Do Reward Systems Have a Place in Behaviour Support?

Sometimes, we can overcomplicate things, such as behaviour reward systems, in our organisations. Whether it’s adding marbles to jars, distributing stickers, or accruing team points, our settings are awash with thoughtful, creative and well-intended strategies to encourage individuals to make preferred choices.

However, it’s often these intricate systems that can result in behaviour that needs support. When there are lots of rules and guidelines to navigate, inconsistency and confusion are almost inevitable, and behaviour can quickly escalate.

Rather than implementing complex systems and processes, perhaps instead we need to strip everything back, and ask ourselves one simple question: do our systems help or hinder our approach to behaviour support?

The problem with typical reward systems

Reward systems, in all their various guises, are not uncommon across schools and health and social care providers. Their aim is to encourage and acknowledge certain choices, through rewarding the behaviour that staff and other professionals want to see.

For a system to be effective, it needs to be simply constructed, fairly applied, and easily understood. Time, commitment, and consistency are key: forgetting to add a tally to a chart, give a child a sticker, put a marble in a jar, or allocate extra break time, all serve to undermine the intended objective, and can generate feelings of mistrust and injustice. The individuals we support quickly spot any inconsistencies or errors and question the function and purpose of the system.

Perceived unfairness at the decisions we make around acknowledging some individuals’ achievements, and not others, can also lead to increased tension and the likelihood of conflict.

Extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation

At a deeper level lies the fundamental question of whether any reward system is, in fact, a good idea, especially in the longer term.

While there is certainly a place for praising behaviour we want to see, and recognising and celebrating this through various means, it could be argued that the message we are teaching and reinforcing is that the only reason to make positive choices is to gain some sort of external reward or validation.

Listen to our podcast episode: Rewards Vs Bribes

This is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: the former comes from within, while the latter depends on external factors. Therefore, we need to be mindful of the longer-term implications that we might, unwittingly, bring about by relying heavily on a reward system. While it may serve a purpose in the short term, it could also lead to children, young people, and adults ‘expecting’ something in return for making positive choices. Surely, we want to foster an environment where individuals make those choices automatically, regardless of external incentives?