Bringing out your employees’ competitive spirit could have surprising results

Whenever I go and visit a new call centre, I am amazed at the original ideas that managers and team leaders have in terms of motivating their teams.

Staff at the USA call centre of Go Daddy in Arizona, have taken staff motivation to new levels.  They not only compete with each other but their industry rivals as well.

"We have monthly, weekly, daily and hourly competitions," explains Bob Parsons, chief executive and founder. "Hourly prizes might be $100 and weekly and monthly prizes include jet skis, cars, four years' college tuition or having your mortgage paid for a year." To qualify for the company's staff competitions, "you need to have a certain level of customer satisfaction or sales goal."

The CEO says he got the idea five years ago when he walked past the call centre and was alarmed to see his employees looking de-motivated. So he decided to spend "$1,000 to make this place fun". Sales shot up by $8,000 that day and he was convinced; the company now spends $1m a year on its competitions. "What we realise is that employees really work to live so we want to make it as enjoyable for them as possible." The prizes, he says, may be as strange as being put in a machine and having $50 bills blown at you, but the results are happier customers, happier staff and lower employee turnover.

What really impressed me in the UK context is that the public sector is looking at what works in the private sector and is starting to join in the fun. 

Tube Lines, the company that maintains and manages some London Underground lines, has developed an innovative competition. The "Change Challenge Cup" is a quarterly competition where shortlisted candidates pitch their ideas to a panel of judges along similar lines to the television business programme Dragons' Den. Winners of each quarterly competition receive £1,000 worth of vouchers, and at the end of the year they are entered into a further competition to win £2,000.

"We really wanted something that would capture people's imaginations," says Steve Hurrell, Tube Lines finance director, adding that the company is keen to develop a more dynamic and innovative culture as it moves away from its public-sector roots. The Challenge Cup not only creates a happy workplace and boosts productivity. One winner came up with a metal platform to allow Tube Lines workers to cross the tube tracks without scaffolding. The platforms have aroused interest from potential clients, meaning they could be a source of future revenue.

And why stop at just rewarding good ideas and performance?  Last year, the US state of Nevada's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation ran a wellness challenge where, among other goals, staff competed to see who could lose the most weight for cash prizes and trophies. Again, the purpose was to deliver positive benefits for the organisation in an enjoyable and fun manner. The competition attracted 228 entrants across 28 teams who, between them, lost 2,025lbs.

Recrion is a People Management Consultancy with tried and tested methods of retaining staff.  Katherine Wiid, the Director, commented "whilst competitions have shown significant results within certain contexts, they do not work in every environment. Some companies have tried to replicate these schemes in a professional environment but they have failed spectacularly. The trick is to understand enough about your people to know what will work and not work". 

Recrion has been working with professional firms to carry out innovative role modeling exercises consisting of behaivoural event interviews and videoing the top performers.  "At the end of the day, people are looking for recognition" Katherine said.

To find out more about employee motivation and engagement, contact Katherine on +44 1780 484910 or www.recrion.co.uk