5 Reasons Why Employee Incentives Are Going Digital

5 Reasons employee incentivization is moving to the digital world and outside the company.

1. Working from home is here to stay

Are you excited for your employees to get straight back to the office? Let's face it,

working from home is here to stay. An overwhelming majority of workers highly value the ability to have a flexible work schedule, which includes working from home. If you are in the business of rewarding your employees, that means a few things. First, you will need to find new ways to measure success that don't involve noting all the license plates in the parking lot at eight on a Friday. Second, you will have to find ways to maintain engagement beyond the office floor, which ultimately means finding digital means to dole out rewards to your favorite employees.

2. Good behavior can be instantly rewarded

Few people still fancy picking up a gift card from HR or getting their bags encumbered with a ledger full of punitively specific vouchers. Rewards plans have started moving to more convenient mediums such as cards. Eventually, all rewards will be easily accessible through your smartphone. This will have two effects. Rewards will need to be increasingly more instantaneous and accessible anytime and anywhere. Additionally, as seen in large corporations, reward and recognition will be open to everyone, not just employees.

3. The rewards can only get better

Rewards are only as good as the value given to them by the person who receives them. That's why it is more important than ever for companies, governments, or anyone seeking to reward good behavior for understanding what drives their people and what doesn't. Whereas old models of reward and recognition were focused on a one-size-fits-all solution, the future of incentivization lies in using analytics and monitoring to effectively hone in on what makes people tick. By moving to digital solutions and allowing this analysis to happen, the quality of rewards is bound to improve.

4. The focus is moving from the company to the individual

It is fair to say that our collective perception of what defines "good behaviour" has tremendously shifted over the last decades. How you consumed energy, what you ate, and where you spent your money was largely up to personal discretion. That is not so much the case anymore. As people grow more conscious of the effects of events and actions on the world around them, the list of things that fall under the heading of good behavior is bound to increase and, if anything, be subject to much more scrutiny than ever. In light of this, the traditional structure of the employee reward system thought up by companies decades ago is proving to be untenably obsolete. Good behavior does not resume itself to hit your sales targets or exceed your employer's expectations anymore (and if it does, you may want to change jobs). Good behavior now also takes place outside the company walls. As a result, reward systems need to move their scope from the company to the individual. This is exciting news for change-makers worldwide because it means that individuals can be rewarded for the entirety of their positive behaviors, not just the ones at work.

5. Anyone can (and should) be rewarded for their good behavior

Everyone loves rewards, and there is no reason why everyone shouldn't be entitled to them. There are compelling reasons why rewarding people, not just employees, for good behavior is the future of incentivization. Research has shown, time and again, that people in all settings perform better when they are rewarded for their good behaviors than punished for their bad ones. What's more, using the right set of rewards to incentivize some actions has been proven to change behavior. Imagine if that logic motivated people to adopt behaviors that benefit the planet (check out our work with The Click to see how we made that a reality.) In truth, rewarding individuals for picking up litter in the streets is just the beginning, and with the right rewards, the possibilities are endless. The only challenge is getting them into the hands of people who want them. Brace for impact; digitalization is only getting started.