When it comes to doing business I am your guy. I know strategies and numbers and forecasts; I am able to predict sales trends and make adjustments accordingly, implement and manage plans that will see companies grow, and I always have an eye on the bottom line. While this is all well and good in business and has earned me a solid reputation in my industry, it does not tell the whole tale because as good as I am with numbers, I am not nearly as adept when it comes to people. In other words, I have a difficult time with employees sometimes and motivation is not my strong point. This was never too much of an issue in past roles because I was recognized as the bigger picture guy and others were in charge of communicating with employees - making sure that everyone was on the same page and satisfied with their jobs. Now, however, I had my own business and I was going to have to close that learning curve pretty quickly if I was going to be truly successful in my venture. The employee recognition program that I implemented was, by far, the biggest, most important thing that I did in helping to improve employee relations.

Incentive programs are nothing new and have been around for some time in a variety of ways. This, however, was something different - something structured, organized, and clear; in other words, something I could understand and appreciate. We worked with a highly reputable company that had the experience and expertise in putting together incentive programs for companies our size. We were able to choose the incentives that we wanted - determine the goals that we wanted to be met in order to receive those incentives - and the company that we hired handled and managed the whole thing. More in the next post…

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In the last post we talked about how our company had come to a place that so many eventually do - where our production was way up but our morale within the company was way down. We had experienced tremendous growth very quickly which was great in terms of the bottom line and our growing reputation in the industry but our employes were bearing the brunt of the additional work and were feeling very much out of the loop in terms of communication. We had found all these great ways to communicate with clients around the world but we were having trouble communicating even the simplest ideas to our employees. They felt cut off and as if their ideas were being overlooked as well as their needs. We implemented our employee program about this time with the help of a great company that helped us put it together and manage it.

We rolled out big with our employee program, offering vacations and big electronics to those employees who met specific goals in terms of production and safety. It was a huge hit and went a long way towards repairing employee/management relations. Plus because we were always changing goals and incentives we worked directly with employees to learn what they considered to be appropriate goals and interesting incentives - thus improving communication on a daily basis.

The program was in effect - successfully - for about a year when the economy crashed. We knew we had to make some adjustments but - because the program was already in place and they had experienced our commitment towards honoring their work - employees were nothing but supportive when we adjusted the prize incentives to a slightly less dramatic scale to account for our minimized budget. We are happy that incentive programs can be adjusted according to our needs and we’re equally thrilled that we can continue to offer our employees merit-based incentives.

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There is nothing better than running a company that not only has the respect of the industry as a whole but also has the full, unequivocal support of its employees. Anyone in business knows that this is a difficult feat to pull off under any circumstances but most decidedly now when economic conditions warrant everyone to tighten their belts and operate with as much of a barebones staff as possible. Those companies that are able to keep the motivation of their employees high and support morale even in bleak economic conditions know a thing or two about planning; and those who include incentive programs in their plans know that they are something that can really pay off for employees as well as management.

Incentive programs allow for the company in question to put together a variety of goals for employees to achieve and a host of prize incentives that coordinate with the reaching of those goals. Employee recognition programs can be anything that you want them to be - large scale programs that include high ticket items like jewelry and trips or lower scale programs that are more in line with your budget and include such things as gift certificates to restaurants and small electronic items.

The most important thing to remember about incentive programs - other than the fact that they work in helping to motivate employees in a way that management alone is often not able to achieve - is the fact that they can be scaled according to a company’s budget. Meaning, that while your rewards program may look a certain way now it can be drastically - or even microscopically - altered to fit your budget as your company grows and changes. There are not many things out there that allow companies to reach out to employees in such a way and certainly not many programs that allow companies to scale them to size.

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In the last post I talked about our company’s eventual decision to implement incentive programs into our operation. We were looking for a cost-effective program that would allow us to recognize our employees in a personal way - but something that would not require a huge upfront financial investment on our part. We were in the same boat as everyone else right now; the economy was not our friend. Still, we had to do something. We were continuing to recruit people and we spent a lot on that process alone, not to mention the money that we put into training good employees. Our ultimate goal was to integrate them into our team and to have them stay on with us throughout their career. Turnover was not budget friendly. We had done all that we could in terms of salary and bonus but we needed something more immediate; something to which employees could relate right away and would motivate them on a daily basis.

