FAQ - honest answers, no beating around the bush
The questions that managers, club officials and self-employed people ask us most often - answered honestly, with references to our specialist pages.
Money works in the short term and creates dependency. Lasting motivation arises when performance becomes visible: anyone who takes on work collects points - everyone sees the same point list. Nobody has to beg for recognition. In the 2006 pilot, productivity rose by over 20% without bonus payments.
More about this: Motivating employees
Because they are not worth it. The solution: unpopular tasks get more points. A normal fault gives 60 points, one far away on a winter Friday evening gives 400. What happens? Volunteers come forward. The system regulates itself - without the boss having to force anyone.
More about this: Distributing tasks
Via a point list that makes performance visible anonymously: completed tasks = points. Crucially: individual points remain private - even from the boss. This prevents surveillance and exposure, but shows the team that performance is counted. Companies that made points public sabotaged the system that way.
More about this: Points system for employees
With a task marketplace: technicians choose assignments themselves, each assignment earns points according to difficulty and urgency. Fairness arises through transparency - everyone sees the same list, nobody is favoured. The concept was awarded the Service Management Award in 1992, the 2006 pilot showed +20% productivity.
More about this: Distributing assignments fairly
Less popular duties automatically get higher point values - anyone who takes the Christmas duty earns more points than on a normal working day. Volunteers come forward by themselves. And since points are not money, it does not cost the company immediately - yet the duty gets done reliably.
More about this: Distributing on-call duties fairly
Points make contributions visible: anyone who takes on and completes tasks collects points - everyone sees the list. This balances the workload because quietly carried work becomes visible. Not every club is ready for this - those who cultivate the victim mentality sort themselves out honestly.
More about this: Organising a club (GoodPoints Lean for clubs: free, no registration required)
An often overlooked cause: invisible performance. Those who achieve a lot without anyone seeing it eventually lose interest. Points make performance objectively visible - without the boss having to hand out praise. It is no substitute for fair pay, but a proven lever against the feeling of "It is pointless anyway".
More about this: Inner resignation: 7 signs and what helps
Start small: one group, one month. Points by difficulty and urgency, quality checks by colleagues instead of the boss. The most common mistake: managers want to see and control individual points - that is exactly why earlier projects failed. GoodPoints keeps points private technically, nobody can switch that off.
More about this: Introducing a points system
GoodPoints can be introduced gently: first, the team is informed about the model and its possibilities. Dispatchers can continue assigning tasks as before. For specialists who do not want to self-dispatch or find it too new, the dispatchers assign as usual. Afterwards, the time spent is entered and the points are created automatically. The results are made visible to everyone in anonymised form. Gradually the insight matures that it is advantageous to be in the upper point ranges.
More about this: How GoodPoints works
No - quite the opposite. Social scoring evaluates from above: the state or a company evaluates and sanctions behaviour. GoodPoints is bottom-up and voluntary: points arise only from actually performed, measurable work. Nobody is evaluated, nobody is sanctioned. Points are earned recognition - market economy inside the company instead of control over people.
Money creates dependency and demands - points motivate without expectations. Money stops working when the payment stops; points keep working. Optionally, a company can support the top 30-40 percent of a month (moderate bonus or additional retirement provision) - that is a visible consequence of the points, not a price per task.
More about this: Why points instead of money?
GoodPoints deliberately avoids marketing — that keeps the price low. Currently still an inexpensive 5.00 EUR per contributor per month. Use this time to see what GoodPoints really brings to your operation — the gain lies above all in motivation: people who choose their own tasks and see performance in points work with more commitment. How much that means for you is best seen yourself. The earlier you start, the longer you benefit from the current price.
Every organisation is different: processes, specific details, particularities, interfaces. On request we create an adapted version for your company with our expertise in the model — in consultation with you. During later operation we ensure the confidentiality of points required for the model to be effective.
Yes. GoodPoints runs in the browser - on smartphone, tablet and PC, no installation required. If you like, you can install it as an app on your home screen, and important functions also work offline. For teams on the move - trades, care, field service - this is the normal way.
Then its point value rises automatically - the longer it sits there, the more attractive it becomes. Almost always, someone then volunteers. And if truly nobody wants it: the dispatcher can still assign it as before - that decision belongs to the organisation, not the system.
Yes. GoodPoints is available in German, English and French - every employee sees the interface in their own language. Tasks, points and the exchange work identically for everyone, regardless of the language set.
Points are not created by self-assessment - only once a task is genuinely completed, with optional quality checks by colleagues or customers. And because points are private, cheating earns nobody any standing: you would only be fooling yourself. The system rewards real work - nothing else.
The concept comes from Dr.-Ing. Walter Tritt, who developed it as a service exchange and received the KVD Service Management Award for it in 1992. His book on the subject was published in 2000, and in 2006 the model was tested in a corporate pilot with over 20% more productivity. GoodPoints is the software implementation of this concept - by the inventor himself.
