Tips to Improve Business with Employee Incentive Programs

In the current economic climate, businesses large and small face increasingly stiff competition to attract and retain talented, motivated people on top of an ongoing battle for sales and brand recognition. There are many factors that can influence workplace performance and, in turn, business revenue. Most critical perhaps is the motivation levels of your staff, whether they understand the importance of their role in the broader business strategy, and whether they feel they are being rewarded for the work they perform – rather than simply hitting arbitrary, one-size-fits-all KPIs or sales targets. It’s for this reason that many organisations invest in structured reward and non-cash incentive programs to complement their financial incentive schemes.

Whatever the size of your business or the industry you are in, employee incentive programs can certainly help boost your overall company and ensure you get the best from your employees.

In many cases it is a substantial investment, so to get the best results from your program, it is important to first consider the following steps:

Determine your company’s goals:

Evaluate your company’s objectives, and the values or behaviours you want your people to display, before you begin planning your incentive program. Rewarding employees for their performance in a particular field provides the motivation to make a difference in their profession. There is no one-size-fits all philosophy; each program must be designed around your company’s specific culture and objectives and, when implemented and managed correctly, incentive programs have been repeatedly proven to increase performance.

Utilise different incentive programs to achieve different goals at different times:

When considering your reward and recognition program, plan to reward your people to achieve different goals. Reward short-term performance targets or utilise your incentive program to attract new employees to your company. Incentive programs can also be used to reward team contribution and performance. Length of service programs recognise long term employees for their sustained contribution. ‘Spot prizes’ and peer recognition is also an important part of the incentive mix.

Provide employees with choice:

When rewarding employees, choice is all important; a reward is only perceived as such by an employee when it is something they actually want!

Choose a reputed company to implement your incentive plan: Hiring the services of a company that specialises in implementing and managing employee recognition and sales incentive programs can help you to achieve the desired business results. Specialist providers will design and manage the appropriate reward programs by evaluating the objectives and values of your company.