An employee recognition program was the perfect solution but we needed to work with a professional team to determine the right program for us now - as well as having the continued support as our situation changed and we were able to put more money into the program.

The people that we worked with were great - enormously informative about incentive programs in general and about what kind of employee recognition program would be most beneficial for us. They were able to help us identify the tiers of prizes that would work best for our employees as well as our budget at the moment. They also provide continued management - not only in helping us to implement and manage our current program but helping us to grow our employee program as our budget and our needs change in the future.

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The choice to even enter into an employee recognition program - for our company - was a long time in coming. We had known for some time that we needed to up the ante when it came to taking care of our employees. We spend a lot of money finding, training and grooming the right people so that they will one day become seasoned members of our team; but what we had been finding is that we were dropping the ball past this point. That once they were trained and were “in the groove” so to speak most employees felt that they were left out to dry. They were unhappy and felt unheard; and unhappiness among employees breeds high turnover; plain and simple. We needed to step up the plate in terms of taking care of the people that mattered to us and we needed to do it quickly We chose incentive programs.

A rewards program would allow us to stand behind our words with our employees. We could say how great they were doing, how much we appreciated them until we were blue in the face. But what did that really mean in the end? Our employees needed to see something from us. Salary increases and bonuses were great but what could motivate them on a daily basis to keep up the good fight?

We knew many other businesses that had benefited from their own employee program and they did not have to make a huge financial investment in order to make it happen. This was important for us; we needed to be able to hit the ground running with this but we didn’t have a lot of cash on our side - at least not right now. So we set out to talk to the professionals who could help us set up incentive programs that would work for our current circumstances and ultimately grow with our company.

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Spending money in business is done with careful consideration. Return on investment, of course, is the biggest consideration when it comes to planning a budget. What will this short term investment deliver in terms of long term benefits? These were all the things we considered when we debated about implementing an employee recognition program. Here’s what we knew…we were tackling an employee morale issue and we didn’t have the cash on hand to be able to throw salary increases at everyone.We knew that incentive programs were a great way to improve morale - and subsequently improve production - and the investment could be as little or as much as we wanted. This was music to our ears as we tried to figure out the best way to grow our business and use our money wisely.

An employee program could be set up and managed with very little investment. It was a way to show our employees that we appreciated their work and it was a way for the employees themselves to become more engaged in their own work. Working hard to achieve specific goals is always a good thing for motivation and morale - especially when it involves healthy competition.

Best of all, the employee recognition program could grow right along with our company. As we grew and made more money we could throw more money into the employee program; allowing for better incentive prizes or an additional tier of prizes. What we liked so much about the program was that it was completely within our control; we did not need to commit to this huge financial investment in order to set it up; and the return on investment was well documented by other companies of our size that had realized huge leaps in production by implementing a rewards program of their own.

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Hiring a new employee is an investment on the part of every company. Think about it; you put time into training, you spend money on benefits and all the rest; you make an investment of time and money in every employee that comes to work with your company. Of course you want to minimize turnover; to maximize the chances that an employee will be a good investment and stay with your company for the long term as a valuable asset to your team. We make every effort in our business to reduce our turnover and to make it difficult for employees to walk away; we know that the early stage of any relationship is a trial run and we understand that new employees are evaluating us just as much as we are evaluating them. Which is why we very quickly enroll our new employees into our employee recognition program.

Incentive programs are nothing new in the workforce but they have grown in scale to be sure. Essentially a company puts together a tier of goals and corresponding prizes - jewelry, electronics, even vacations - that employees can win. This is a great way to spark competition, improve morale, and provide employees with motivation to achieve goals that may be above and beyond what they would normally do. We have used a rewards program in our company for some time and we are happy to extend it to our new employees almost right away.

