for Incentive Cruising Come To Hawaii And Take It Fast Last Word: But Enough About You

Incentive - March 2008

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