The ultimate goal of any organization is to make profits and maintain a surplus. The corporate entity by itself cannot make profits; it needs the right people to do so. The profit of a company is nothing but the sum total of all the employees’ efforts. Human resources development managers and company head’s are fast realizing the importance of this aspect and coming out with attractive employee incentive programs to boost productivity at workplaces these days. They have realized that doing business in the long term is all about people actually improving their performance at workplace and what better way to motivate them than through an award.
Research statistics show that not all employees ever reach their full potential at work. Almost every human being for that matter has that capability to perform better, whatever may be the kind of work they are doing. While an individual one-to-one coaching method can be helpful in improving work performance, the entire process could end up being a costly affair. Incentives therefore are the best way to produce better productivity.
An incentives program will help your team stay motivated and make your business grow, if implemented in the proper manner. You should first of all be clear with what you want your team to achieve in the first place in order to get the incentives. Remember, working towards a clear and tangible target can be a really powerful motivating factor. You can set different types of goals as part of the incentives program. For instance you can give an award to the employee who tops monthly sales. Similarly you can give one for those who top the quarterly sales and so on and so forth.
Incentives come in various different forms. Many people make the mistake of thinking incentives as being only about money. Even a ‘thank you’ from the boss can work wonders for the morale of an employee. These days you can pick up anything from a glass award to an acrylic award for your team. Gifts always need not have to be expensive, for in most of the cases, it is the thought that counts. Getting them is also not that difficult. You can find many gift stores from where you can get an acrylic award or shield for your team. A shining laser engraved acrylic award for example can work wonders for your team, much more than any monetary incentive program. In fact your whole team may try and outdo each other while competing for the particular acrylic award.
You should not make the mistake of constituting an award for your team without clearly defining the target upon achieving which they would receive it. Many companies have done this mistake only to realize that it does not work out properly. For instance in the case of a call center, an award can be based on different criteria such as a good customer satisfaction index rating and taking calls efficiently. Similarly a sales based organization can think of an acrylic award for the sales executive who has consistently achieved sales target for all the months.
There are many companies which also offer profit sharing as part of an award. In some instances employees are offered a certain percentage of salary over and above their salary whenever they were to achieve either individual or team goals set by the top management.
