Would a chocolate bar motivate you to…

It’s a great feeling in the office when you’re working hard in a team and you achieve a good result.

Whether it’s delivering on a project, winning a new client or deciding on the location of the Christmas party that will take place in six months time, achieving a good result can result in some great feelings.

As well as the intrinsic rewards (i.e. feel good factors!), there can also be extrinsic rewards such as bonuses when things go well.

Torbay Hospital in the UK recently won a prestigious award. The hospital was chosen as the “acute healthcare organisation of the year”.

20 of the hospital’s senior staff celebrated the achievement at the awards in London but there were in fact 4,000 staff who worked for the hospital. Management decided to reward these other people in a way that may certainly be memorable for them, but possibly in the wrong way!

Whilst the 20 senior staff enjoyed a great time at the awards in London, the rest of the team were all given a voucher.

Now let’s just think about this for a moment. The organisation you work for has just won a prestigious award. You’ve been working hard to contribute to this. You receive a voucher as a reward.

So what voucher would you have been happy with?

Well, the excitement was no doubt building for the 4,000 workers when they realised they were getting a voucher but alas for them when they saw the voucher it was for a chocolate Kit Kat bar.

Yes, after the hospital won the prestigious award the team members were given a voucher to buy a chocolate bar with a value of 60p.

Now, I’m never one to turn down a free chocolate bar but I’m not sure that a 60p Kit Kat bar is a suitably motivating reward.

Then again, if they offered two chocolate bars…