Even employees who have their dream job, work can get bothersome. The combination of overworked and stress can leave even the best of us feeling unmotivated. At Aspen University, our superiors understand that it’s all too easy to “get the blue” which is why they have established continuous reinforcements. Occurring every time we complete an audit with zero findings, also known as a “clean audit”. Not breaking any regulations in finance is the ideal outcome of any audit, which is why our finance team is encouraged to get these results with the reinforcement of Gift Card Giveaways. When we reach a clean audit, our superiors buy $1,000 in Gift Cards ranging from places like Applebee’s to Home Depot. This example of continuous reinforcement, that is defined as the technique designed to increase the probability of repeated behavior through rewards, is an important positive stimulus that demonstrates the importance of appreciation and recognition as crucial parts of a successful strategic reward system. Aspen has tried to encourage their employees to achieve 100% packaging for every new student registering at the University. This means that every newly registered student has received their financial aid package a week in advance to them starting their new term. To motivate their employees to complete this goal, they randomly set-up company lunches, an example of an intermittent reinforcement. When reward like these lunches are given out inconsistently, the Directors at Aspen have found that they do not motivate the employees due to the unpredictability of when the reward is coming. It is human nature that desired behavior of reaching a zero finding audit and 100% student packaging will be achieved when a reward is guaranteed and consistent like the Gift Card Giveaways. Typically the continuous reinforcement, Gift Card Giveaways, are used at any early stage of any organization to familiarize the employees of the end goal but given that Aspen University has several veteran employees, having continuous reinforcements is more effective in motivating their employees.

It’s known that persistence is an essential part to becoming successful in business and in life. People who are persistent in business are the ones who experience several hardships and emotions but continue to keep going even when they are experiencing all of them together. My colleague is from Egypt and also an entrepreneur with several businesses ran by his family back in Alexandria. Back in 2011, the government in Egypt cut the Internet connection due to all of the protests in June. Without being able to access his commercial site, his business would have fallen completely and had no choice but to be persistent and save his business by traveling to Cairo to get inside a company that had Internet access. Having made more than 50 attempts, his persistence paid off and his business kept growing. In crucial times like that one, the decision to keep going even when the odds are against him was a powerful reinforcement. He explains his promise he made to his family back at home, a wife and 3 children under the age of 5, that he would put food on the table every day and keep a roof over their head is a continuous mental reinforcement. As a leader, I can initiate weekly one-on-one meetings with the employees that report to me. Encouraging employees to come prepared with question, identifying areas for improvements can keep motivate my employees and prevent me from being blindsided by failure to produce on schedule. Communicating openly, honestly, and frequently engages my staff in being persistent in their work production.

Small organizations like Aspen University don’t require a big budget for making an impact on our bottom line and our competition. Our firm has excelled in our creative ways to market our services. After launching our organization, we needed creative ways to tell people about our services so we decided to target 20 of the major editors in local newspapers around the Colorado area by mailing a fake college degree that read, “this degree could change your life”. A few weeks later, The Rocky Mountain post coined us “ the future of online education”. The article flooded us with new student registrations. We credit this creativity to the reward of new students and more business for our organization, an example of continuous reinforcement. It is enriching to know that every time we advertise our University, we will receive thousands of responses in student registrations that motivate us to be persistent in marketing in every way we can to make an impression on our future students. The responsibility to provide our employees with job security is a successful motivator to makes us persistent in trying to recruit new students that will in return provide us with more work ensuring stable employment. I believe that are individual difference in our ability to be creative. It is a muscle that when you train yourself using different methods that exercise this muscle, you can become more creative. Creativity is similar to that of persistence. You cannot be afraid of failure, which will allow one to be persistent in, for example, finding Internet or creative advertising techniques. If you know the end goal and what being creative and being persistent will reward us with, then we will be motivated to not give up on the work required of us to succeed.