Organizations with a desire to strengthen their workforce should offer training opportunities along with traditional company perks to motivate workers. An example of this is a recent program which ran at Red Pepper Inc. called "Apple for the Mind." This program rewarded employees who drafted an individual course for workplace self-improvement. Over six weeks, workers learned a new skill each week and shared that skill with colleagues in a unique way. Red Pepper President Tim McMullen noted that the initiative not only fostered workplace learning, but also teaching. He said, "When you've got twenty-some-odd people who are creative and love to inspire each other, the sharing is actually more important than the learning." At the end of each week, the company held a drawing for Apple products for those workers who actively participated in the program. Each worker also had up to 12 chances to win the grand prize, a MacBook Air, by sharing their learned skills twice per week. The results of the program showed that workers believed they were challenged and remained engaged in the workforce because of the learning environment created at Red Pepper, which in turn has reduced turnover, said McMullen.
Source: Incentive Magazine (10/08) Vol. 182, P. 28; Palmer, Alex
