How Compensation Has Motivated My Behavior

While I would argue that my behavior is not solely motivated by compensation, it certainly does play a role. In my most recent role, I worked as a host in a restaurant. Many of my coworkers and I modified our behavior when we were interacting with customers, as part of our income was tied to the level of service that we provided. The servers at my workplace especially went above and beyond in their roles because the majority of their income came from gratuity that would be determined by customers. When the restaurant was slow during off-peak hours, the team on shift usually decreased their work effort and engaged in unproductive behaviors such as chatting with one another, playing games on the POS, or watching sports on the TVs.

Gratuity could be classified as incentive pay, as it is a form of pay that fluctuates based on performance, it is not part of an individual’s base pay, and it motivates employee productivity (Swift). Servers know that if they provide excellent service to customers, they are more likely to receive greater gratuity. The increase in compensation from gratuity likely motivated more productive behaviors because it provided us with greater spending power, which would provide us with greater means to support our needs and wants. We expected to be tipped better if we provided better service, which was a motivator to engage in productive behaviors. Further, if there were no customers in the restaurant, we knew that our unproductive behaviors would not decrease our base pay, nor would they impact our level of incentive pay.

References

Swift, M. (2022). Overview of Incentives. Canvas Week 8 Module. W8 Lecture 4 – Overview of Incentives.pptx