Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

In three field studies, we explore the impact of providing employees and teammates withprosocial bonuses, a novel type ofbonus spent on others rather than on oneself. In Experiment 1, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of donations tocharity lead to happier and more satisfied employees at an Australian bank. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we show thatprosocial bonuses in the form of expenditures on teammates lead to better performance in both sports teams in Canadaand pharmaceutical sales teams in Belgium. These results suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses – shiftingthe focus from the self to others – can produce measurable benefits for employees and organizations.