There’s been a lot going on about reward systems. The VIGOR research group has already scientifically proven that different types of rewards produce different types of results: individual rewards require autonomous and even competitive behaviour to work, whereas collective rewards work when the participants can discuss and negotiate.

An article on FastCompany discusses the specific case of the Millenials, people who grew up knowing only a world that has mobile phones and Internet. It’s easy to see that our current traditional working model will give problems when the company is flooded with people who are used to setting up peer-to-peer relations and social networks. There will be a clash with the hierarchical nature of companies and the concept of yearly performance reviews. The new trend is to get instant feedback and recognition for what you do. The article mentions a service, work.com, that uses social technologies to provide continuous coaching and feedback. While it’s always nice to see initiatives in this area, nothing beats a bespoke approach tailored to a specific organisation.

The article makes me think that decentralised organisations and employee emancipation will be a given at a certain point in time. The next generation of our workforce won’t expect anything else. The time to prepare it is now.