People Analytics and Behavioral Science. The Tech Behind the Rallyware Incentive and Recognition Solution

The average workplace is no stranger to incentive and recognition programs. Few leadership teams have failed to see the obvious benefits that incentivizing their workforce can potentially have on driving desired behaviors. After all, the math seems quite straightforward; introduce an incentives structure that rewards results and you only have to pay more when you make more. On the face of it, this approach would appear to make business sense. In theory, it engages the workforce, increases productivity and protects ROI. It is a tried and tested incentive and recognition program that has been used for decades across different industries, with different types of workforces and in an attempt to achieve different end results. So, the question is – do business leaders apply the same one-size-fits-all approach to any other aspect of running their company? The answer, of course, is a resounding ‘No.’ It’s widely acknowledged that business success comes from the ability to apply an agile approach to each new challenge. Post-Covid, one of the biggest challenges facing the global marketplace is that of reinventing the delivery of incentive and recognition programs to distributed workforces.

Upskilling and reskilling the workforce by using people analytics and behavioral science to drive desired behaviors

One of the biggest failings in traditional incentive and recognition programs is that they reward results. But results are the end product of activity and working behavior. It’s not uncommon in many workplaces for the majority of the workforce to accept that each different incentive program has an obvious winner as the nature of it plays into a particular individual’s strengths. This does little to motivate the rest of the team, and nothing towards upskilling individuals to create a more rounded, multi-talented workforce. This is where the new Rallyware incentive and recognition program turns traditional methods on their heads. It links working behaviors to business KPIs and creates a personalized journey to success for each individual using the just-in-time-learning model.

The program uses people analytics to track working behaviors, daily activities and performance results, and to create personalized paths to success for each individual. There was a time when measuring anything other than end results was laborious and time-consuming. That time is now history. People analytics allows organizations to measure multiple performance metrics and deliver personalized task maps to help each individual progress towards their goal. This provides an opportunity to automatically identify the most successful or the most necessary activities and to focus incentives on the most effective behaviors. Encouraging each individual to do the right thing at the right moment will, in itself drive performance and achieve the desired results.

Create leaderboards on the fly

Incentive and recognition programs must include a method of displaying results to the workforce. This type of recognition engages the workforce and keeps the incentive programs relevant and at the forefront of every activity. The Rallyware Incentive and Recognition solution allows for any business metric to be made into a leaderboard with focus on specific goals. These leaderboards can be gamified to inspire the modern workforce to inspire and keep them at the highest levels of engagement. They can also be filtered to national, regional, or team level by leaders or individuals instantly to help keep people up to date on their standing compared to their peers and, thus, motivated. Real-time visibility allows anybody to see where they are individually or as a team and creates healthy competition while keeping the entire workforce focused on their role in working towards a common business goal.

Incentivize the whole workforce without going over budget

An incentive structure that only rewards or recognizes the top performers is prone to drop-off as those that are no longer in the running for the prize become demotivated. But an incentive and recognition program should not be viewed in isolation. It is not enough to simply engage sections of the workforce for the period of the program and then return to ‘normal duties’. As a leader, you want to see your workforce come away from an incentive program better educated. People analytics, behavioral science, and just-in-time-learning allow you to do this. Automatically personalized activities driven by live people analytics identify areas for improvement and drive changes in behavior which are intended to become embedded in the working day. But if you’re concerned that the chance for such increased levels of success has the potential to take you over budget, you need not worry. Each program can be incentivized differently to ensure it remains within budget while delivering the highest ROI, and if necessary, complex tie breakers can be created to prevent overspend.

Training and motivating the workforce is a challenge for all business leaders. Finding innovative ways of upskilling and reskilling the workforce to drive continual improvement has not always been easy. Modern technology has changed that. Nowadays the platform to create bespoke incentive and recognition programs means the only barrier to business leaders is creativity. The platform can be used to motivate the workforce towards already identified goals. But perhaps more importantly, it can be used for people analytics to identify the most effective activities and behaviors and then guide each individual towards adding those activities to their repertoire.

The average workforce hasn’t changed whether it’s a salesforce or a customer support team. Their motivations haven’t changed. However, the ability for business leaders to hone incentive and recognition programs to increase productivity in each individual, and subsequently the whole workforce, has changed.

To find out more about the new Rallyware Incentive and Recognition Program and to book your demo click here.