I drove over an hour to work, winding through the foothills of Colorado on my way to Denver. The rise and decline of the roads were a therapeutic rhythm that only changed with the wide sweeping lefts and rights through the dark evergreen trees that lined the pavement. I would put the window down and let the drone of the road lull the thoughts in my head. Often the thoughts disappeared into nothing but the cool Colorado air, the smell of an impending storm or the feel of the wind tickling my arm as it raced through my hair. I would do my best to be ready for what was coming each day, running through the scenarios of what might be in my head. Working through the processes in my mind, I played both the antagonist and protagonist in each days’ story.
The trees were dark and ominous, but also inviting as they beckoned my attention through my peripheral vision. I was young and impressionable, doing all the wrong things the right way. I was eager to do things the way I had been taught, which were many times contradictory to the expectation. Retaining employees was a topic we discussed often but were coerced into believing that incentives were the driving component behind continual participation.
We hired every day and managed the work environment as if everyone owed us their participation. There were plenty that were coming through the hiring process each day to be fully staffed at every event, but not every employee participated more than once. We pondered this on a regular basis, often believing that the staff were somehow at fault. We believed that we were doing what was right. In looking back on this, I remember a conversation with a high school coach in which he said, “I learned a lot in my career, but never so great as the lessons of what not to do.” Knowing that we believed that staff were at fault, it is now important for me to say that self-awareness is the first step to accomplishing great things.
We would gather at the office many times per week to discuss the direction. Most of the time it was setting our scheduling plan and trying to determine our shortage. Some weeks we were discussing how good the number was and others preparing for the onslaught of support we would be bringing in from another location. We would discuss where the staffing numbers were, how many volunteer groups we had working for us, and the reasons why staff were not working. These conversations would extend far longer than they should as we focused on pay, reinforcement payments and incentives.
When I started in management, I was taught that incentives were the key to retaining employees. We paid bonuses for participation, increased pay rates for difficult weeks, and gave gift cards for positive reinforcement. The dollar amounts we spent throughout my career are significant, but the employee attrition was never impacted by the implementation of these programs. I looked at these methods many times throughout my career, increasing and decreasing the amounts of money spent, to see where our impact was greatest.
Retention plan, I heard it called often; investing a monetary component into the participation of an employee. I think back now at this idea and chuckle at how naïve it is. When we look at the needs and wants of employees and try to fulfill both through communication, compensation, reinforcement, a positive work environment and training, we accomplish retention.
Incentives are an extension of employees through rewards based on participation in desired tasks. This is often viewed as retaining because employees can stay for the benefit. Looking at this pragmatically, the employee is receiving a bonus for accomplishing a specified task. Once that task is complete and they have earned their reward, the viability of that employee staying is then limited to the next incentive that is offered. Ultimately, monetary payouts, incentives or rewards are an important component of making the employee experience better, but are not an effective retention plan when standing alone. None were so impactful as when we changed our work environment and began to utilize the incentive programs to reinforce our environment for the employees.
I believe that when an employee takes a position with a company, they are looking at the environment first. If the workplace is something that they feel is positive, they will be more willing to take the opportunity. The second look at the job are the benefits for their participation.
As a manager, I have looked at categories to where I can implement incentives that will most impact my team. These participation incentive categories are Recruiting, Training, Commencement, Consistency, Longevity and Performance. From banking to landscaping, each of these items are something that occur in most offices in one location or another. Employers look for ways to increase participation but can often make the mistake of choosing one or two methods out of these categories. The most impact comes from creating incentives in each of these categories. The categories themselves overlap naturally in development.
Recruiting
There are many different opportunities that employers can make to create recruiting incentives that benefit both the employee and employer. The most popular of these are referrals that can be implemented easily in a workforce. This is not the only opportunity to the recruiting incentive.
- Referral – Referrals are based on employee relationships that are leveraged to increase the workforce population. This is a great method that gives access to people that may already have an idea about the job expectations.
- Social network recruiting – Utilizing a social network of employees through targeted advertising. Benefits are slightly different from the referral program as most referrals occur through a personal knowledge of the individuals being recruited. Social networks are usually a broader relationship and the recruiting strategy is to compound return through multiple degrees of connection. Reaching a friend of a friend.
- Street team promotions – Employees are the workforce in direct recruiting methods where their participation is out in public areas direct recruiting. The relationship between the employee and applicants are based on the community to which they participate. The idea behind this form of promotion is to reach out into communities where the employees are familiar.
When delivering on recruiting incentives, it is important to set the expectations for the employees participating in the incentive program. Each program will need to be built so that the employee can see that their participation is both measurable and the goals are achievable.
The recruiting incentives work to extend the workforce beyond the number currently employed.
Commencement
There are several studies completed that indicate a significant percentage of employees leave jobs within the first few weeks of starting. Many of these studies identify the reasons being training, to management and everything in between. The commencement incentive is a category that focuses on the entry of new employees with the goal of getting them to participate in understanding the work environment. The idea is to create milestones that are at the start of an employee experience and give the employee something to aim for. In creating milestones, I look to answer 3 questions:
- What function do all new employees need to understand?
- What is the time commitment required for new employees?
- Are there shifts, times and hours that are more difficult for new employees?
When I was in college, we had orientation, where we were brought together to learn the social structure as freshmen. The people that were communicating with us were people that experienced it from a few years earlier. We learned about the expectations and the do’s and don’ts in the new environment. Our incentives in college were social but are relative to this scenario.
Incentives based on commencing the new position creates goals for new employees to learn the social structure of that business. If done correctly, the incentive will encourage people to get past the most difficult part of new jobs and attrition will fall.
Commencement incentives reduce attrition and extend participation at the front end of employment.
