Live data from Hacker News

Peer recognition works better than bonuses

lancengym.medium.com

11–20 of 49 posts

Re: Peer recognition works better than bonuses

#12
Peer recognition is more effective than bonuses for running a company. The problem companies have with knowledge workers is how to organise them. That requires a certain culture and social environment, and I assume the great cultures have clear internal lines of communication to work out which peers are the exemplars of the sort of work that happens. And workers like working for successful companies.

But that is all secondary to what gets employees in the door each day. The technical term for the thing that does that is "compensation".

Re: Peer recognition works better than bonuses

#14
post #5

Pay is actually the most honest recognition and motivator.

I'd say continuous pay. If it's your job and you're good enough to keep it, your continuous pay check is just the agreed upon exchange for doing said work. If you're not good enough, then that pay stops (or you're promoted to management). If you do something above and beyond expected for job, then bonuses are what is used to reward. Sure, some peer recognition or other non-monetary award might be appropriate for certain things, but if it is something that allows new income to company, saves company significant time/money, etc, then cash is king!

Re: Peer recognition works better than bonuses

#17
My question would be what percentage of people does this type of motivation apply to? Most people don't edit Wikipedia or write for Quora. And on Quora, plenty that do have ulterior motives like selling a product or quietly embedding referral links or building a "personal brand."

Re: Peer recognition works better than bonuses

#18
post #8

Sure, it works once or maybe even a few times. But peer recognition plus underwhelming monetary rewards will quickly make a person feel underpaid and unappreciated. So then they start polishing up their resume, which they need to do anyway, to put in all those awards they’ve been getting…

The point of compensation isn't motivation, it's retention. People seem to misunderstand that.

Re: Peer recognition works better than bonuses

#19
post #8

Sure, it works once or maybe even a few times. But peer recognition plus underwhelming monetary rewards will quickly make a person feel underpaid and unappreciated. So then they start polishing up their resume, which they need to do anyway, to put in all those awards they’ve been getting…

The point of compensation isn't motivation, it's retention. People seem to misunderstand that.

Some companies have optional on-call and attach danger-money to it, so that’s an example of comp being used to motivate, not retain.

Surely it’s motivation if the comp is offered in exchange for the completion of some defined future work or attaining a goal? E.g. “I’ll grant you a $20k bonus if you get this project done by Monday”-kinda thing… though arguably this specific case is an example of bad management…

Post reply on HN