Executive Summary

Northern Beaches Credit Union hopes to sustain competitive advantage by providing excellent service to its clients. However, unmotivated workforce hampers realisation of this vision, as the company faces relatively low productivity compared to its competitors. The company has no incentive and rewards system in place. In view of the observation, the company recognises that an underlying problem in its human resource management is motivating employees, who have been in the business for over ten years, to advance their expertise and enhance their performance.

The research aimed to investigate what motivates Northern Beaches Credit Union employees in the workplace and different types of incentive and reward programs. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in the study, through the use of in-depth interviews and questionnaire-based surveys. Document analysis of research literature was also undertaken. The collected data were mainly focused on the best six incentive and reward programs that can be applied in practice for North Beach Credit Union. The six incentive and reward programs were minimized to the best three programs that fit the company through conducting in-depth interviews and questionnaire-based surveys.

Findings suggested that most of the employees at the company believe that a mixture of both monetary and non-monetary rewards will highly motivate them in the workplace, compared to purely monetary rewards and non-monetary rewards. Majority of the employees would also be interested in discounted services around their workplace.

The study recommends that staff appreciation days/informal getogethers should be initiated at Northern Beaches Credit Union on a monthly basis. Mentoring programs should also be started as a staff development strategy. The company should also implement discounted benefits, or a system that would allow employees to receive tangible noncash rewards.