Ask the Professor Issue # 3

Incentive and Recognition Strategies Based on Facts and Research

Dr. Brooks Mitchell is a professor of management at The University of Wyoming and the Founder of Snowfly Incentives. He has written and published extensively in the field of human motivation in the workplace.

Question for the Professor: Dr. Mitchell, is their any evidence to support the idea that an employee performance reward program could have a positive effect on a company's earnings per share?

Dr. Mitchell's Response: Yes. The existence of an employee performance reward program implies employee involvement. Not only is it self evident that employee involvement will in turn lead to positive organizational results, this was empirically proven in a recent Gallup study...

“...organizations with more than four engaged employees for every one actively disengaged employee saw 2.6 times more growth in EPS than did organizations with a ratio of slightly less than one engaged worker for every one actively disengaged employee.” -Gallup Survey

My experience has led me to believe that employee engagement is both a noteworthy cause and byproduct of a successful organization. You won't find many highly profitable companies with low levels of employee engagement. Conversely, it would be even more difficult to find an actively engaged workforce at a very unsuccessful company. That being said, if a company can demonstrate that it has an active interest in creating and maintaining employee engagement (i.e. announcing that you have implemented an innovative employee rewards system such as Snowfly) its shareholders will benefit.