Congratulations cards and chocolate

What could be better than getting a congratulations card for a job well done? Getting a card and some chocolate! Adding the sweet treat to a "Good job" card significantly raises the employee's perceived value of the message.

But before you add that chocolate bar to the envelope, consider this tidbit:

Telling the employee too much about the chocolate will devalue the effectiveness of the entire reward!

A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that people who were given detailed information about the nutritional value and ingredients in a chocolate bar reported a much lower level of satisfaction with the candy than someone who was given only vague or minimal information about the same brand and style of candy.

So what is a manager to do get the maximum impact from giving an employee a motivational card and a chocolate?

• Choose a chocolate bar with minimal information on the package, or at least, minimal information on the front label. Chocolates with banners describing their fat content would probably not spark the same reaction as those offering only the brand name.
  
  
• Or even better, choose a chocolate bar with a novelty wrapper that conveys your message of thanks in a clear way. Many companies offer chocolate bars wrapped in a label reading "Congratulations" or "You make the difference." That way, you'll double the message AND avoid the negative effects of too much information.

Since both congratulations cards and motivational chocolates are inexpensive, it's easy to always have some of each on hand to catch that moment when a sweet reward is right.