Incentive pay for error-free work

durasupreme

A manager would like to dangle a financial incentive "carrot" in front of two employees if they perform error-free work for the next few months. The work they perform affects the factory production if there are errors in writing the orders to the floor, and he would like them to concentrate on providing "error-free" work. My concern is that he is setting a precedence affecting only two individuals, that there are many other positions where the same critical factors apply if errors make it to the factory floor, and if an incentive for error-free work is considered for two employees, it should be offered to all. I also explained that error-free work should be a standard expectation of all employees, and not have to be rewarded. I see his idea as creating more problems than it would help, and discriminatory. Has anyone faced a similar situation? How have you addressed it? How was the criteria for rewarding only a few employees established? Any input would be appreciated!

Don D

I agree with you that it will cause nothing but desention. It's not likely to be discriminatory UNLESS the two being rewarded are of a particular race or sex and everybody else is of the opposite. The main problem I foresee is that to those who are not participants in the 'carrot program', their perception of this will be that "What I do around here is not as important as what those two do. (and) Apparently, there's not much consequence of error in my job, or so the company thinks, so, what the hell, why try to do good work?" Now if your manager wants to reward their good work by splitting his annual bonus with these two, that's another matter, isn't it?x:-)