Employee incentive programs are rewards programs in effect inside workplaces that are designed to inspire employees to exert more effort and to provide the assurance that exemplary performance in the workplace always is noticed and rewarded. The need to be motivated using positive reinforcement is one of the many reasons why incentive programs benefiting employees are created.

An incentive program gives employees something to look forward to after a week or a month worth of stress and hard work. However, the reward is only given to the best, and sometimes there can only be one winner. The most common criteria used to base employees during the competition period include their number of absences or tardiness, total volume of sales or if they consistently reach their quota, professionalism, office cleanliness and courtesy.

The reward may come in numerous forms. It usually depends on how generous the company will be and how much they would like to invest on such a tactic. Some companies handsomely reward their employees with cash, an all-expenses paid vacation trip or even a new car. Others with a tight budget to work around offer small gifts, such as meal stubs, mugs shirts and pens.

The group responsible for creating an effective incentive program is the Human Resource Department, along with operations and management personnel. They sort out the different possible schemes the company could use and choose the best option. To get more people involved, some managements allow their employees to speak out their minds and suggest how the incentive program should be handled. This also makes the workplace friendlier and less stressful because it opens a communication line between the bosses and the employees.

Money is one of the common forms of employee incentives, although non-monetary rewards and incentives given to an employee or to a group or team are also appreciated. These can be in the form of group activities such as dinners or even group billiards, poker or bowling night or activities that are sometimes an all-expense paid event courtesy of the company management.