Incentives: Print Your Own Money

By Michael Blakley

When I was Customer Support Manager at Caere Corp. (RIP), we introduced Caerebucks, a play-money spot incentive program. The increasing denominations had pictures of ever-higher-level managers on them. We'd give them out for various small-to-medium heroics, such as making a difficult after-hours support callback to an armed psychopath.

Caerebucks could buy goodies from an always well-stocked cart that was pushed down the aisles twice a day by managers in aprons and straw hats, or saved for larger things. We even persuaded Marketing to accept them at the tchotchka store they ran. After a while, since we were very careful to maintain good fiscal policy, without inflation or deflation, Caerebucks became legal tender for all debts public and private among the staff, were enthusiastically exchanged, and opportunities to earn more were much sought after.

Eventually, since we accepted Caerebucks from anybody at all, figuring that value of some sort must have been exchanged for them, they became a de facto currency across the whole company and spread Support's already notorious reputation as a really fun and slightly odd place to work at a very conservative company.

It was a tremendous morale and productivity booster for staff in an area where both are chronically difficult to boost, and provided managers with a welcome alternative to the riding crop, as well as the fun of going to a warehouse store and blowing $500 on a carload of junk food.

Michael Blakley is currently director of customer support at HigherMarkets, Inc. E-mail: mblakley@highermarkets.com.