Effective Incentive Schemes, An Impossible Pipe Dream?

john elliott

Inspired by another thread, thought this subject sufficiently important to deserve its own thread.

All the incentive schemes that I am aware of have the same aim in mind, in effect to make each person act as if he or she was the owner rather than just an employee. To be intimately involved with the short and long term aims of the firm. To be as concerned as the owner with the profit of the company both now and in the future, its value and its reputation.

I've been on the receiving end of various schemes since the late sixties, and I haven't yet seen or heard of anything that satisfies all the requirements.

For instance, how does one shorten the accounting periods (if one is monitoring profits for a profit sharing scheme) down to lengths of time that are meaningful to an employee? It's all very well to look forward to a nice bonus at Christmas, for instance, but that may not mean too much to a laborer in February.

However, if anyone does know of a really good incentive scheme then I would love to hear about it. Anything that can make workers who normally work at say 75% effort instead work at 95%, that is something I would really like to hear about

John

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Ed the Roofer said "John too, in his crass and blunt demeanor.............."

buildenterprise

How about quarterly bonuses linked to their productivity as a whole? Every three months, you review the last quarter's work. If the jobs were completed on time or ahead of schedule, give out bonuses equal to 2 days pay. Jobs that ran behind due to reasons beyond their control don't count.
Just a thought.
You could also do it for every job, as opposed to quarterly, and just work the extra $ into the job.

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azgardener

I am working on the monetary end of the system now but here is the premise. We track our production rate daily in so much as it relates to time on the job and travel/supply, in general time that does not produce income for the business. If the crew is on job sites for more tha 75% of the day my numbers work out. The higher the % the more money I make.

I have a gardening service so there can be a lot of travel time involved. There are also many oppotunities to milk the job. Tying a bonus to the production ratio helps the guys manage themselves. If somone is late the others are on him because they can't leave the yard until he shows up. If they make stops through out the day at convienence stores etc brings down the rate. If they don't keep control of their supplies and they have to pick up something rather than having a supervisor do it during a regular supply visit it brings down the rate. We have only been doing it for a short time so just the newness and the competition is working for me but I know that will wear off soon enough.

It certainly needs expanded upon and you need to be on your toes or the guys will bust your balls if you hold them up. It is a good all around program I think. Of course it has to be tied to client satisfaction in my case. You builders will have to figure out the rest for yourself.

We calculate our rate by dividing the combined hours we were at clients homes by the total payroll hours for the day. We fill out works sheets at each home so it is easy to do at the end of the day.

I have been reading up for the past few weeks and have learned a lot. This is the first time I have had anything to add to the conversation. So that cherry has been popped so to speak.

BTW where is the spell check ?