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Ask HN: Are you motivated by company-wide achievement awards?

by melonkidney on 1/8/19, 9:48 PM with 10 comments

• by kasey_junk on 1/8/19, 11:20 PM

  I think they are particularly pernicious because they almost always go to people either based on popularity or based on being attached to some splashy new thing.

  This often means that line operators or customer service folk have no chance of winning even though they can be central to the success.

• by mrdependable on 1/9/19, 12:04 AM

  I always feel like management gets stuff like this from a list called "How to get more out of your employees without spending a dime". It reminds me of being in grade school where they only have so many options for trying to motivate students.

• by mtmail on 1/8/19, 10:10 PM

  A company I worked had such a scheme. It works the first couple of quarter, then it got weird because senior management tried to find a balance between all departments, all countries and they ran out of candidates. I think it was 5 winners per quarter. They didn't want to reward a person twice. In my opinion over time they just lowered the standard. There've been employees who would've deserved winning every year based on their impact.

  It didn't motivate me in particular. Got a nice 3 day holiday (flight+hotel), which was much better than what another person in my office got: an ugly ebike in company colors which failed to run.

• by arandr0x on 1/9/19, 7:01 PM

  They have one, it didn't motivate me before I won it (I didn't think I had a chance to) nor after (it turns out the pleasure from winning such prize is less than the pleasure from somebody being spared mental suffering because I helped with their workload).

  Honestly those things are different person to person. A lot of people are better motivated by cash prizes, whether or not they're public and known in advance. For some people motivation is feeling like they have the ability to do something, so they're more motivated by being sent to trainings or given more authority or a junior person to train. And some people are like me, and just want to hear thank you.

  Anyway, managers don't have the right sense of that stuff. If you feel you must reward your employees into doing more stuff for you, then go all the way and implement operant conditioning. If you want your employees to have a well-deserved vacation at the end of a big project that made you $5M and them $0, make it for everyone. And if you just want people to feel recognized, leave them enough time at work or outside it to form real-life relationships with individual humans who will. You can't scale gratitude.

• by nf05papsjfVbc on 1/9/19, 8:17 AM

  - I've never been motivated by external acknowledgement of anything I've done.

  - I don't like getting attention.

  - I'd gladly accept a non-trivial cash bonus instead of a trophy.

  The company for whom I work does not officially have any such trophies but some managers-of-managers in some departments tend to publicly acknowledge some achievements now and then. This is not structured and not regular. However, I know many people who _are_ motivated by praise and kudos. I suppose a good manager will try to ensure everyone in his/her team will feel appreciated in a way that works for that person.

• by rajacombinator on 1/9/19, 12:07 AM

  I’m motivated by cash money. But having worked exclusively at employers who did not recognize employee performance at all, I’d be interested in seeing how something like this worked. Even if I didn’t get the award I think it would be interesting to know who my employer considers to be top performers and why. Of course the main risk is this becomes a piece of political fluffery. But even knowing who’s winning the politics game could be interesting. Could be a great way to foster leadership and learning opportunities.

• by phakding on 1/10/19, 4:37 PM

  These achievements are like pro-bowl selection in NFL. If you are on a losing team, it doesn't matter how hard you worked or what you achieved.