More about this: More about GoodPoints
No. Fair pay is the foundation - points do not replace it and are not meant to. Points are additional recognition for work done: visible, fair and private. Money and points work together - salary for the agreed work, points for engagement beyond that.
We recommend it - every organisation is different, and the works council knows your workforce. The most common objection removes itself: GoodPoints sees no points, there is no top-down performance monitoring - points remain private with every employee. Explaining the system transparently early on usually makes the introduction easier. (Note: not legal advice.)
Honestly: not for every organisation. Anyone who wants points as a surveillance tool, who wants individual assessments reported to the boss, or who believes motivation is purely a question of pay will not be happy with GoodPoints - we are the wrong fit for that. It works particularly well where work is allowed to be visible, where personal responsibility is welcome and fairness matters: trades, care, clubs, schools and service providers.
A poor workplace atmosphere often has an overlooked cause: unfair, opaque task distribution and invisible work. GoodPoints makes both fairly visible - everyone chooses tasks themselves, completed work earns points, and points stay private. Where recognition is tied to real work again, the atmosphere often eases faster than expected.
More about this: Points system for employees
The biggest lever is less coordination: open tasks are visible in the exchange, everyone picks what fits their strengths, and status and points are visible to all. Instead of assigning, asking and checking, self-steering runs the workflow - the dispatcher only steps in when needed.
More about this: Distributing tasks
Appreciation works when it is concrete and earned - not just kind words from the boss. Points make delivered work visible and rewardable: whoever contributes has it documented, without having to boast. Bonuses or recognitions can optionally be attached - the basis remains honest visibility.
More about this: Motivating employees
Mobbing is a serious matter and usually needs personal help - counselling, a trusted person or the works council. But where bullying grows out of arbitrariness and invisibility - who gets which task and why? - GoodPoints creates objective criteria: a transparent exchange, clear points, no mood-based decisions. That removes a common breeding ground, but it does not replace counselling.
More about this: Inner resignation: 7 signs and what helps
Yes - through the point values. Points are earned where customer benefit and value creation happen. Internal administrative and legacy tasks that nobody really needs get few or no points: nobody volunteers for them anymore, they get questioned or simply fade away. Without bans, without a restructuring decree - the point values continuously realign the workflows with the market. What is modern and necessary is decided by customer benefit, not tradition.
At first: nothing - and that is exactly the test. If the task is really needed, the damage becomes noticeable and it gets points deliberately. If no damage appears, it was superfluous - and it is good that it is gone. This is how lasting leanness emerges: not through a ban from headquarters, but because every task has to keep proving that it creates value.
Yes - that is one of the strongest effects. Points arise only where customer benefit and value creation happen. A department that only administers internally and serves nobody simply has no tasks that earn points - and becomes visible quickly. Not because anyone attacks it, but because the exchange honestly shows where value flows. This makes structural conversations factual: what stays is decided by visible contribution - not by opinions or power.
Yes - in the point comparison between departments. Points are recorded per employee: average per head, per hour and per order. A department that consistently sits at the bottom of the comparison becomes visible quickly - objectively, and without anyone having to dig through files. And the comparison stays fair, because it is not the absolute total that counts but the average per person. That makes it possible to discuss it factually: does the area need support, a different structure - or is it simply too large for its task?
Especially there. Large organisations constantly face the same problem: departments grow, administration thickens, and nobody can objectively say where value is created. That is exactly what the point comparison between departments makes visible - points per employee, per hour and per order, comparable across all areas. The concept was awarded the Service Management Award in 1992 and tested in a corporate pilot in 2006 with +20% productivity. One important lesson from that time: the model only works if the core is preserved - best done together with the inventor.
More about this: GoodPoints for corporations
Bureaucracy rarely starts out malicious - it grows because rules arrive more easily than they leave, and because nobody has time to question the old ways. This is exactly where GoodPoints works: tasks with customer benefit earn points and get taken on voluntarily - internal control and form loops stay empty and are questioned on their own. Not abolished by decree, but elegantly streamlined: whatever genuinely hurts gets deliberately pointed and consciously re-regulated.
More about this: Distributing tasks
Working to rule happens when extra effort stays invisible: those who do more usually just get more work - not more recognition. People throttle down when contributions disappear under the table. GoodPoints makes completed work visible: taking on and finishing tasks earns points the whole team can see. Recognition flows from visibility - not from surveillance.
More about this: Understanding inner resignation
Overload grows in secret: a few quietly swallow tasks until they burn out. The first step is visibility - who is carrying how much right now? In GoodPoints the point list shows the distribution: sustained peaks become visible before anyone quits. And since tasks are chosen voluntarily, nobody takes on more when they are full. It does not replace conversations - it makes them fact-based.
More about this: Distribute tasks fairly
Trello and Asana organise tasks: what needs doing, who does it, by when - assigned by a manager. GoodPoints organises the recognition behind it: who volunteers, and how contribution is rewarded - without managerial assignment and without public ranking (points stay private, GDPR-compliant). Both can be combined: the US tool for the workflow, GoodPoints for motivation and fair distribution.
More about this: How GoodPoints works
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