How can incentive increase the motivation of individual employees and improve productivity?

Reward programs motivate ordinary people to consistently work harder and towards specified business objectives in order to earn incentives. Incentive programs will generally focus on several areas of improvement and take place on an ongoing basis. The target audience will generally participate in the incentive program as opposed to just being a recipient. Well designed and properly implemented incentive programs can help to increase workforce motivation and morale, increase worker productivity and reduce employee absenteeism, among many others. A client of mine in the mining industry established a safety incentive program two years ago in an effort to lower its costs attributed to on-the-job accidents. They found that each accident cost around $50,000 due to lost time. The incentive program included safety posters that gave pointers on safe work behavior and were posted in employee locker rooms and break rooms. In addition, employees were sent email notifications when they earned points so that they could track their results online. As a result of the program over two years, lost time accidents were reduced by 47% over the previous years. The estimated cost reduction was $5 million for lost time accidents alone. Overall, the company saw a dramatic increase in motivation and a favorable increase in productivity and profitability. To read more in my related blog post "The Importance and Impact of Rewards Programs" please visit http://www.awardsnetwork.com/blog/2007/12/a-new-years-resolution-you-can.html.