It Can’t Be That Hard

Recently, I sat down with a friend that wanted to know more about what I did for a living.  He knew that I was in the incentive or performance improvement business and his first question to me was “Why would a company hire you?”  “I mean, it can’t be that hard.”  He’s right.  On the surface, it seems pretty simple to design a program, tell everyone about it, and then give them some prizes when they achieve the results.  Sounds simple, so why DO companies hire me to do what they could do themselves?  Well it’s not rocket science but there is some science to it.  There is also some art.  If you just wanted to give some people some prizes, then yes, you can do-it-yourself.  But don’t be surprised if you spend the money and don’t get results.

If you are able to identify the objectives you want to accomplish; create the rules that would achieve those objectives; target the people that have the power to achieve those objectives within those rules; engage them or grab their interest long enough to get them interested; motivate them to change their current behavior; keep them engaged over a long period until the objective is achieved; reward them when the achieve the objective and then challenge them to continue to improve their performance; identify which award is best suited to motivate them; capture all of the data associated with the program, the individual and the process; report back on all of the data and analyze what is working and what isn’t working and know what to change; and then, when all of that is done, determine if you got the return on your investment that you or your CFO was looking for.  If you can do all of that and know where the pitfalls are and what not to leave out of your program, then yes, you can probably do this on your own and it’s not that hard.

Most companies don’t do this for a living and outsourcing these tactical elements allows them to focus on results and collaborate on the strategy.  Like everything I outsource to someone, I could probably do it myself but I’ve learned that typically it will cost more and take twice as long if I do it myself.  Obviously the more risk there is in completing the task, the more likely I am to outsource it to someone that knows what they’re doing.  If there’s no downside to your program and you don’t mind spending the money and aren’t concerned about a return on the expenditure, then I would try it myself.  Otherwise, I’d get help.