IRF Study: Motivational Triggers for Different Generations

Keeping employees happy, productive and loyal is essential to the long-term health of any company. But generational differences in the work force tend to complicate matters when it comes to essential elements of employee engagement such as rewards and recognition — or at least that is what we have been led to believe.

To determine whether baby boomers, Gen-Xers and millennials have different motivational triggers, the Incentive Research Foundation (IRF) recently conducted an extensive review of more than three decades of relevant research in this area, citing 72 unique sources, including books, white papers and articles. In addition, approximately 10 hours of interviews with 11 generational and rewards and recognition experts were conducted, along with a spot survey of meeting planners.

What the IRF found is that while understanding the general characteristics of these distinct demographic groups is useful and desirable, those characteristics are not definitive when it comes to designing and implementing rewards and recognition programs.

“Knowing how the work force breaks down by generations, combined with a good knowledge of the general differences between the generations, can make program designers more effective in creating incentive programs and in engaging employees and customers on a day-to-day basis,” said IRF President Melissa Van Dyke. “However, to make programs truly responsive, managers need to combine this information with what they know about the life stage of their employees.”

Here are some key highlights from the study:

• Program designers should seek an understanding of how each and every individual employee or consumer is engaged and motivated. Where individual preferences and motivators can be learned; there’s no need to be concerned with factors related to age, generation or life-stage.
• There is no consensus definition or description of the three main generations working in the marketplace today — at least not one that more than a handful of experts would agree on.
• Rewards and incentives designed for demographic categories represent educated guesswork that pales in comparison to analysis of the ambient data that can target consumers and employees by their actual behaviors.
• The time frame within which a person is born and their stage of life influence their motivations at work and their desire for certain goods and services (or rewards).
• With meetings and incentives, the choice of location, the number and duration of business meetings, the dates for an event, the rules around inviting guests and/or children, etc. can’t be mass personalized to the extent that many other rewards and incentives programs can.
• The best way to approach incentive, reward and recognition program design may be to adopt a multidimensional view — a set of lenses that considers both generational and life-stage preferences – before a program is finalized and communicated.

The study also contains specific information, ideas and checklists on designing group travel, offsite meetings and incentive programs to appeal to the various demographic groups that comprise today’s work force.

To read the full report, visit http://theirf.org/research/generations-in-the-workforce-marketplacepreferences-in-rewards-recognition-incentives/1427/.