What we have found is that new employees who are allowed to participate in our incentive programs are motivated to achieve success right from the start and we are able to capitalize on the motivation that already comes with starting a new job. Plus, we are able to show our employees right from the beginning that we are invested in them and willing to reward them well for a job well done.

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In the last post we talked about the morale of a company and how low morale among employees can translate to slowed production and, ultimately, a decrease in profits. Company ownership and management may think they are doing all that they can for their employees but the reality is that in most cases employee needs slip through the cracks because management isn’t listening hard enough. A variety of complaints may arise from the employee “peanut gallery” - of which management/owners may only catch snippets; complaints that may include working conditions, issues with benefits, unhappiness with salary, lack of bonus, or more. But, as we discussed, this all boils down to employees not really feeling heard; feeling as though they don’t matter to the company. And when employees feel as if no one cares about them they are likely not to care as much about their job. Nothing replaces the need for the company powers-that-be to listen to their employees; but demonstrating a commitment to employee recognition doesn’t hurt either and that’s where a solid rewards program comes into play.

An employee program can be set up with the help of professionals who will actually manage the program. You can start off choosing a host of incentive prizes and change them as the program evolves. Most importantly, starting an employee incentives program should come with some effort towards determining what is best for your company; so work with a professional to determine:

What you can afford. Remember, incentive programs can be manipulated according to your financial needs so even if you choose one program now you can easily change it as your company grows.

What you will use the employee program to do - to reward safety, for sales incentives, retention programs, or team building.

What prizes will work best for motivating your employees - anything from gift cards and electronics to vacations and jewelry.

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There’s nothing worse for an employee than feeling like the work that they do doesn’t matter. They may grumble about their salary, their bonus, their hours, or their inability to communicate with management - but all of these separate and specific complaints really all boil down to the same thing - an employee feeling that they are thought of as “less than” by the people for whom they work. Let’s face it; there are a ton of management techniques out there all designed to help owners and managers better communicate with their employees in a variety of ways but until you are ready to take action and really put these skills to work each and every day you are putting your company at risk of low morale which can slow production and label you with a negative reputation in your industry. A well considered employee rewards program, however, can go a long way towards turning things around.

An employee recognition program, as its name suggests, allows companies to recognize the hard work of their employees by rewarding them with specifically chosen items. Businesses often work with professionals who can set up customized incentive programs that allow the company itself to determine the criteria for employees who are entitled to receive prizes as well as choosing the prizes themselves. The truly great thing about incentive programs is that they can be completely scalable to what is appropriate to the hosting company and can be changed at any time to include a larger selection, more expensive items, less expensive items, who is eligible, and whatever else is important to the company at that time.

Of course putting together a solid employee incentives program means giving careful consideration to your employees, their interests, what might be considered a motivation to them, and, of course, your budget. More in the next post…

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The last year was difficult and that is putting it mildly. Our business struggled just like everyone else’s and while we were far from out of the water we were definitely starting to move in a better direction. We were absolutely wary however; we wanted to take baby steps to make sure that we didn’t get in over our heads and that we were able to maintain our current condition. But here’s the thing: we could not give our employees raises although they had gone without increases for nearly two years and we were not able to give bonuses either. We did, however, want to be able to give our employees the respect they were deserved and that’s when we looked into incentive programs.

An employee program is all about achievement and award. We set the goals for our employees - very specific goals that are all about sales and profit. We then set corresponding awards (or, more accurately, prizes) through our employee recognition program. We worked with a great company that was able to put the whole thing in place for us - helping us choose the prize tier that worked for our budget and would allow us to grow the program as our company grew and we became more profitable.

I can’t tell you how well our employee recognition program went over with our employees. They were being very patient about their salaries but I suppose they were just happy to have jobs in this economy. Our employee incentives program, however, showed them that we were committed to them, appreciated their efforts, and were happy to be able to reward them whenever possible. Let’s face it; in this economy we are all a team - we have to work together to get through these times so we can come out the other side intact.

Popularity: 41% [?]

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