5 Ways to Create Successful Employee Incentive Programs
5 Ways to Create Successful Employee Incentive Programs
Make Your Company Goals and Mission-Vision Employee Centric Remember that employee incentive programs are made up of two sections: financial and non-financial incentives. To achieve and provide the latter, start by reviewing your company’s goals and mission-vision statement. Are all of them all about you earning profit and nothing else? Is there any mention made about how employees benefit if and when your company does well? Is there any mention made about how much a company relies on its workforce?
Once you’ve made the necessary corrections, take the time to explain the changes you’ve made to your employees. Make sure that they understand the need for cooperation and harmony. Lastly, emphasize the give and take relationship between the company and the employees.
Make the Financial Incentives Sound as Exciting as Possible When introducing an employee incentive program to your workforce, do it the way you would advertise a new product to your market. Make everything sound as exciting and as attractive as possible. Don’t rely on mere figures to convince your employees to follow your directives. Yes, they’re powerful, but why leave it at that when you can make them sound even more tantalizing?
Be Fair and Realistic with What You Want to Get Employee incentive programs that offer multimillion dollars’ worth of commission won’t work if you’re asking your employees to give you the stars and the moon.
When deciding on the goals for your employee incentive programs, make sure that they adhere to two important conditions. Firstly, they must be fair to your employees. Don’t ask them to do something that – although achievable – might compromise their values and principles. Don’t take advantage of your employees if you become aware that they’re at desperate straits and liable to do anything for the incentive you’re offering.
Secondly, they must be realistic. Don’t give out rewards that are obviously unattainable because you’ve attached impossible goals to them. Don’t dangle incentives in your employees’ noses if you don’t mean to give them out in the first place. Consider time constraints as well. Are you giving them enough time to complete the task at hand? What about the required resources? Do all your employees have equal access to the necessary resources?
Options, Options, Options The most effective employee incentive programs are those that provide employees with numerous options to choose from. You must always be flexible when creating and modifying your employee incentive program. Don’t expect all your employees to fall in love with your first choice. People tend to have different priorities and perspectives, and to ensure that your employee incentive program will work, give your employees the freedom to choose the reward they wish – but only within reason and within your power, of course.
Use Winning Employees as Models When an employee is rewarded by your employee incentive program, take lots of photos of how happy he or she is with the rewards provided and use this as an example to motivate other employees to work harder in the future. A picture speaks a thousand words, after all, so seeing the actual effects of the employee incentive program will cause your employees to respond more favorably than having you expound on and on about its benefits.
5 Ways to Create Successful Employee Incentive Programs - To learn more about this author, visit Sheryl Strasser's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
One good reason why employee incentives sometimes prove to be ineffective for companies is because of the mistaken belief of employers that everything begins and ends with the employees. In truth, employee incentive programs can only be successful if you incorporate, integrate, and relate it with everything that makes up your company.
Make Your Company Goals and Mission-Vision Employee Centric Remember that employee incentive programs are made up of two sections: financial and non-financial incentives. To achieve and provide the latter, start by reviewing your company’s goals and mission-vision statement. Are all of them all about you earning profit and nothing else? Is there any mention made about how employees benefit if and when your company does well? Is there any mention made about how much a company relies on its workforce?
Once you’ve made the necessary corrections, take the time to explain the changes you’ve made to your employees. Make sure that they understand the need for cooperation and harmony. Lastly, emphasize the give and take relationship between the company and the employees.
Make the Financial Incentives Sound as Exciting as Possible When introducing an employee incentive program to your workforce, do it the way you would advertise a new product to your market. Make everything sound as exciting and as attractive as possible. Don’t rely on mere figures to convince your employees to follow your directives. Yes, they’re powerful, but why leave it at that when you can make them sound even more tantalizing?
Be Fair and Realistic with What You Want to Get Employee incentive programs that offer multimillion dollars’ worth of commission won’t work if you’re asking your employees to give you the stars and the moon.
When deciding on the goals for your employee incentive programs, make sure that they adhere to two important conditions. Firstly, they must be fair to your employees. Don’t ask them to do something that – although achievable – might compromise their values and principles. Don’t take advantage of your employees if you become aware that they’re at desperate straits and liable to do anything for the incentive you’re offering.
Secondly, they must be realistic. Don’t give out rewards that are obviously unattainable because you’ve attached impossible goals to them. Don’t dangle incentives in your employees’ noses if you don’t mean to give them out in the first place. Consider time constraints as well. Are you giving them enough time to complete the task at hand? What about the required resources? Do all your employees have equal access to the necessary resources?
Options, Options, Options The most effective employee incentive programs are those that provide employees with numerous options to choose from. You must always be flexible when creating and modifying your employee incentive program. Don’t expect all your employees to fall in love with your first choice. People tend to have different priorities and perspectives, and to ensure that your employee incentive program will work, give your employees the freedom to choose the reward they wish – but only within reason and within your power, of course.
Use Winning Employees as Models When an employee is rewarded by your employee incentive program, take lots of photos of how happy he or she is with the rewards provided and use this as an example to motivate other employees to work harder in the future. A picture speaks a thousand words, after all, so seeing the actual effects of the employee incentive program will cause your employees to respond more favorably than having you expound on and on about its benefits.
5 Ways to Create Successful Employee Incentive Programs - To learn more about this author, visit Sheryl Strasser's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
|||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
|||
Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Sheryl's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
|
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 Networking Difference In A Decade Business Coaching How To Win New Business EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES LIABILITY Accessing Capital |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Political Blogs
Top Political Blogs of 2009 | |
 |
Email The Reporters
Press Release Builder | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
