Executing an incentive program that is right for your business needs can feel like a serious challenge. Many companies never get it right and spend a lot of time and money creating a system that leaves their employees feeling confused or unappreciated. You just can’t afford to make that kind of mistake because it can cost you thousands of dollars or more.
That’s why it’s crucial to learn the steps necessary for a high-quality incentive program. These tips will help you create and execute a plan that drives your employees toward success. Their success will translate into more significant profits and more money for your business. It’s a win-win that both of you should appreciate.
1. Create Simple and Concrete Objectives When Executing an Incentive Program
Every incentive program needs simple and clear objectives that your employees can understand. For example, your salespeople may need to hit a certain sales number to reach different levels of the reward system. These rewards are inherently easier to understand and give your workers something to aim for when trying to earn rewards.
Goals such as “work 15 percent harder” or “maintain a positive attitude at all times” may seem like a great way to improve business. However, they are too subjective and difficult to grasp visually and conceptually. Avoid these types of goals and focus only on aspects that your employees can control, easily visualize and understand.
2. Announce and Explain These Objectives
After you come up with some concrete objectives, you need to declare them to the workplace. Helping everyone understand these goals is crucial to making it easier for them to obtain them. We suggest a training session or a brief meeting where you discuss directive and rewards in detail.
Just as importantly, this step helps them better understand what they need to do and will inspire them to success. Creating a goal chart is a good idea here because it can showcase where everyone stands on achieving their goals. Place this in a convenient place so everyone can see it.
3. Create a System for Measuring Success
We already briefly mentioned the goals chart you should create to help execute an incentive program. However, you must design and implement a simple system that allows your employees to track their goals and their progress toward them. For example, online sales charts can help them see how much they have earned during a specific reward period. You can then place markers on these spreadsheets that gauge how far they have to go to hit the goals.
It is also essential to communicate any changes in goals and showcase the performance standings of those in the workplace. For example, you should announce when somebody earns a reward and celebrate it in a way that makes them feel appreciated. This step helps to make your program more efficient by enhancing the effect it can have on your employees.
4. Offer Real and Tangible Rewards
The rewards for sales success need to be tangible and worth the hard work your employees go through to obtain them. For example, travel rewards are a great way of making high-earning employees feel appreciated. Earning a vacation to the Caribbean will make your employees feel like you genuinely care about their comfort and hard work.
While this kind of trip can seem expensive, it is a small investment because everyone in your business will work hard to achieve higher sales. As a result, you will make more than enough money to cover the cost of this kind of incentive. This profitability means you can offer newer and better rewards and incentives for success.
5. Celebrate Reward Success
We’ve already touched on the ways you should celebrate reward winners in the workplace. However, we think it is worth emphasizing just how important this step is when executing an incentive program. These celebrations can be as small as an announcement that employees won online rewards. These employees can then discuss which rewards they earned online.
However, more significant celebrations can include office-wide parties for those who have earned the grand prize for a quarter. These events not only showcase the success of your team but indicate that earning these rewards is possible. As a result, your employees will feel more motivated to work even harder. Even better, it will increase company morale by bringing everyone closer together.
Executing an Incentive Program That Is Right for Your Business
The primary challenge associated with executing an incentive program is making sure your employees appreciate all the rewards and the benefits you offer. Creating a reward system that feels cheap or out of proportion to the work it requires to achieve these goals is likely to have the opposite effect and cause your employees to work less hard.
If you are still struggling with executing an incentive program that is right for your business, don’t hesitate to contact our team at Incentive Solutions to learn more. We can create a system that is right for your salespeople and your business needs. Our incentives and rewards feel necessary, beneficial, and truly worth the hard work it takes to achieve them. Let us help you master your team motivation needs.