˳How-to... Incentive program for Doers

The aim of incentivizing Doers should be to achieve positive results in the future rather than just rewarding past achievements.

A well-designed incentive program becomes an important tool for managing and achieving a company's goals.

About Incentives

Incentives are like fuel:

• We cannot do without fuel.
• We cannot postpone refueling.
• We must regularly refuel.
• The more we use the car, the more we must refuel it.
• The more we refuel it, the longer we will be able to drive it.
• Higher-quality fuel provides better performance for the car.

Incentives are individual.

The incentive program should be personalized. Each person lives and works in a different context, so different incentives have different influent on them.

With personalized incentives, we will encourage the Doer to improve in those areas where we think it is necessary.

It is common practice to motivate entire teams rather than individuals. This may provide some results, but in essence, engagement can be measured, controlled, and improved only at the individual level, which is most important for productivity.

Basic elements of the incentive program

The elements of the incentive program are 3 lists:

Effects: A list of effects that we want to incentivize.

Incentives: A list of incentives we have prepared to give to performers.

Which incentives to give for which effect: A list that intersects the previous 2 lists, i.e., we determine which incentive is given for which effect.

1. Effects

It is necessary to have clearly stated effects that we will incentivize in advance. This creates an atmosphere of trust that is a precondition for the motivated engagement of employees.

The effects we want to encourage will primarily be linked to:

• Adherence to procedures from the TaskPacks,
• Results of the TaskPacks,
• Engagement in the Problem Box,
• Engagement in the Idea Box,

and then with:

• Goals,
• Plans.

Adherence to procedures from the TaskPacks

The TaskPack procedures are crucial and should be given the highest priority to ensure the company achieves its goals and plans. The effect of following these procedures, along with the results from the TaskPack, should be sufficient to achieve our goals and plans. To guarantee success, we need to set up the processes and TaskPacks correctly, update them regularly, and coordinate them well in the Arena. The Workanizers tools are designed to facilitate this.

Therefore, it is worth considering why we should offer incentives for anything else.

Even if someone achieves good results by NOT following TaskPacks, it is dangerous for the company. This is because it is unclear what led to such results. Then, if we want, we cannot reproduce this success with other Doers. Rewarding such behavior can lead to the breakdown of the organization and increase the potential for blackmail by certain individuals, which will ultimately cost us dearly.

Engagement in the Problem Box and Idea Box

Employee engagement in problem-solving and improvements is essential as it reflects their concern for the business, just like ours. Encouraging engagement in the Problem Box and Idea Box is particularly important because it enables Doers to be active in the organizational infrastructure, participating in its creation, maintenance, and improvement. Through their contributions, we receive real feedback on work problems that need to be addressed and opportunities for improvement. This approach surpasses the isolated activities of Process Managers and Top Managers. Of course, contributions to the Problem Box and Idea Box must follow the systematized rules managed by Process Managers. Furthermore, the active participation of Doers in creating the organizational infrastructure leads to a personal commitment to their work and engagement in the company.

Achieving goals and plans

It is common practice to initiate and conclude reward and punishment systems based on the achievement or non-achievement of goals and plans. However, such an approach has drawbacks, as it can divert the Doer's attention from the effects of individual processes and TaskPacks. Nonetheless, focusing on goals and plans can have a significant psychological effect. They allow us to monitor the overall outcome of individual TaskPacks.

2. Incentives

What incentives interest Doers?

Incentives can be very diverse and depend on many socio-economic, cultural, psychological, and other factors. We must admit that this is more complex than it appears at first glance, and nuances can affect business productivity.

Basic incentives

Salary

Salary is the basic incentive that is necessary for attracting new employees and for their retention. It depends on the conditions of the labor market and represents the foundation of employee security.

Benefits

These are basic, fixed incentives (in addition to salary). They can be various. Some of the common benefits include:

• Company car
• Company laptop
• Company cellular phone
• Commuting cost
• Interest-free loans
• Loan guarantees
• Additional health insurance
• Additional pension insurance
• Company apartment
• And so on

Additional incentives

Apart from salary and benefits, there are various other incentives that companies offer. The difference between employers is often observed in these incentives.

• Percentage of salary
• One-time payment
• And so on

Time off

• Extended weekend - small (Fri., Sat., Sun.).
• Extended weekend - large (Fri. Sat. Sun. Mon.)
• And so on

Recognition as an incentive

In addition to the above incentives, it is necessary always to use recognition as an incentive.

Recognition often has a much greater impact on productivity than it seems at first glance. Recognition is an independent category of incentives, but it can be combined with others. It can take various forms:

• Verbal praise
• Written or material praise (employee of the month on the info board, plaque, certificate of appreciation, trophy, etc.)

Recognition can be given privately, 1 on 1, or publicly, at a meeting and/or, for example, a circular email, on the info board, etc.

Less formal incentives

Here, we will emphasize the type of incentive that is less formal but well-received and memorable in practice. The most suitable incentives here are in the form of vouchers/subscriptions... For example:

• Recreation (swimming pool, gym, rafting, hiking, tennis...)
• Relaxation (SPA, yoga, massage...)
• Entertainment (concert, amusement park...)
• Nice restaurant
• Purchase of technical goods
• Purchase of sports equipment and gear
• Tourist package (visit to a famous city, sea, mountains, spa...)
• And so on

There are many similar examples.

It is worth making an effort here to make a deal with suppliers to get vouchers at a lower cost than if the employee came and bought them on their own.

Other motivators

It makes sense to list other motivators that do not have to (but can) be directly tied to performance.

• Celebrating the first day at work
• Birthday
• Work anniversary
• Team outing, lunch, etc.
• New Year's celebration
• Special cap, shirt, etc.
• And so on

Notes: There can be many incentives. / They don't have to be expensive. / We need to know our employees and give them incentives that they want and that are meaningful to them. / It is good to be inventive and original in finding the right incentives.

3. Which incentive for which effect

When we know which effects we want to stimulate and when we have a prepared palette of incentives at our disposal that we can use, it is now time to combine them. This means that we need to link appropriate incentives to certain effects.

This would create a fairly simple incentive program in a straightforward manner. The essence is to separate the effects we stimulate from the incentives we have devised. Combinations can vary from Doer to Doer.

With an incentive program, it is important that the Doer knows in advance which effect we will evaluate and how we will reward it.

It is highly undesirable for evaluation and reward conditions to change unexpectedly. We must carefully announce changes to the incentive program months in advance.