Incentives/Rewards for Participation in Knowledge Sharing Communities

Research shows that many people are more incentivised by virtual and intrinsic rewards than by extrinsic payoffs.  If they feel ownership in their community, in some cases they are offended with the offer of monetary rewards.  The following is a list of possible incentives provided by a community support team (volunteer or paid) for knowledge sharing that do not involve monetary rewards.

Recognition by Peers: This is the most important.  If this applies, it is an indication that the community is beginning to form.  Recognition to peers occurs in a number of different ways.

• All interaction should have their name associated with it: This allows a community member to get credit for their contribution to the community.

• Thank you notices in community: If a community member contributes to the community knowledge domain in some way, they should get recognized.  We currently use “contribution of the month” and thank you messages in the announcements for serving as a SME in reviewing the content.  Another idea would be “Community member of the month.”  Another would be a “Community member hall of fame.”

• Interaction number that is associated with the user name:  Some community sites use an actual numeric value associated with their name to display their level of interaction.  The higher the number, the greater the level of interaction.  “Top 10” or “Top 100” contributor graphics next to the key contributors can add to this.  To make this work, each type of interaction (updating your profile, contributing knowledge, reviewing content, etc) needs to have a numeric value associated with it.  Offline interaction could be worked through the support team.

• Review of contributions: A community member can get recognition from peers based on community review of the contributions.  This makes it clear the value of their work.

Thank you letters to superiors: Used to thank community members for fulfilling requests made by the community support team.

Core member inclusion: After the community starts to coalesce, the core member designation starts to get a cache associated with it.  Setting out clear expectations for becoming a core member is one way of incentivising members.

Request to present at community sponsored events: Community members who participate the most will get requests for speaking engagements, etc.  This is especially useful

Work referred as requests for assistance: In some cases, community members who participate the most will get work sent their way in the form of a referral.  This could involvce forwarding a “needy” party in their direction.

Additional assistance provided by support team: If a community member is active, there are better networking opportunities available to them.  In some instances, the support team has aided high contributors in a numerous ways, including finding new employment, reviewing some of their content, etc.

Continuous Learning Credits (applicable to US Govt. personnel only): A process could be set up whereby an appointed government representative awards continuous learning credits based on the quality of the contribution or the participation of an SME review.