| Using Incentives to Motivate |
"You cannot expect your employees to delight your customers unless you, as an
employer delight your employees"
— Carla Paonessa, Partner, Anderson Consulting
Using Incentives to Motivate:
5 Tips for Success
Employee incentives run the gamut from ball point pens to retirement funds. They
include bonuses, benefits, perks, and anything else aimed at motivating employees
to take a job at your company and to stay there. The idea behind these incentives
is to keep employees on a track of continuous improvement and to reward them for
succeeding.
So often we think that the only perks people want are more pay and then some
bonus money on top of that. But that’s not necessarily true. Many employees are
motivated to attain additional skills and knowledge so they can look forward to the
prospect of promotion or job enhancement.
We’ve seen many studies that aim to discover which incentives are most important
to employees—and all have different results! Here, without ranking, are the most
frequently cited incentives:
Following are five tips to keep in mind when you’re creating a new incentive
program or overhauling an existing one:
#1 Make sure the goals are achievable. Many incentive programs revolve
around some goal associated with productivity or quality. In order for a program to
be a success, it’s essential for the goal to be within reach of the employees. Set
the bar high but not impossibly high. Remember, you want people to win. If the
goals are set too high, people will lose heart and stop trying. What’s worse, they’ll
feel like failures when in fact they may have made great progress from where they
started.
#2 Let employees choose their own incentives. The simplest way to make
sure your employees will like the perks and rewards given to them is to ask them
beforehand what they want. You can include a question on an employee
satisfaction survey or find some other way to get them to identify what rewards
would be most meaningful to them. Chances are you’ll get a variety of responses.
Keep track of who wants what, and, when it’s time, reward them accordingly.
#3 Make it enjoyable. To really get employees rallied around a goal, you have to
do more than just give them a goal and then say, “OK, go out and reach it.” It’s
equally important for the process of reaching the goal to be fulfilling. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that at every moment the environment has to be jovial, but
agents should at least feel that they’re enjoying the challenge.
One way to accomplish this is to celebrate small successes along the way. Another
is to continually remind employees of the progress they’re making, the learning
they’re accomplishing, the professional or personal growth they’re achieving, and
so on.
#4 Use incentives at crucial times. Incentives can be used any time but there
are certain situations in which an incentive program is especially timely in the
center. Following are a few examples:
#5 Avoid overkill. Can you do too much? Yes, overkill is possible. Don’t feel that
you have to have an incentive program running at every hour of every day. You’ll
be exhausted and your employees will be too. People can’t work at their peak at all
times.
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Author: Kurt Friedmann
All Rights Reserved
employer delight your employees"
— Carla Paonessa, Partner, Anderson Consulting
Using Incentives to Motivate:
5 Tips for Success
Employee incentives run the gamut from ball point pens to retirement funds. They
include bonuses, benefits, perks, and anything else aimed at motivating employees
to take a job at your company and to stay there. The idea behind these incentives
is to keep employees on a track of continuous improvement and to reward them for
succeeding.
So often we think that the only perks people want are more pay and then some
bonus money on top of that. But that’s not necessarily true. Many employees are
motivated to attain additional skills and knowledge so they can look forward to the
prospect of promotion or job enhancement.
We’ve seen many studies that aim to discover which incentives are most important
to employees—and all have different results! Here, without ranking, are the most
frequently cited incentives:
- Opportunities for promotion
- Additional training and education
- Recognition for hard work
- Better pay
- Better work environment and working conditions
- Job security
- Bonus/commission
- Employer contribution to retirement plan
Following are five tips to keep in mind when you’re creating a new incentive
program or overhauling an existing one:
#1 Make sure the goals are achievable. Many incentive programs revolve
around some goal associated with productivity or quality. In order for a program to
be a success, it’s essential for the goal to be within reach of the employees. Set
the bar high but not impossibly high. Remember, you want people to win. If the
goals are set too high, people will lose heart and stop trying. What’s worse, they’ll
feel like failures when in fact they may have made great progress from where they
started.
#2 Let employees choose their own incentives. The simplest way to make
sure your employees will like the perks and rewards given to them is to ask them
beforehand what they want. You can include a question on an employee
satisfaction survey or find some other way to get them to identify what rewards
would be most meaningful to them. Chances are you’ll get a variety of responses.
Keep track of who wants what, and, when it’s time, reward them accordingly.
#3 Make it enjoyable. To really get employees rallied around a goal, you have to
do more than just give them a goal and then say, “OK, go out and reach it.” It’s
equally important for the process of reaching the goal to be fulfilling. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that at every moment the environment has to be jovial, but
agents should at least feel that they’re enjoying the challenge.
One way to accomplish this is to celebrate small successes along the way. Another
is to continually remind employees of the progress they’re making, the learning
they’re accomplishing, the professional or personal growth they’re achieving, and
so on.
#4 Use incentives at crucial times. Incentives can be used any time but there
are certain situations in which an incentive program is especially timely in the
center. Following are a few examples:
- At the end of training, offer incentives to employees to start using their newly
acquired skills. - When a major change occurs, use an incentive program to encourage
employees to embrace the change and to make a smooth transition. - When morale is low, try an incentive program to inject some renewed energy
and enthusiasm into the team. - At the launch of a new product or project, incentives can help rally the group.
#5 Avoid overkill. Can you do too much? Yes, overkill is possible. Don’t feel that
you have to have an incentive program running at every hour of every day. You’ll
be exhausted and your employees will be too. People can’t work at their peak at all
times.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE MANAGEMENT ARTICLES
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR COACHING PROGRAMS
Author: Kurt Friedmann
All Rights Reserved
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management training, supervisory skills training, supervisory skills, change management training, communication
training, positive power and influence program, PPI, presentation skills training, meeting management training,
interpersonal skills, training, business training, harvard, positive power and influence, communication, change
management, management training, positive negotiation, negotiation skills, presentation skills, meeting management,
effective meetings, influence without authority, situation management, train the trainer, customer service, conversation,
skill building, experiential training, experiential, interactive training, call center coaching, call center training, contact
center training, contact center coaching, telephone sales, e-mail communication, email communication, customer
service training, technical support training, field rep training, customer service for field reps, customer service for
technical support, getting to the heart of, getting to the heart of customer service, getting to the heart of technical
support, getting to the heart of email, the other side of service
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| productivity by 22.4%, productivity by 88%. Source: International Personnel Management Association A Xerox Inc. study showed a paltry 13 percent of skills were retained by trainees six months after training if managers failed to provide coaching and support as the skills were being applied. The Clemmer Group "35% of call center employees who don't receive regular coaching look for another job within 12 months. But just 16% of those with good coaches expect to jump ship" Business Week |
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