From recent research show that good rewards improve employee productivity and performance. We use dog cookies for a reason when we want to teach a dog different behavior. It's exactly the same with humans. When we get a reward, certain parts of our brains are activated and that makes us feel good. But what is actually activated in our brains? And how can we best reward our employees? We talked to Chantalle Weemaes of TopState.
What happens to you when you are rewarded?
"When you reward someone, you're basically saying, 'you did that right,'" Chantalle begins. "Our brain likes that and starts producing chemicals, including dopamine and oxytocin. Oxytocin is the cuddle hormone that makes us tend to connect with others. An essential hormone if you want to function within a top team, for example. Dopamine makes you feel so good that you want more of it. By getting a reward, your brain produces dopamine, which makes you want to engage in more behaviors for which you are rewarded." Chantalle compares this to computer games. "In many computer games, you get huge rewards. Kids (and adults) are immediately bouncing for the next reward in that game. But actually they just sit and wait for their dopamine shot. That feels so nice! When a person doesn't have that, they miss that. And that's what makes it so addictive. Computer games activate so many physical chemicals that you want to keep playing it. No, not because you like it so much, but because your body craves that chemical." The same is true in the workplace. When you reward people, their brains produce those chemicals that make you feel like a hero . Because you want more of those chemicals, you're going to try even harder and ultimately perform better.
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Why is rewarding so important?
"As our brains produce dopamine and oxytocin, we connect with others or start communicating with each other in a certain way," Chantalle says. "Those chemicals drive our feelings that cause us to exhibit certain behaviors. When avid gamers are deficient in those substances, they will also exhibit different behaviors. For example, they become more antisocial and only want one thing: gaming!" The same is true at work. "If you are judged well or receive a reward for your performance, then you will produce those substances."
Chantalle named a great example: "Two weeks ago I gave a presentation, and afterwards I received feedback from the attendees. All reactions were very good, except one. All I got were eights, nines and tens, including one three. You immediately feel that when you get a three, your body produces other substances. That three is biochemically much more decisive for your survival system than all those nines and tens. Although your brain is always looking for points on which you can develop yourself, it is very important that this is named in a positive way so that those fine chemicals are produced."
"To reward well, it is important not to have egomania on the team. An egomania is all about yourself; on a top team, yourself is third. Having the team and having the team facilitated are first and second. It would be a nice experiment to give employees income only when a colleague performs well. When you experience the work together so intensely, it really boosts trust. Because then it's not about yourself, but about the team. So teams often say they trust each other through and through. Until stress comes into play, for example because of a deadline. Then egomania sets in and people choose for themselves anyway. And that makes perfect sense, because that's just how our brain works. If you control your brain in such a way that you yourself are in third place and you help each other to complete the task as well as possible, then there is enormous scope for feedback and assessment."
What is the best way to reward?
According to Chantalle, human reward is many times more important than monetary reward. On money, your oxytocins do much less well than when you say from person to person that you are happy with the other person. "When you show genuine interest in the other person and in his/her work, it creates connection through the oxytocin. Because we want to belong, our brain is much more sensitive to human connections than to money. However, many people still find it difficult to put their ego aside and tell another person that they have done something right. You see this especially in hierarchical organizations. People tend to say, "you did that well because of me. We find it very difficult to say that others are better at something than ourselves. When something goes wrong, we tend to look for excuses outside ourselves. That flatters our ego, but it does erode trust in this way, causing you to connect less."
Your colleagues are very important to your success
"The trick is to know what game you are playing. Once everyone on the team can play their own game in their brain, you can play the big game together. For example, the other day I had a picture with my best friend back in the day at a playback show, in a presentation. Because we were best friends, we were very much facilitating each other. We had practiced incredible steps and we were constantly telling each other what the other could do even better. You are so dependent on each other if you want to work well together that it is better to make sure that the other person can also perform optimally instead of only being concerned with yourself. We sometimes forget to pay attention to the other person and reward them for good behavior. However, that is where the best connections and successes are. The other person is very important for your success."