Why Your $100 Team Bonuses Aren’t Working (And What Actually Motivates Workers)

The emergency call hits at 2:07 a.m. Your crew sloshes around ankle-deep in CAT-3 water. The homeowner wants answers. Your techs want a reason to care beyond a punch-in and a paycheck. The old “nice job, here’s $100” used to get your team excited. Now it barely gets a shrug from them.

The problem isn’t your people. The problem is basic human psychology.

In a recent Cleanfax + KnowHow webinar on gamification, Steve Glozik from FP Property Restoration joined behavioral engineer Gabe Zichermann, Jeff Cross from ISSA media, and Travis Martin from KnowHow to break down why cash-first tactics stall, and what actually gets crews to lean in when the work is hard and the hours are long.

The habituation problem no one talks about

Zichermann cuts straight to the uncomfortable truth: “Do you remember your very first paycheck? You felt rich, right?”

That $50 from bagging groceries felt like a fortune. Your last paycheck—probably ten times larger—doesn’t produce anywhere near the same rush as the first.

“The psychological satisfaction that comes from an expected reward is not as great as the unexpected reward,” Zichermann explained.

People habituate to expected rewards. Your first paycheck felt oversized; the hundredth lands as routine. Predictable compensation becomes background noise. In the restoration industry, where you’re constantly asking teams to go above and beyond, that motivation gap hits exactly where you need engagement most.

The four-letter framework that beats cash

Instead of constantly upping the monetary ante, Zichermann developed the SAPS framework—Status, Access, Power, and Stuff—as a substitute. Most powerful to least powerful, he said, “also, conveniently, cheapest to most expensive.”

Status costs little and hits hardest. Example: A tech passes a certification. Don’t stop at the Slack/Teams shout-out. Have a leader send a short, direct text: “Saw your certification. Proud of you.” The unexpected, personal note lands far harder than a generic post.

Access means first pick of routes, gear, or training slots; all the things other people wait for.

Power gives control, like choosing time off windows or piloting new processes.

Stuff like cash and gift cards, which should be used sparingly since all rewards eventually lose their punch.

Because habituation hits every reward, non-cash levers let you increase motivation without endlessly increasing spend.

Cross’ Friday afternoon breakthrough

Cross discovered another scalable technique while running his own company: “It was like a Friday at noon. [The person] had a good week. I’m like, ‘Just take off.’ That meant a lot because it was [a] spur-of-the-moment [decision].”

Small, unexpected recognition creates more lift than the same gift card on the same day every month. Zichermann called this “surprise and delight,” and it’s pure gold because a little bit of surprise and delight goes a long way in motivating staff.

Glozik saw this first-hand with a six-figure earner in his company who fell into a funk. The solution wasn’t money. Instead, it was getting him to a training event outside the office, around peers who challenged him. For once, as Glozik explained, he was challenged and didn’t feel like the best person in the room, and that single experience reignited the employee’s engagement more than any raise could have.

The foundation that actually keeps people

Here’s what Glozik and the other panelists won’t let you skip: you can’t sprinkle leaderboards on a broken culture. Respect, fair base pay, and visible progress have to be in place first. If people are worried about the basics, gamification reads like window dressing.

But when the foundation is solid, the results are clear. KnowHow’s 2022 survey of 400+ restoration workers revealed something every owner needs to understand: salary mattered when choosing a job, number one for Gen Zs, and number four for millennials. But once inside the company? Salary dropped to fifth place.

What kept people was the team culture, growth opportunities, and the opportunity to gain new skills. As one expert put it in a previous Cleanfax + KnowHow webinar: “People come for a paycheck, [and] stay for a purpose.”

Pay opens the door, but development opportunities and a feeling of belonging keep people in the company.

Your first 3 moves

Run a quick pulse and lock the cadence. Use a simple survey to ask what your team actually wants and how they prefer to learn. Share the results. Set a small budget. Put recognition and check-ins on a calendar so they don’t vanish when jobs surge.

Pick one company metric and make it social (not overly competitive). For the next quarter, rally around one team goal. Post progress where everyone can see it. Celebrate weekly movement. Add a light, friendly layer: rotate a traveling trophy between offices or departments.

Turn training into status, not a chore. When someone earns a certification, announce it publicly and send a short, direct text from a leader. Favor portable credentials issued in the employee’s name. During training, find a low-cost way (like a quiz/leaderboard) to keep people engaged. Pair the top contributors with the bottom quartile to coach them up.

You can’t buy sustainable effort. You have to intentionally design it.

Lead with status, access, and power; keep competition friendly; make progress visible; use cash last. That’s how “above and beyond” becomes repeatable instead of just expensive, and how your teams stay engaged even when the emergency calls hit at 2 a.m.