If you're an employer looking to improve your team's performance, it might be a better idea to offer "streak incentives" rather than single payouts as a reward, according to a new University of Alberta study.
In businesses that offer bonuses or additional compensation beyond base pay for productivity, employees will complete more work when given "streak rewards" (that incentivize consecutive completion of tasks) than when given the same amount for each work task, even if it means marginally less pay in the long run, says marketing professor Katie Mehr, assistant professor in the Alberta School of Business and co-author of a study published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
"There seems to be something about achieving things consecutively that makes people want to keep going," says Mehr, who studies motivation and prosocial behaviour.
