Howdoyoudesignapayplanthatmotivatespeopletodotheirbestwork？AnewstudybythreeHarvardresearcherssuggestsanovelanswer：Shortlyafteryouhirenewworkers，givethemaraise．"Previousresearchhasshownthatpayingpeopl
How do you design a pay plan that motivates people to do their best work？A new study by three Harvard researchers suggests a novel answer：Shortly after you hire new workers，give them a raise．
"Previous research has shown that paying people more than they expect may elicit reciprocity（相互作用） in the form of greater productivity，"notes Deepak Malhotra，a Harvard business-administration professor who worked on the study．What he and his colleagues found，however，was that the connection between more pay and extra effort depends on presenting the increase"as a gift-that is，as something you've chosen to do purely as a nice gesture，with no strings attached．"
Malhotra and his team studied 267people hired by oDesk，a global online network of freelancers，to do a one-time data-entry project for four hours．All of the new hires were people in developing countries，for whom hourly wages of 3and4were higher than what they had been making in previous jobs．
The researchers split the group up into three equal parts．One group was told they would earn 3anhour．Asecondgroupwasinitiallyhiredat3an hour but，before they started working，they got a surprise：The budget for the project had expanded unexpectedly，they were told，and they would now be paid 4anhour．Thethirdgroupwasoffered4an hour from the start and given no increase．
Even though the second and third groups were eventually paid the same amount，the second group worked harder and produced more-about 20% more-than either of the other two．People in the second group also showed the most stamina，maintaining their focus all the way through the assigned task and performing especially well toward the end of the four hours．Interestingly，the more experienced employees in the high-performing group were the most productive of all，apparently because their previous work experience led them to appreciate the rarity of an unexpected raise．
Contrary to conventional wisdom，Malhotra points ou
