Re: Employee incentives

The simplest answer is the most direct.  Ask your employees.  They'll
appreciate being listened to and you'll get an idea of what they think would
be the best incentive package.  Be sure to say that you're willing to listen
to unconventional ideas as well.  Also tell them that you don't have an
unlimited budget so choices will have to be made.  Collect all the
suggestions and put them on a ballot.  List how much each would cost and how
much you have to spend on this.  Let them decide how to spend the money.
Send the ballot to their home residences and include a self-addressed,
stamped envelope.

Now a client of mine did this.  They were tossing around in the boardroom
what you say you have been and guessing what the employees wanted.  Not one
of them mentioned what the employees suggested and voted the most for:
daycare and a shorter workweek.  After analysis, it wasn't a surprise that
the employees with children or grandchildren wanted the daycare (even if
they currently didn't have daycare-age grand/kids) and the single employees
wanted to be able to work four 10-hour days a week instead of five 8-hour
days so they could have a three-day weekend.  The company simply then
offered them a choice of one or the other.  Now did this work as an
incentive to do better work?  Not really.  What it did do is keep these
employees working for the company and made them happier thus more
productive.  It also turned out to be a HUGE selling point when recruiting
new employees.  And an interesting corporate culture has since emerged at
that company.  Fridays are jokingly called "Parents & Grandparents Day" as
all the single employees are gone on that day.  Parents and grandparents
always eat their lunches with their grand/kids.  The company has since
expanded the daycare to include an after-school program for the employees'
school-age children to great success.  The company even picks up the school
kids in company vans and brings them to the after-school program.  Another
innovation was a sick bay for children.  It was just a room between the
daycare and company's nurse office that was simply converted into a
multi-bed bedroom for sick kids to sleep in.  That sick bay completely
eliminated working parents from taking time off from work to take care of a
sick child.

I encouraged another client (with a lot less money to spend) to also give
this open-to-suggestions idea try.  They heavily stressed thinking outside
of the box to their employees.  A key sentence they used was: "What could
the company do that would make your life more enjoyable?"  What resulted
even surprised me.  Winning by a landslide wasn't a stock option plan, but
.... drum roll please ... lawn care, maid service, and car washes.  The
maintenance crew simply ran around the city and mowed everyone's lawn once a
week.  The company contracted with the janitorial service that cleaned their
offices at night for them to clean each employees' homes/apartments once a
month.  And a nearby high school's 4H club was very cheaply hired to come over
once a week and washed all the cars in the parking lots ... except for one lot
that was designated a "no wash" lot for employees that didn't want their cars
washed.  By the way, the "no wash" lot was discontinued after two months as
there was never a car parked in it on car wash day.

So ask and listen.  You might be surprised at the answers you'll get in
return.

Good luck!

Scott Jensen
-- 
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