A University of Toronto PhD student has co-authored a study which argues that it's possible to pay employees to be innovative. According to the report, it all comes down to encouraging collaboration.
Bruce Curran, who along with the University of Saskatchewan's Scott Walsworth analyzed seven years of corporate survey data from some 3,000 Canadian workplaces, found that individual salaries and bonuses did little to spark creative performance. Instead, group or team bonuses, profit-sharing plans, and indirect pay were the most effective proverbial carrots employers could dangle in hopes of getting forward-thinking work done.
“Innovation is in many respects collaborative, and these incentives are encouraging collaboration,” Curran explained to the
Wall Street Journal last week.
Curran also pointed out that rewarding teams could prompt workers to take more short-term risks, knowing their own pay or job security wasn't at stake. “If you go down a blind alley, you aren’t going to be punished for that,” Curran said.
Employers would be wise to take note.
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Source: Wall Street Journal