Ed Robbins
Senior Vice President of Sales

Rob Danna
Vice President - Performance and Recognition Solutions

The TharpeRobbins Company, Inc.

www.tharperobbins.com

Ed Robbins is the Senior Vice President of Sales for the TharpeRobbins.  He most recently served as vice president of O.C. Tanner, where he created a new division focused on incentives and marketing services. As a Certified Incentive Planner, he has designed incentive and recognition programs for more than 200 Fortune 1000 organizations and has received several industry honors and awards including the President's Award from the Incentive Marketing Association (IMA).

Rob Danna is the new Vice President of Performance and Recognition Solutions for the TharpeRobbins Company. He has leveraged his 20-year background in technology and sales management to bring real-world performance improvement solutions to hundreds of large companies.

Recognition and rewards programs are used by employers to boost employee morale, improve productivity and increase the sense of community among employees, but traditional incentive programs have grown stale and are now being replaced by innovative incentives like peer-to-peer recognition, employee motivation programs and game-based enticements. Many are now high tech and work by providing instant gratification for achievable goals. Much of the driving force behind incentive programs stems from the psychology of motivation. People are motivated intrinsically by seeing results that arise as a direct result of their efforts, and extrinsically by receiving physical rewards for reaching goals. According to wikipedia.org, “A successful incentive program requires clearly defined rules, suitable rewards, efficient communication strategies, and measurable success metrics.” Traditional rewards include points, cash, stocks, merchandise, gift cards, travel, experiences, flexible hours, paid leave, recognition certificates and trophies. The economic downturn meant that employers had to get more creative to retain employees, but also had to make their incentive schemes good value for money. Where traditional programs were difficult to administer on a large scale and became ineffective over time, peer-to-peer and game-based programs are easier to implement and maintain. As Lisa Massiello noted on incentivemag.com, “These programs tend to be easily developed, inexpensive, and impact a multitude of team members.” Snow-fly game-based programs are popular because they reward employees with e-tokens that are then used to play quick online games that yield points. The points are transferred to VISA debit cards that give employees the freedom to choose their reward. There have been concerns that without management back-up, peer recognition may not be genuine or may encourage the celebration of mediocrity. Others who share these concerns say that these schemes are good so long as they don’t take the place of managing and advise employers to use peer-to-peer recognition as part of a holistic strategy. To turn this trend into a competitive advantage for your business, consider the following. Traditional methods of motivation are stalling out. Try more innovative motivation to drive peak performance. Instant gratification and authentic feedback are key to motivation. Motivation is not one size fits all for your people or your company. Lastly, package multiple motivation methods to keep incentives interesting.