I totally agree with everything Craig says, as I normally do. My thoughts on incentive, would be to offer some type of incentive pay. I don`t know your factory, but if you have an assembly line, to me it would be hard to offer incentive pay for any one particular person, if you have 10 people on the same assembly line. I`m guessing one person could not work faster or be more productive than the person in front of or behind them on the assembly line. But if your employees are not working as a team on a production line; then you could offer some type of incentive pay. In this day of our economy, people now would be way more interested in an incentive PAY, than any other type of incentive, such as employee of the month award and a prize for that (free parking for the month, or parking in the VIP`s spot for the month, or U.S. savings bond, a $50, $100, $500 gas card, and the list goes on). depends on your budget.
If your employees work in teams, you can have some sort of competition between the teams and offer some incentive pay, a priviledge, some perk, etc. Get to leave 1-4 hrs early on Friday, get an extra hr for lunch, give them a pizza party for lunch, and the list goes on.
Being a group manager for over 10 years for a very large organization with thousands of employees; I have seen all kinds of incentives offered throughout the organization. But what I did with my own individual group as I did for many decisions that would affect them all; is I held a brainstorming session and solicited their input. Depending on the issue, I would either hold a group meeting, give them the pros and cons and asked for their feedback. Others, such as sensitive issues, or issues where I knew they would want to remain anonymous, we had a "locked" suggestion/idea box with a slit in top for them to put their un-signed entries in. Periodically, we would have a "Nominate a co-worker" for different things, such as if they did a good deed, best customer service, most helpful, most productive, and the list goes on.
Then we had our annual performance evaluations throughout the organization with a numberical rating for each factor. Then for total overal performance rating, based on their score; If their score was 70-80 they`d get a check for a certain amount of incentive pay, score 80-90 they`d get a bigger incentive check and if their score was above 95 they would have a choice of getting a bigger incentive pay check or a choice of a pay increase (a certain % of their salary and be presented with an "Outstanding Performance Award" in front of the entire group of employees. If their score was below 70 they`d be reprimanded and given 3 months to improve and be re-evaluated. My overall suggestion would be to point blank ask your employees for their thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Believe me,that in itself, brings up the morale, because it makes them feel important and a part of the organization. Also, we had an Employee Suggestion Program (with guidelines and specifications) that we also gave them money for it if their suggestion was adopted, and they got more money if their suggestion was in some form a cost saver to the organization. (but they had to point that out in their written suggestion what the estimated cost savings would be, and if adopted they would actually get a percentage of the cost savings). There was a 3 member panel who reviewed, researched the feasibility of the suggestion, and then made a decision to approve or decline. (in the guidelines, if suggestion was declined, and the company ended up implementing the change with in xx number of years; that employee was still entitled to the cash)
kywomanjt10/16/2008 11:44 PM
New Topic
Post Reply
Follow Topic
