Cashless
ways to stimulate increased
performance in your workplace
What
a great combination. Motivate your people to achieve
the results you want...without spending a lot of money.
Plus, have fun.
How?
For guidance we asked Dave Worman, Dr. Motivation. He's
written Motivating Without Money, which focuses
on cashless ways to increase the production in telephone
sales operations.
Explain your statement: “Time off is the biggest motivator.”
I have
found in our industry as well as others, that most people
rank time off as their top motivator...or very close
to the top.
Why?
Because it is natural for everyone to want time away
from their job for individual time, more time with family,
extra curricular activities. It's that natural tendency
to want what's hardest to have or get.
The
beauty of it is that you can set up time off so that
it has to be earned and therefore everyone wins. You
stretch the goals or expectations a little and the employee
must exceed the normal to earn time off. You end up with
more productivity or higher quality than you would have
normally gotten. The employee gets to leave early or
come in late (after being more successful than they would
have been).
We
can see how this incentive (time off) can apply to
sales people. How can an employer apply it with clerical,
retail, professional, manufacturing and other non-sales
employees?
No
matter what industry you're in, paid time off will be
a tremendous motivator. In some environments it's obviously
easier to create opportunities for time off than in others.
In some retail, restaurant and manufacturing environments,
very specific personnel coverage is necessary, minimizing
the opportunities for developing time off programs. Whenever
you can set performance standards or productivity measures
you can probably structure some programs that utilize
time off as the reward.
Think
about what happens. If someone is willing to work hard
and dedicate themselves all week to reaching and achieving
110% or 120% of their goal or quota - why not let them
go early? Would you have gotten 110% or 120% if you hadn't
put the "time off"
in front of them?
Now
take the concept of percent over goal/quota and attach
it to a non-sales environment. In a clerical position
perhaps there is a set amount of work that must get completed
either in a day or week, plus a little extra that
could get completed. As long as the quality of the
work at hand does not suffer in any way you can offer
a couple hours of time off to this person when they achieve
all the work before them.
Comment
on "gags and gimmicks" as motivators for
all types of employees in all types of work
settings.
I have
found over the years that gags and gimmicks are
more popular than even cash in many cases because they
provide creative or unique ongoing stimulation. Why?
Because you're playing with people's self esteem, their
pride. The way that gags and gimmicks represent
positive motivation is when they have status attached
to them.
For
example, let's look at one of my most popular recognition
awards, the "CAN DO." Simple, inexpensive
and extremely effective in any environment. I purchase
12-oz cans of Mountain Dew by the case and gold peel-and-stick
labels and then I sign or initial them. Where there is
a supervisor or manager between me and the associate
they also sign or initial each label. Then once a week
(or every two weeks or every month) the individual employee
that you feel exemplifies or most represents the "CAN
DO" attitude is awarded a signed can. And make
sure this is done in front of other employees. That's
where you get double stimulation. The employee who receives
this "status symbol" is naturally stimulated
and so are all the others who didn't, but now want the
same public recognition.
You
stress the value of job titles. There are employers
who are dropping job titles in fa- vor of a flat organization.
Futurists predict that the "flat" organization
is the organization of the future.
The
value of a job title is far more important than one might
think or expect. Once again, this taps into the very
essence of self-esteem and pride within people. That's
why it's important. Futurists certainly may be correct
in their prediction of more "flat" organizations
but until then it is an issue we all deal with. Do your
employees feel important? Does their job title make them
feel that they are important? If so, great. If not, then
it's an issue that you should revisit. Too often employers
don't even feel this is important so they never look
into changing or revamping old titles or the overall
impact on the people.
How
might a non-sales team or workforce apply theme contests?
Contests
can really only be effectively implemented in work environments
that have some type of performance productivity standards
attached to them. But this certainly represents a wide
variety of industries. While sales environments obviously
offer natural opportunities for contests, the success
of my first book, Motivating with Sales Contests, proves
that sales departments are only one of many different
types of work environments that implement contests.
Fast
food restaurants are running contests to see what individuals,
teams and stores can cross-sell food products with other
purchases better than someone else. Manufacturing companies
run performance contests for frontline workers or production
people all over the country. Retail stores and chains
are competing within themselves and with each other in
organized contests while various professional offices
utilize contests of some sort to improve productivity
as well as quality of work.
The theme part
is the easy part. Just create special contests that highlight
certain holidays, special events or specific activities. Theme contests
allow people to dress a little differently or special
and provide the opportunity to authenticate your environment
with props or decorations. That's part of what makes
them so successful.
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