When bonuses backfire
Managing people can be frustrating. You just want them to turn up and do a good job. While it sounds simple, getting employees to turn up can be surprisingly difficult, and unplanned absences can negatively impact your customers, your team’s morale and your stress levels. So, will a bonus for attendance encourage employees to turn up?
That’s what researchers were interested in testing.
Working with a large German supermarket retailer, 346 junior staff...
Should you pay people to change behaviour?
Paying people to change behaviour doesn’t always work.
When trying to ban single use plastic bags from supermarkets, for example, a popular suggestion is to reward people for using reusable bags.
A less popular suggestion is to penalise those who don’t.
Well, here’s what behavioural research tells us.
In a study across 16,000 US shoppers, when people were paid a 5c BONUS for reusable bags, it did NOTHING to change behaviour.
When shoppers were hit with a 5c PENALTY,...
