CEO at BrightHR and COO at the Peninsula Group, responsible for the global rollout of HR tech supporting over 44,000 organizations.
getty
You want competition to thrive in your business. Every business owner does. Healthy competition encourages workers to succeed in what they do, and that’s a vital component in any flourishing business. Whether it’s a bonus scheme, leaderboard or monthly incentive, you’ve no doubt tried various tactics to bolster it.
Some techniques take off. Others can leave workers reeling from a toxic environment and high-stress levels, which then come back to hurt your business in the form of resignations or absences. It’s a double-edged sword. You want to motivate your team, without pushing them too hard. It’s a hard balance to find, and one that many employers struggle with.
When Competition Destroys Collaboration
The first step is understanding how competition can be toxic. Often, when workers compete against each other, the promise of individual reward can overtake collaboration.
Say you have a monthly leaderboard. If your staff are only focused on their own personal ranking, this can leave you with a poor team culture. That’s because workers are prioritizing their own results rather than the overall success of your business. This can seriously impede collaboration. For example, when workers share tips and insights with one another, it strengthens your business as a whole. But if your staff have their eyes on the leaderboard, they’re more likely to keep those insights to themselves—to boost their own chances of success.
A competitive culture typically has regular "winners." Naturally, this means large swathes of your workforce fall into a "losers" category by default—as not everyone can sit on top of the leaderboard every month. This can often breed resentment between team members, putting barriers between them. That’s the last thing you need if you want to build a healthy, loyal workforce.
Of course, goals are important. But if employees are competing against one another, you could be left to deal with a toxic and inward-looking culture.
The Impact On Employee Well-Being
Another point to consider is how competition can negatively impact employee well-being.
According to an article for Business Leader, Raiys, a U.K.-based app, found that anxiety and depression among salespeople are three times higher than in any other profession. In the article, a participant in the survey shed some light as to why this might be: “The results come as no surprise to me. The culture of working in sales and constantly needing to hit new targets creates a lot of stress for everyone involved, and this is what caused me to leave my position.”
Within industries like sales, targets are essential for driving competition and growth. But often, when an employee has little job satisfaction beyond hitting targets, their mental health can plummet when they don’t meet them. The same goes for reward-based schemes, like bonuses. In extreme cases, staff can feel their own self-worth is connected to their performance at work. An example of this is commission-only positions. If workers’ take-home pay is directly linked to their performance, this places a huge amount of pressure on them.
Essentially, it means that a few missed targets can lead to a worse quality of life at home. And at a time of great economic pressure, that could have a serious impact on a person’s mental health. It’s rare to hit targets 100% of the time. If an employee believes that hitting targets is the only measure of their success, they’re going to feel like a failure if they don’t reach them—which can destroy their well-being at work. That can result in high turnover, frequent absences and low productivity.
Competition Should Be Positive
Competition in itself isn’t unhealthy. But without implementing incentives carefully, you risk a high turnover and a toxic environment. So, how do you avoid that?
First, make sure any rewards for hitting targets are exactly that—a reward, and not a loss. When an employee feels like their financial and emotional stability is reliant on KPIs, their well-being could take a hit. So it’s essential your workers feel empowered at work as standard and any incentives are simply an added bonus.
Then, try to implement shared objectives. If you set targets for teams instead of individuals, it encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing—instead of secrecy and infighting. Generally, it’s wise to have wider company goals in place. When you encourage your team to work toward these shared goals, you avoid people simply acting in their own interests. Then, instead of promoting competition with other members of staff, encourage your staff to focus on their own progression.
How? Set up regular one-to-ones with your employees. In these sessions, it’s good practice to set regular, personal objectives based on their individual strengths and interests. If your employee hits a personal milestone, be sure to praise them—and raise their next objectives accordingly.
It’s important for your employees to have input when it comes to setting their own targets. This means they can work toward achieving goals they are enthusiastic about—instead of competing against others. Remember, if hitting targets is the only thing that’s driving your employees to succeed, it’s unlikely they’ll be invested enough in the company to stay for the duration.
Job satisfaction, regular, positive praise and a sense of making a difference—all these factors should motivate your workers every day. When you get these things right, adding some healthy competition should only strengthen your business.
Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?
