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After significant backlash online, United Airlines paused its lottery system replacing the past bonuses awarded to employees. The system would give a few lucky United employees rewards like large sums of cash or expensive cars based upon a lottery system instead of bonuses to employees who worked exceptionally well. This specific instance revealed the rise in popularity of more game-like systems as ways to motivate workers and lower production costs. But despite what appears to be a flawed system, a 2012 experiment showed that workers were more willing to complete a health risk survey when given a chance to up to $125 through a lottery than just receiving a $25 gift certificate. Other studies also revealed that cash rewards are poor motivators and many other companies besides United like T-Mobile and Uber have experimented with game like systems.
Questions:
1. Do you think the backlash to United's lottery system was deserved or do you think that their attempts to lower costs were justified?
2. How will the backlash to United's system in this instance impact other companies?
3. Is it worth it for companies to let their reputation take a hit in order to lower monetary costs?
5 comments:
I think that the backlash to United Airlines lottery system was deserved because a lottery system does not ensure everyone gets something, or at least the people who were hard workers get something. Personally, I am realistic, so I would rather the cash in my hands over being entered for a lottery as one you 100% get the money, while the other you may end up with nothing. It is not fair that someone would end up with nothing in the lottery system, especially if they worked exceptionally well. I do not think that the backlash to United’s lottery system will impact other companies because other companies are not being put on blast for their similar system. However, if more and more companies are being called out for it, other companies with lottery systems will probably change their bonus system. I do not think that it is worth it for companies to let their reputation take a hit in order to lower monetary costs because large corporations, like United, still need to think about their individual employee, and ensuring that that employee is treated fairly. So, I do not think that the lottery system is fair to all employees.
While I don't think that this lottery system of rewards is fair, I do think that this is a viable system in terms of motivating employees because of the randomness and potentially high gain involved. Nevertheless, I think that United Airlines is not justified in trying to use an unfair system like this just in an attempt to lower costs, and that they do deserve the backlash they are getting. Like Bela said, I don't think that the backlash to United's system will impact other companies much because this system has already been used by other companies before, so this is nothing new. I also don't think that lower monetary costs are worth a damaged reputation because I think that a company's image in the eyes of the public is one of their most valuable assets, especially over slightly lower monetary costs.
Honestly, I don't think that this change that United Airlines made was a good one. It is not really fair to take away employee bonuses and replace it with this lottery system. I agree with Isabela that this lottery system doesn't ensure that everyone is rewarded so I doubt that it is a good motivation when compared to the employee bonuses, which is a better award for the hard work of employees. I hope that United Airlines' lottery system doesn't impact other companies and that other companies will learn from the backlash that United Airlines is facing and not follow in their footsteps.
This is like essentially playing on the psychology of workers to chase the thrill of winning something big instead of acting on their own best interest. Like there's a reason people go to casinos to gamble, and there's a reason loot boxes are banned in Australia for gambling. If United Airlines wants to do this, then I'm not sure if there's anything stopping them, but the fact that they're willing to replace their regular bonus system is kind of appalling to me.
Just as Jason said, the lottery system creates a game or gambling environment that would likely ruin the competition for the bonuses. United Airlines was never a good airlines company as the news constantly displays the highly inefficient and unprofessional workers at United. Essentially, switching to a lottery system would make more people participate, but workers would not want to work harder. Bonuses for hard workers was a good way of getting work done, however a lottery system would destroy this mentality of hard work. Because of this hatred of United's lottery system, other companies will probably shy away from this work strategy. This is because these companies would probably not want to risk their work ethics and reputation.
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