To retain the best employees for your company, you need to have a good incentive compensation program or plan. This means giving your employees rewards above and beyond their salary and benefits, which is especially appropriate when they work above and beyond their minimum job requirements. Just having an employee incentive compensation program in place is not enough for it to be effective and to work for you. Your employees need to know what they're working for and need to expect these additional rewards in order for them to be motivated to work harder. You also need to give some thought as to the structure of your incentive compensation program. A ten-dollar gift card might be a nice gesture for your assistant that stayed late one Friday night to help with a big project, but won't necessarily motivate sales staff to close more seven-figure deals! To implement a good incentive compensation program effectively, consider a few simple tips in this regard to help you and your company retain the best employees with such a program. Tiered and appropriate.
As said, you need a tiered and appropriate incentive compensation program that will motivate employees. Small rewards will make everyone feel appreciated and more enthusiastic about work, but you need larger programs for larger projects and those that are more involved. The good news is that companies that offer and structure incentive compensation programs for other businesses typically have many suggestions that would work for those larger projects, such as travel, tickets to shows and other events, financial rewards, and so on. If you're stuck for ideas on what would motivate your employees and for what would be appropriate, you can typically ask their advice and they will often have their own ideas they can offer for a good incentive compensation program for your particular business. Sometimes it's even helpful to just browse those ideas that are standard with an incentive compensation program and you may see certain items that you know would motivate your employees. You may also get ideas for goals you want to set for them in order to receive that incentive compensation. Known in advance.
The best incentive compensation program is one that your employees know about in advance and that is tied to goals for which they're working. Your employees cannot be expected to work harder or more effectively toward a certain goal if they don't know their goals and don't understand the incentive compensation programs tied to those goals and expectations. These goals may be certain sales amounts or it may be cost cutting, or whatever else is appropriate for your business and industry. Assuming that you should give incentive compensation after the fact can be shortsighted and may backfire on you. If employees know there is a reward and a reason to reach certain goals, this is what they may strive for; if they don't know of such a program, they may not put forth that extra effort needed to keep your company profitable.
|