‘Incentives’ Articles

Newer Entries »

Bonuses don’t work? It’s Elementary, Dear Watson

June 2nd, 2009

1 Comment »

I read an article from the New Zealand Herald by Simon Caulkin (3.16.09) that caused me to alternate between depression and excitement. The title of the article is: Bonuses boost performance? Sorry, but it’s the very opposite.

My depression comes form the fact that it is just more evidence that people like Mr. Caulkin don’t have even an elementary understanding of behavior — how to get behavior and how to sustain it. The excitement is that because our business is about helping business people understand and apply the science of behavior to change the way the world works. His article tells me that there is a lot of business yet to be done. (more…)

Behavior 101, Incentives, Positive Reinforcement

AIG Is At It Again

May 13th, 2009

No Comments »

AIG is in the news again. They are being beat over the head because someone has found that they have 374 bonus plans. While most people are upset seeing the word attached to AIG in any way, the fact that they have 374 bonus plans is not surprising in a company of around 100,000 employees. I would suggest that they should have more!

The issue is not the number of plans but the quality of the plans. In a bad economy, bonuses can be used very effectively to increase business. The problem I had with AIG bonuses when they were first discovered (See my blog – AIG Gives Bonuses a Bad Name) was that they were obviously not tied to the right business behaviors or results. When done right, bonuses are a very effective way of driving outstanding business success; when done incorrectly, as they usually are, they can be devastating.

Incentives, Uncategorized

Need we say more about the impact of bonuses…

May 6th, 2009

No Comments »

Is it possible to have 374 different bonus and compensation plans?!  This recent article from Politico uncovers the half-truths and realities of how AIG compensated its employees (AIG Bonuses Four Times Higher),  like I said before in my original post  AIG Gives Bonuses A Bad Name, (March 13, 2009).

Incentives, Uncategorized

Thinking About Cutting Bonuses?

May 5th, 2009

1 Comment »

I wrote earlier on this blog about the fact that AIG gave the word “bonus” a bad name but the issue of bonuses keeps popping up. I have read lately in several business articles that some businesses are cutting or eliminating bonuses as a way to reduce expenses in a troubled economy. The answer to the question, “Can they cut my bonus?” is, “Yes, they can!” However, my question is, “Why would they want to?” (more…)

Incentives

When Will They Ever Learn?

April 27th, 2009

No Comments »

I was recently reading a paper on “grade inflation” published by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.  It states that “In the face of acknowledged grade inflation, the Princeton University faculty limited the percentage of A’s a department could give: no more than 35% of students in any class can receive an A.” 

This kind of stuff drives me crazy!  Why is it that the symbol of academic excellence is in short supply in high schools and universities?  (more…)

Behavior 101, Incentives

AIG gives Bonuses a bad name

March 17th, 2009

4 Comments »

Everybody is talking about AIG again. The conversation is about how they continue to throw tax-payer money away. Over the weekend new details of AIG’s bonus plans were made public. In a nutshell the company plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year. The most frequent word used in the media to describe the feelings of the average American is outrage. (more…)

Incentives

Monetary Incentives

March 12th, 2009

5 Comments »

Ask Aubrey:

Hi Aubrey !!

My name is Scott, I am a human performance technologist. My question is:

Bill Abernathy in his book Managing Without Supervising suggested that R+ systems without monetary incentives are less likely to be maintained by the clients.

Once you have trained managers in R+ and helped them with their feedback system, how often did a non-monetary R+ program fade after a period of time, and what did you learn to do to help sustain it on a global or structural level? (more…)

Ask Aubrey, Incentives

Newer Entries »