I recently watched an interesting exhange between two HR professionals who were debating pay-for-performance during a break at a conference. one questioned the efficacy of pay-for-performance, and the other questioned him. The conversation went something like this:
"You're saying pay for performance doesn't work ... so what are we paying people for then?"
Well ... I guess we ..."
If you aren't paying people to perform, what are you paying them for?"