They have one, it didn't motivate me before I won it (I didn't think I had a chance to) nor after (it turns out the pleasure from winning such prize is less tha

They have one, it didn't motivate me before I won it (I didn't think I had a chance to) nor after (it turns out the pleasure from winning such prize is less than the pleasure from somebody being spared mental suffering because I helped with their workload). Honestly those things are different person to person. A lot of people are better motivated by cash prizes, whether or not they're public and known in advance. For some people motivation is feeling like they have the ability to do something, so they're more motivated by being sent to trainings or given more authority or a junior person to train. And some people are like me, and just want to hear thank you. Anyway, managers don't have the right sense of that stuff. If you feel you must reward your employees into doing more stuff for you, then go all the way and implement operant conditioning. If you want your employees to have a well-deserved vacation at the end of a big project that made you $5M and them $0, make it for everyone. And if you just want people to feel recognized, leave them enough time at work or outside it to form real-life relationships with individual humans who will. You can't scale gratitude.