Everyone is experiencing a very tough year in 2009. The past twelve to eighteen months have seen the most significant global financial crisis in a long time, and it would be only too easy for businesses to believe that there is no need at all to motivate personnel - that keeping their jobs should be the only motivation that most people will need.
It makes good sense, however, for companies to retain valued personnel, as having to go through the long and arduous process of recruiting new staff can be very time-consuming - it's much more cost-effective to look after the ones you've got!
Furthermore, any cutbacks in incentive programmes can have a negative effect on morale, with businesses suffering in the long term. Employees may well be in fear of losing their jobs in the present climate, and feeling stressed - as a result, it's now more important than ever to maintain performance at all personnel levels and in all departments. An effective incentive programme can help businesses recruit new personnel, retain existing staff and also assist with staff motivation, morale and loyalty.
It's also fair to say that it's not just financial incentives that work in retaining staff. Incentives work best alongside good management practices such as appraisals, training programmes and good communication. Companies should also provide employees with a ‘voice' through consultative bodies, attitude surveys and grievance systems and, of course, personnel should be treated fairly at all times, with flexible working conditions and harmonious atmospheres.
A key issue is that what motivates personnel one year may not do so the next. The skills needed in most jobs keep evolving as do the demands of those jobs, and it can be difficult to keep abreast of the most innovative and appropriate ways to retain and reward personnel. Of course, offering the most attractive incentive that will suit everyone is virtually impossible, but non-monetary incentives and rewards tend to be more popular than a cash equivalent.
When considering any incentive, it's always wise to profile the target audience in terms of gender, age, interests, socio-economic grouping and also religion, so that a relevant reward can be supplied.
Anyone involved in the incentive scheme will need to know just what they need to do, how they do it and what the rewards are. But there are other considerations:
* Provide regular updates on progress. Good communication is vital to convey every detail and to avoid misunderstandings
* Invest some of the budget in the communications strategy
* Launch the scheme with as much promotion as budgets permit
* Consider devising a theme for the scheme to make it fun
* Communicate regularly using more than one medium - perhaps a special newsletter, regular email updates, monthly meetings
* It's a good idea to ensure that part of the communication plan highlights just what the incentive entails - whether that be a holiday, gift vouchers or an experience adventure.
* Performance should be measured via sales reports, output/production record sheets and customer service feed back terms
* Top achievers should be recognised, as this helps the scheme's momentum, and participants' enthusiasm.
* Hold regular reviews - if something isn't working, change it
* Be flexible but don't make false promises and start something that can't be finished
* Involvement of senior personnel is instrumental in driving forward a scheme, and in telling companies how workable a project is from an operational point of view.
* Your incentive scheme should be aligned to your business plan in terms of possible improvements in customer service, increase in output etc
As a general rule, well-motivated personnel provide better levels of customer service and are more likely to stay with a company, growing in experience and becoming even more valuable. And, of course, if a business retains its staff, the cost of recruiting and training new personnel is reduced.
A structured and well planned personnel incentive programme can help in reducing turnover by making personnel feel valued, and can lift morale by providing attractive rewards. Rewarding loyalty has the ‘feel good' factor about it and, in these tough times, that's surely something we all want!
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