Effects of COVID-19 supplementary payments on healthcare workers performance in Türkiye

During the COVID-19 pandemic, supplementary payment systems were introduced in Türkiye as a financial incentive for healthcare workers under extraordinary conditions. Understanding the implications of such incentives for employee performance is important for the development of sustainable health workforce policies. This cross-sectional study used an electronic survey administered to 626 healthcare workers employed at public health institutions in Türkiye between November 2021 and January 2022. Data were analyzed using reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and linear regression models. The findings indicate that satisfaction in healthcare workers regarding the COVID-19 supplementary payment system is positively but weakly associated with perceived performance (β = 0.217), and the regression model explains only a limited proportion of variance (Adjusted R² = 0.045). Rather than demonstrating a strong performance-enhancing effect, findings primarily highlight the issues of perceived fairness, distributive justice, and motivational dynamics within crisis compensation systems. Although supplementary payments appear to have a statistically significant relation with perceived performance, the practical impact of this relationship remains moderate. These findings suggest that financial incentives may be insufficient alone to substantially enhance healthcare workers’ performance during crisis periods without complementary organizational and structural support mechanisms.