The Challenges in Running Business Contests for your Workforce
Challenges in Running Contests for your Workforce
Key Factors of Having Competition at Work
To identify and encourage the right kind of workplace competition, these are key factors you need to consider:
Contests Should Be Exciting- A recent Harvard Business Review study found that contests where people stood to win something brought about high levels of excitement. Healthy competition is essentially based on incentives, including bonuses. For instance, the top performer, like the man of the match in cricket gets a cash prize, a voucher, or a gift. This could inspire others with high potential to work harder and win this prize. It’s not as simple though. Contests work for some, but not for all.
Competition Doesn’t Work for Everyone- Only a certain section of the workforce shows keen interest in competition. A quarter of employees have known to wilt under the pressure of contests and disengage. Another quarter doesn’t show much interest in contests at all. This means that only 50% benefit from it. In this case, competition may not really be a positive motivator for every member of your team.
Healthy Competition Isn’t Always the Norm- Not all your employees thrive in a highly competitive environment. When job roles are competitive, employees who don’t work well under high-pressure contests should not be forced to remain in them. If your team isn’t keen on contests, you should not try to force them to compete.
Winning Contests Should Not be the Ultimate Objective- Winning and losing is part of sport and should be part of work life as well. Perpetually focusing on competition is unhealthy and has negative implications. Remember that competition and cash rewards aren’t always the biggest drivers for your employees. They start looking beyond these rewards for deeper motivators that make them feel like important contributors.
Benefits of Running Contests
Contests, when run well can motivate individuals to put in efforts well above those predicted by traditional decision-making. When contests provide additional non-monetary incentives such as public recognition for winning, they can motivate the achievers to gain greater visibility within their organization.
Setting up contests that reward high achievers can become the key to enhancing engagement and productivity at work. Creating a sense of healthy competition among employees is important and can lead to key benefits. However, contests also have their negatives.
Negative Effects of Contests
Most contests reward the high achievers, and these high achievers make up a mere 10% of the workforce. When 90% of the workforce isn’t recognized, it could cause them a great deal of fear and anxiety; fear that they’ll disappoint their boss, co-workers and other negative emotions. Take, for instance, a cricket team where only three out of the eleven players are recognized and held in great esteem. This could demotivate the other players, lead to friction within the team and eventually hamper the performance of the team.
Setting up contests that reward high achievers can become the key to enhancing engagement and productivity at work. Creating a sense of healthy competition among employees is important and can lead to key benefits. However, contests also have their negatives.
Focus on the Wrong Things
Contests can create an environment where employees begin to focus more on their competitors than on their own work. Much like a star batsman focused solely on improving his batting average over his closest competitor.
Your employees might also try to imitate their competitors and try to stay ahead of them, instead of focusing on bringing their best to the table.
Setting up contests that reward high achievers can become the key to enhancing engagement and productivity at work. Creating a sense of healthy competition among employees is important and can lead to key benefits. However, contests also have their negatives.
Work/life Imbalance
Contests can also create an unhealthy work/life balance. When employees feel extreme pressure to succeed, they might end up spending more time at the office, continue working at home when they’re with their family, or end up giving up their hobbies for work. This can take a toll on their physical and mental health.
What is the Solution?
Here are some tips on how you can turn the negatives of these contests into positives:
Make Contests Part of Your Culture- You should focus on contests that are integrated into the work culture. For instance, you’re captaining a team that wants to break the previous record of most consecutive wins.
Similarly, consider a situation where your entire sales team works together to beat the organization’s record for total qualified leads in a month, instead of competing against each other. Colleagues will start sharing sales tactics, collaborating on landing new clients and finding creative ways to engage as a united force. By the end of the month, the organization would not just have achieved the same records for qualified leads or exceeded them, but also work collectively, not as individuals.
Personalize Recognition- Contests are a shortcut for recognition. Instead of rewarding only the top achievers, you can try to get to know your team members individually, find out what motivates them and make the rewards more broad-based. This tactic has been used by some of the most successful sports captains and ensures better performances across the board, not just among the top performers.
Use Competitions Strategically- Using competitions strategically can benefit your organization in many wonderful ways. Instead of having employees compete against their peers, games and contests can encourage them to beat their own personal records. This will ensure that each employee will improve their performance, boost their self-esteem, and be recognized by their managers.
Keep Your Teams Living & Breathing Ambition
RyzeUp helps your organization bridge the gap between sales, planning, and execution. We make work fun using strategic weekly tournaments (like the IPL), having scoreboards, and giving out incentives, and rewards (monetary and non-monetary). RyzeUp uses the latest innovative avenues to improve individual performance, build team spirit and make work more fun. We use insights to bridge the visibility gap between planning and execution. RyzeUp designs contests in such a way that the star achievers, who form 10% of the team help the other 90% to improve their performances. We also monitor performances as the action happens and take corrective measures on the spot.