An effective rewards program benefits both recipients and the sponsoring organization. When participants get recognized for targeted behavioral outcomes, they have an increase in interest, satisfaction, and involvement in organizational activities. As a result, the organization experiences greater outcomes, efficiency, and an increase in revenue and productivity. 

According to one popular theory of human motivation, actions often are inspired by a desire to gain outside reinforcement. In other words, human beings are programmed to perform when they know they will be rewarded or recognized for their actions. This motivation theory suggests an eagerness for the addition of a reward and that it may not only be wanted but needed to motivate behavior.

Rewards have a range of uses. They can be good for recognizing people who have stopped performing specific actions, as can be seen in health programs that reward activities like smoking cessation. More importantly, rewards are used to reinforce desirable behaviors, such as increases in sales, engaging in healthy living, performance improvements, and more. 

The more importance an individual put on the reward offered, the more influential it becomes in changing their behavior. An extensive offering of rewards increases your chances of building better behavioral outcomes for audiences that matter most. 

When looking at reward options, it is crucial to keep in mind that rewards must be obtainable to be motivating. For example – a participant in a channel sales program will not be motivated to reach their sales goals if the sales claiming and validation process is over-complicated and not realistically achievable. Additionally, if only your top performers are being rewarded, there is no motivation for lower-performing or mid-level performing participants to improve. A tiered rewards system can be used to ensure that there is motivation for everyone to strive to be better and to be recognized for improvement. 

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