Is it right to offer incentives to employees for participating in training?

Here's a scenario. Employees earn credits by successfully completing certain classes during a 6-month period. Each class has a credit value, and at the end of the program, credits are exchanged for gift cards at the dollar value earned.

There's a debate going on where I work about whether or not this is appropriate. Some say training is a job requirement and should be a reward in itself. If you pay employees to participate, it devalues the training. Others say that some employees may need incentives because training takes time away from their work, and many of them are commission-based employees.

Thoughts?

Hi Sierra -- very interesting question. Personally, I prefer to tie the learning opportunities directly to performance so that the reward comes when their performance improves. I use gift cards as rewards for games I play as part of the learning opportunity, but not as a reward for attending. The reward for attending is that they are demonstrating their drive to constantly improve themselves. If I have to bribe someone to come, I would just as soon they don't come. I agree with those who have said that attending training is a job requirement -- the key is to make the requirement worthwhile by ensuring that it's actually needed and tied directly to performance and business goals.

As the instructor, would I want people in my class who are only there because they are getting a reward? Probably not. It could lead to a class that is motivated to show up, but not motivated to learn. It may lead to a difficult situation for the instructor--the students might be constantly watching the clock--wondering when it's over. Even though motivation is a must, the students should be motivated to learn the material after they show up for class.
Having said that however, are these folks losing $ for attending? That's not good either.
Finally, as Laura L said, training must be worthwhile. And I'll add--it should be enjoyable.
Again, in agreement with Laura L--If folks don't want to come to my classes, then I really don't want them there. They are adults--and if they see (or hear from the grapevine) that my training is beneficial and enjoyable, usually they will want to come.
Jay Truitt

We were going to give a “reward” (what had not been determined) for coming to training classes and our legal department would not let us. They said it could be misconstrued as bribery. Giving out a prize for a game during the class was fine, but nothing could be offered as a reward for attending the class.

A lot of law firms take this approach to technical training of the administrative staff and it works pretty well. They do a kind of Firm University where secretaries and the like take a number of courses to attain a "certification" level that carries some type of monetary reward. However, usually these programs don't reward people for just showing up to class - participants must take meaningful skills assessments to demonstrate that they've mastered new skills and improved their performance levels.

If your commission-based employees are pretty competitive with each other, you might be able to use the certification angle to foster a competition that encourages more people to attend class. For example, at most firms it's really hard to get lawyers to come to training but one firm I read about had a lot of success just by offering little plaques to employees who achieved certain internal certification levels. The program was aimed at administrative people, but apparently the lawyers were very competitive and being the first one in a section to get that plaque became a big motivator to them as well.