Consistency
As an employer for many years, I understand the true value of continuity in employment. When building a consistency program, it is important to look at the recurring components of the job environment. Most importantly, we must understand that adding consistency bonuses are an extension of what the employee would naturally accomplish without the benefits.
I once had a manager giving a training who asked the crowd to stand up. The attendees slowly got to their feet. He then requested that they reach as high as they could, each extending their arms, some pointing their fingers to the sky and others half-participating with their hands barely above their heads. He then told them to all put their hands down at their sides, to which they complied. He asked, “did you reach as high as you can?” Most of the group nodded in anticipation of being able to sit down. He then asked them to reach as high as they could again. They stretched higher, more people participating in this round. He then instructed the audience to stand on their tiptoes. A lightbulb lit behind the eyes of most the participants. Everyone who was reaching as high as they thought they could, were able to reach higher when given instruction on how to do so. This incentive is built to give people who may work their required shifts, a benefit for working more.
When I look at incentives to increase consistency, I answer these 3 questions to help me build the program:
- Difficulty – What is the most difficult time/shift/day?
- Trends – Are there trends that can be leveraged to increase participation?
- Attrition – What is the natural attrition that occurs within the positions?
When these questions are answered, we can address the incentive that helps to get people past the biases that limit their participation. For the benefits of a consistency bonus to be evident, the employer must make the program transparent with detailed milestones so the employee can plan out their participation.
The incentives extend the participation of days, hours and shift expectations when they are achievable and measurable.
Performance
“Please” and “thank you” are terms we all learned in our youth. My mom would ask me if I wanted a cookie and would wait for the magic word. It was a lesson taught to me and passed on to my children; courtesy strengthened by incentives. Incentives in quality service that reinforce the performance of employees are used by most businesses that employee people.
I walked into a grocery store the other day to shop and at the front of the store was a greeter, wiping down every cart with sanitizer and welcoming people to the store. She was nice and inviting, making conversation with every guest and encouraging each person who exited to come back soon. I watched her work for a moment, thinking that this is a great employee. She had a great smile, embodied the values of the organization and was emotionally committed to accomplishing the task she was given. I walked to the customer service center and let them know how exceptional I thought she was.
The manager came to the front and thanked me for noticing and let me know that she will get a service award and walked outside to speak to her.
This is the key to performance-based incentives: immediate recognition for service provision. The incentive will increase the moral of staff as they provide the services. The repetition of service is accomplished by making the program transparent with achievable goals. The focus behind these performance-based incentives is to strengthen the common purpose, values and mission of the organization.
Performance incentives are an extension to service.
Training
It goes without saying that training is an important component in service delivery. Training is often approached as something an organization must do. With this approach, training is overlooked as a valuable incentive opportunity.
Staff who are trained is an essential component of providing service. Leadership is expected to accomplish tasks on a regular basis, requiring trained staff. Training incentives help to accomplish the given task, with more than compensation for receiving the trainings. The most effective training incentives I have utilized are:
- Title elevation
- Bonuses for each training
- Hourly increases based on training completion
- Upward mobility
Providing an opportunity for a bonus or upward mobility, whether in title or compensation, is an important piece in your incentive structure. Your high performing employees will notice your investment in their potential within the organization. When creating an incentive program for training it is important to structure the components of the benefits to be measurable and attainable.
Training incentives are an extension to the employee competency.
Longevity
I have had the privilege of working with many people who provided services for me for years. They stay for many reasons, the culminate to the long-term service. This can be explained in the emotional connection that an employee has to the job, the social structure and the leadership.
The fact behind a retained employee is that this employee benefit is more recognition than incentive. The value of a retained employee is far greater than what an employer can offer in an incentive.
I had an employee who worked for me for several years. She was a retired teacher who wanted something else to do and chose to work for me. She was hardworking, never late and punctual to a fault, often showing up hours early. She would engage in conversations with me as I was rushing to prepare for the rest of the staff to arrive and I did my best to engage in my haste.
When she reached her 10th year working for me, she received an automatic increase due to my pay structure. She let me know that she had received it immediately, upon it arriving on her check.
I stood at the entry awaiting staff knowing she would be coming through the door early. I thanked her and shook her hand and handed her a small pin that read “10 years”. It was a busy day, but she smiled at me every time she passed and tapped the pin she stuck in the lapel of her shirt. I was grateful for her effort.
Years passed and I was leaving that job and she came to me and thanked me for that pin. She had several bad days that strung together and was thinking of moving on from our job. She had retired once before and had the belief that when it was time to quit, she would know. Her commitment was to complete that season and resign. The moment I took to thank her and recognize her efforts helped her reconnect with what had kept her working for the first 10 years.
The longevity incentive is built to reward those that have been retained through recognition.
I am reminded of the days that I road to work through Colorado, the trees calling me from the hill sides. The whistle of the wind as it whipped through the valleys opened my mind to the internal conversation: how I could have impacted the employee experience had my years not taken so long to build the understanding.
I understand now that the retention of staff occurs when a structure is built for the employee and we do not operate with the belief that minimal payments for task completion are retaining our employees. An effective incentive structure is created with the understanding:
- Incentives are built to extend, not retain
- Recruiting Incentives extend the size of the workforce
- Commencement Incentives extend the initial participation of new employees
- Consistency Incentives extend the participation in recurring opportunities
- Performance Incentives extend the quality of service
- Training Incentives extend employee competency
- Longevity Incentives are built to reward those who have extended their services
- Participation can be rewarded but success cannot be bought
I will drive home today with my window down, listening to the drone of the road, feeling the breeze on my arms and thinking about tomorrow, as the trees beckon me from my peripherals.