How do you measure and reward the impact of your team's work?

1 Define team impact

Before you can measure and reward your team's work, you need to define what impact means for your team and how it relates to the organization's vision, mission, and strategy. Impact can be defined as the positive change or outcome that your team's work creates for the customers, users, beneficiaries, or society at large. To define team impact, you can use a framework such as the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) criteria, the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method, or the Theory of Change model. These frameworks can help you clarify your team's purpose, goals, indicators, and assumptions, and align them with the organization's expectations and values.

4 Communicate and celebrate impact

Once you have collected and analyzed the data that shows your team's impact, you need to communicate and celebrate it with your team and your stakeholders. Communication is the process of sharing and explaining your team's impact data in a clear, concise, and compelling way, using various formats, such as reports, dashboards, stories, or visuals. Communication can help you showcase your team's achievements, demonstrate your team's value, and solicit feedback and support from your stakeholders. Celebration is the process of acknowledging and appreciating your team's impact data in a positive, meaningful, and fun way, using various methods, such as recognition, rewards, or events. Celebration can help you boost your team's morale, motivation, and engagement, and foster a culture of gratitude and pride.

5 Reward impact

Rewarding impact is the process of providing incentives and benefits to your team members based on their contribution and performance towards your team's impact goals. Rewards can be intrinsic or extrinsic, monetary or non-monetary, individual or collective, depending on your team's preferences, needs, and expectations. Rewards can help you motivate your team members, reinforce desired behaviors, and retain talent. However, rewards can also have unintended consequences, such as creating competition, reducing autonomy, or undermining intrinsic motivation. Therefore, you should design and implement reward systems that are fair, transparent, flexible, and aligned with your team's impact definition and metrics.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?