Bonuses have been in the news since the GFC and, thanks mainly to investment bankers and their high street colleagues, all for the wrong reasons. But employee bonus schemes are an excellent tool for incentivising staff and ultimately improving business performance.
Well structured reward and recognition strategies can help focus employees efforts on key deliverables such as sales targets, customer service or on-time delivery.
The right incentives at the right time can increase employee motivation by establishing a direct link between pay and performance.
When it comes to developing and deploying a reward system, the trick lies in finding the balance that delivers the change in performance / behaviour that the business wishes to see, and in incentivising the employee so that they increase the levels of effort that they bring to their work.
Points to consider …
- Set clear expectations – talk to your staff and set clear targets about what you want them to achieve. Make sure that they know what success looks like and when they have to deliver by. Make the target a stretch, but not unattainable.
- Make sure that individuals are able to monitor how they’re progressing towards achieving their goals – it’s important that they have the power to influence their own performance.
- Don’t reward for rewards sake – a bonus should be recognition of when performance has exceeded expectation, not for just turning up and meeting role expectations. A bonus should be given when performance improves the business.
- Make sure any bonus payments are timely, and delivered promptly after targets are met. A clear connection between performance and reward needs to be established if increased levels of motivation and effort are to be maintained.
If you’d like to discuss how to further develop your business performance then give my office a call on 07 3221 1877.
