Partner Article

3 Ways to Incentivise Employees

Recruiting new talent is hard. Getting them to stay is even harder. According to the latest research, the average number of years an employee stays in a job role is 4.6 years. So, while you may think you completed the hard task during the recruitment process, the real test is yet to come.

Savvy millennials are shaking up the workplace and refusing to accept the outdated working practices their elders were seemingly happy to adhere to. Now the pressure is on for HR professionals to keep up with new working demands and create a working environment which meets both new and experienced employees.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that incentivising employees means the business loses out, and employees gain everything. Taking small or big steps to incentivising your staff, will mean talent stays longer, productivity is boosted and your bottom line is improved.

Here’s a few ways you can help to incentivise your employees.

Development

If your employees can see a clear development path with you, then they are much more likely to stay with you longer term, rather than jump ship to climb another rung up the career ladder.

Place employee development at the heart of your HR policy to keep employees engaged and ensure they’re aware of how their career with you is going to progress. A business which develops its employees, is in turn developing its business too. If they flourish, you flourish too.

The development plan you put in place should be a mutual agreement between both manager and employee. It’s no good having a plan where neither party is fully invested. You want to ensure that your employee has the chance to add or change the goals they are going to be working towards. Likewise, you want to ensure that goals you set will help to enhance the business too. Set an incentive once the development goals have been reached, it’ll help to motivate employees to reach their targets.

Culture

Company culture is a big deal in today’s working environments. The majority of our time is spent in the workplace, and nothing can be more demotivating than the thought of another day’s hard slog at the office.

The traditional 9 to 5 is now being replaced with flexible working hours and the option to work from home. The number of people working from home has reached a record high, with around 14% of the UK workforce working from the comfort of their own home.

Don’t be put off by allowing staff to create their own working patterns – providing the job still gets done, does it really matter what hours are put in to complete the task? No. And you can bet that your employees will be far more eager to please if they can fit in their working schedule around other commitments.

Pay

One of the biggest motivating factors for employees is pay. It’s why the majority of us even go to work in the first place. Setting your pay scales right will help to attract the right talent in the first place, but it won’t necessarily be a performance driver in the long term.

Introducing a bonus scheme can help to boost employees and incentivise them to work hard either individually or as a team. The pay-out will be well worth it, when compared to the benefits you will reap as a business.

Commission based schemes are a great motivator for sales staff, but be warned that they can introduce a competitive streak in the workplace if not managed effectively. A profit share is something which you could consider as an alternative, and help to keep the team spirit alive.

Finally, Tim Kellet at Paydata has some parting advice on introducing or removing incentive schemes; “When reviewing incentives, employers need to think very carefully about the behaviours they wish to encourage. After all, good behaviour does not necessarily elicit higher productivity or lower attrition. That’s not to say that an alternative approach won’t work, but it will require careful consideration and planning. Before removing any benefit or reward mechanism, employers need to gauge how much employees value it, so go out and ask them first. Engaging with employees and obtaining their feedback may well be the key to getting their buy-in to any new scheme.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rebecca Moore .