Actionable Tips To Ace Your Employee Incentive Program
Happy employees are productive and loyal, and their contribution can fuel an organization’s growth. But creating a happy workforce takes much more than a lucrative pay package and excellent benefits. You have to find ways to appreciate their good work with incentives as they motivate them to do even better. But you must be creative with your incentive program to win over your employees. At the same time, it should not burden your wallet because paying extra can elevate the cost of running your business. The idea is to get the best of both worlds. Let us share some actionable tips to ace your employee incentive program.
Align with company objectives
It is crucial to align your incentive program with the company objective to make the most of it. For example, you may pay them for increasing sales volumes if bulk selling is your motive. Likewise, companies looking for long-term relationships can incentivize employees for finding quality leads and sealing deals with them. Both the business and employee reap the benefits of reward programs that are in tandem with the company goals.
Ensure an easy-to-understand system
Your employees will value a system only if they can understand it and see the benefits it delivers. If people do not comprehend how a program can maximize their income, it hardly works to motivate them. Moreover, overly complex systems only frustrate the employees. Remember to design a simple system that makes it easy for the employees to check how they can unlock their rewards.
Think beyond money
Typically, corporate rewards are about cash bonuses and increments. You must give an adequate amount to entice the employee to ramp up their performance. But you can think of more creative ideas to motivate and inspire your workforce. Consider designing employee incentive programs with gifts, wellness initiatives, paid leaves, and similar out-of-the-box ideas. The long-term costs of these rewards may be less than cash bonuses, but they are great from the employee engagement perspective.
Ensure control over the outcome
A winning incentive program enables employees to control its outcome. Ensure that the quality of work they invest in is proportional to the rewards they earn. Knowing that better performance will amount to bigger incentives gives them a reason to go the extra mile. Define the metrics carefully and ensure that the team members understand how they can control their rewards to get the best results from your incentive program.
Provide recurring incentives
Another effective measure to set up your rewards program for success is to provide recurring incentives. Systems that reward people frequently have a higher motivational impact than the ones that pay only annually. Consider monthly incentives for sales or production targets to keep people giving their best to the business. You may think long-term for senior executives or employees working on long-term projects such as building construction.
A creative incentive-compensation program can help you boost employee productivity, efficiency, and performance. So you must invest effort into designing one that works. Follow these simple steps to craft an ideal one.
