If you let employees choose their own rewards for hard work, what do you think they’d go for? Things like smartphones, holidays or home wares?
That certainly does the trick for some, but it turns out that workers across the world have some rather exotic tastes when it comes to their rewards of choice.
Everything from live fish to snake venom has been requested by employees through reward and recognition programmes.
Power2Motivate, which runs such programmes in 125 countries, discovered that there was a wealth of weird and wonderful items being asked for.
Executive general manager Mark Robinson says the company sources products from local suppliers at all its destinations, which can be an “interesting and insightful experience”.
While the company has more than 30,000 items already in its reward gallery, there’s also a service where employees can request other rewards – some of which include children’s motorbikes and solar panel installations.
Robinson says that while the company has never yet said no to a requested reward, companies can choose to restrict their galleries based on company policies and nothing illegal can be offered.
Here’s a list of the top 10 strangest reward requests:
- Bangladesh – Faisha (Live fish)
- Bangladesh – Chingri (A type of live crustacean)
- PNG – Live chickens
- Kenya – Mbuzi (Goats)
- Singapore – Vietnamese snake venom and heart wine
- India – Pots of honey
- Singapore – Breakfast with the orangutans at the zoo
- New Zealand – Body piercing
- Australia – Tattoo
- Australia – Christmas Hams and Turkey
Meanwhile, it seems that employees are no strangers to giving each other unusual gifts, whether they are wanted or not. According to a CareerBuilder survey, some of the strangest things coworkers in the US gave each other for the holiday season include a large quantity of fresh shrimp, camouflage toilet paper, a toothpaste squeezer and a painted concrete chicken.
What’s the strangest gift you’ve ever been given by an employer or a co-worker?
