Set Performance

Set Performance

Most worthwhile projects or goals require a number of steps and perseverance over time in order to complete and accomplish them. To undertake any complex project such as developing an employee incentive plan requires concentration, dedication and several steps accomplished over a period of time.

Here's some key tips on how to create employee incentive plans in five easy steps.

Step 1. Establish Plan Objectives.

This is important because incentives should be rewarded based upon known business drivers. Things like increase sales, increase production, or improve customer retention are easy to measure,track, and quantify.

Should you skip or ignore this step, you will have no idea if your incentive plan is working. It is very important to define "what success look like" early in the development process.

Step 2. Define Desired Behaviors/Actions To Meet Objectives.

This is a really important step that will need your full attention and concentration. We recommend you do it this way: Look at your work processes and the work practices of your best employees and determine what are the key actions that are critical to reaching top performance. You should also investigate what others within your industry are tracking.

As an example, if increased customer retention is your objective and you know response time to customer complaints is a critical action, then track response time as a plan metric.

The key reason why you will need this is set performance target levels for the behaviors you want to increase. These must correlate to your objectives or you could be tracking the wrong things.

Step 3. Determine Rewards For Meeting Or Exceeding Action Levels.

What we are going to do here is to develop a layered reward system. There should be rewards for immediate recognition, short term rewards over a month or quarter, and long term incentives for loyal employees who contribute to the company's success.

Since everyone is not driven by the same thing, you need a balance between all three layers.

Immediate recognition may be more leveraging to some while others will take the long-term approach. It just depends on personality and the individual employee's life situation. Offering all three levels will help to motivate most people.

One last point, make sure the rewards are something that your employees will consider of significant value. We recommend you not just use money only but include some type of tangible gift. The gift will provide "trophy value" and be remembered over a long period of time, while money is forgotten as soon as it is spent..

Step 4. Establish An Evaluation Schedule.

To elaborate on that a bit, early on you should set a frequency to evaluate the effectiveness of your incentive plan.

If you have selected the right behaviors to target, then your business objectives should improve. If there is no correlation, then you need to investigate why and adjust accordingly.

Sometimes, the targets have not been communicated widely enough, training is inadequate, or supervisors are not fully engaged. Or quite possibly not enough time has passed to see results.

Anyway, this is a critical part of the process. Remember, "you can't manage, what you don't measure"..

Step 5. Keep Your Incentive Plan Fresh.

One more suggestion, keep looking for new ways to improve your employee incentive plans. If certain rewards are not valued by your staff, then change them. Add new behavior targets if business results are not improving.

Change something at least yearly. Keep your program fresh or it will become stale and your employee enthusiasm will start to fade

Finally, when you have followed the above tips closely, you will succeed.

Pat yourself on the back, be a little pleased with yourself. You achieved what you set out to accomplish!

You "climbed the Mountain"! Now take advantage of the view from the top!

In case you didn't follow the tips above, well, condolences will be in order. Your chances to create effective employee incentive plans will be very low, a genuine "long shot"!

J L Williams has over 25 years experience in a variety of management roles for several Fortune 500 companies. Discover more about employee incentive plans by going to his website www.employeerecognitionideas.net

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