At a recent Spa industry trade show, an exhibitor’s employee offered a gift to people who would let her scan their official show badge. There was an obvious goal; she needed to acquire a specific number of scans by the show's end. This employee smiled warmly as she scanned prospects, exhibitors, janitors, basically anyone breathing with a pulse and a badge.

As we watched her over the course of days, the quality of her scans continued to plummet. We estimated that her total number of scans was triple the actual number of show attendees. The net result, an abysmal contact list all thanks to the exhibitor's misplaced incentives. The goal that enticed this employee to obtain a specific number of scanned contacts ultimately overwhelmed quality and strangled value from the result.

Incentives can be an effective motivating tool for employees to increase sales, improve service and increase efficiencies. It is very important to design incentives that motivate employees toward a specific, well thought out result that provides value to an organization.

What is missing?

When your spa creates incentives for employees it is very important to give context or meaning. Explain the specifics of the incentive, clarify its value to the organization and describe all applicable processes. The information you provide will influence how employees behave toward meeting the goal and achieving their incentives. Context and meaning will give employees the ability to assess value and also minimize tangential behavior and idiosyncratic interpretation.

The exhibitor story perfectly highlights the execution of a plan that is based on misplaced incentives. This employee’s behavior made no sense but it was clearly based on an underlying incentive that steered her behavior in the wrong direction. When you are developing your employee compensation program, think carefully and clearly about incentives that will ultimately result in value to your staff and organization.