It’s only effective if it is completely objective. You have to have something concrete to measure, such as sales. Contracts which never materialize or are never completed have to be subtracted out too, so best to give credit only when payment is received.. There are a lot of problems with this. This seems to be more effective than reduction in pay for failure to meet sales quotas though. If you plan on giving prizes for points, just know, most employees would rather have money.

I actually think it’s better to base a year-end raise on the performance for the current year.

How many employees do you have? How many employees are you talking about? And what exactly do you want to give them more of an “incentive” to do?

Ew.

I have never been motivated by ‘point systems’. At one of my previous jobs we had a coin system, if we were caught doing good, had gone above and beyond or had a good sales week, etc. we were given a coin. There were prizes but those in charge grew lazy and failed to keep up with the amount of coins being given away. The whole thing became an even larger joke than when it was originally implemented. Further attempts to restart the program were generally met with laughter. Keep your shit together, or crash and burn is the moral.

At my current job – a modified call center, I’m generally motivated as all hell – we play games. Modified to fit our work. So for sales we get an equal value of play money, we have Stanley Nickels, Michael Millions, Schrute Bucks, all standing for a certain amount and printed on regular computer paper using images found online – clearly, we all love The Office.

Every hour if we have had sales, we are allowed to play three hands of poker, blackjack, polish poker, or if we have a sale inside an hour block we can make a move in Candlyand, put our name in a hat for a raffle at the end of the week, OR if we have gained enough money as a team or solo we’re able to take a shot in Battleship, play a frame of bowling in the hallway or take a shot in the hallway at a mini golf game our boss bought at Target. Our games generally last Monday through Friday.

We compete constantly every hour, every day, whoever is in the lead on Thursdays or whatever team is can wear jeans the next day, whoever wins on Friday can get a prize, sometimes it’s a mystery in a box our boss has put together at Best Buy, Target, or Safeway. Funny things, silly things or gift cards. More often than not the prize is a $50 gift or gas card.

Things to keep in mind, how many employees you have, how your work can be quantified, the age group of those you employ, whether it’s a closed or public work place, and most importantly I think, whether or not you’re committed to the program and working out whatever kinks you need to work out.

It would be helpful to know more about your workplace and what you do.

You also might want to think about the concept of diminishing returns, implement things one at a time, don’t overload people or you won’t have focused employees and you’ll have nothing to throw at them when they need a boost after the excitement dies down and fails to yield results as it once did.

Just don’t make it childish. Let your employees feel like adults. At least no smiley faces or stars.

Haha, we have a weekly meeting where we earn gold stars on our numbers board. We all love it. Ages 20–40ish.
My office is kinda of freaking fun.

i would burn things. . .

How about if your employees do really well, they get a day off. It sounds horrible for business, but if you’re saying a day of free money is going to be their reward they’re more inclined to work their asses off than they’d ever be for any point system. Maybe points could represent payed time off and when an employee accumulates a day’s worth they can schedule in their free day?

The only real incentive I would have to work extra hard at the average pointless job, is to not have to work so much later.

Depends on what your employees are doing.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

We are a media art production company with about 25 employees

So, you’re creative people using your brains every day, Right? Studies show that allowing people in these environments to work on pet projects one day a month creates a place of work that feels more rewarding. Also, the projects, images, techniques that they create grow the company in ways the management never thinks of themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

I think the only point-system employees need is described in their paychecks. Do something like @cazzie mentioned.