The best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or
experience, setting expectations for him or her, defining the right outcomes
rather than the right steps. The best managers motivate people, building on
each person's unique strengths rather than trying to fix their weaknesses.
And, great managers develop people, finding the right fit for each person,
not necessarily the next rung on the ladder.
Essential to this process is the employment of an appropriate measuring
stick, which successfully links customer data with employee productivity,
customer loyalty, and profitability.
Given the importance of the front-line managers, any effective employee
incentive program must begin with incentives specific to the supervisor
level. Clearly, the factors that motivate supervisors are often different
from the factors that motivate the general employee population. Through the
root cause analyses, underlying psychological factors that motivate
supervisors within a particular business environment are identified, and
appropriate incentives are designed to address those factors. NBRI employee
survey research has shown that these factors may be related to one or more
of the following categories:
- Career advancement
- Money
- Prestige
- Public recognition
It is not always the case, then, that employee incentives, particularly
at the supervisor level, require extraordinary expenditures by management in
order to increase employee performance. While most employee incentive
programs include a combination of the categories above, NBRI research has
clearly shown that recognition, above all, is the most powerful motivator.
A major Healthcare Provider was faced with low employee morale, high
turnover, and interdepartmental power struggles when they turned to NBRI for
assistance. A standard NBRI employee survey instrument was deployed, the
data collected, and the root cause analyses conducted. Weaknesses (defined
as normative scores below the National Average) included below average
employee perceptions of compensation, communications, equipment, teamwork,
and overall employee performance. Management could easily spend several
years and huge sums of money to address each of these weaknesses, one at a
time. However, the root cause analyses identified "My supervisor appreciates
my input" as the primary, underlying psychological factor affecting the
employee population, which if corrected, would increase scores in over 60%
of the issues addressed by the employee survey. NBRI proposed several
corrective actions, one of which was the following:
Strategy: "Great Ideas" Program
1. Employees submit ideas on how to make the company more efficient, cut
costs, or increase revenue.
2. Can be done by paper, email, or via the company's intranet. Intranet
is recommended, as it provides a documentation of the person and time the
idea is submitted, eliminating potential conflicts.
3. All ideas will be evaluated.
4. There will be no limit to the number of ideas selected for merit.
5. An idea is selected for merit if, in management's sole opinion, it
should be implemented.
6. All employees who submit ideas of merit that are implemented will
receive company-wide recognition and a bonus related to the financial impact
of the idea on the company.
Again, based on their employee survey data, several strategies were
recommended, but this strategy alone accomplished several goals. First, the
root cause was addressed by encouraging feedback and upward communication
across the entire organization. Secondly, this strategy became the
cornerstone of a recognition program that, while open to all, is awarded
only to those who earn it. And thirdly, the company's investment in the
program - the bonus - is derived from additional monies that the program
itself generates.
In support of, and perhaps even more important than the total employee
population strategy above, a secondary strategy was implemented for
supervisors only. Prestige and recognition is afforded to those supervisors
who encourage and develop their employees to 'think like management thinks,'
in concert with the Great Ideas Program. This takes time, patience, and
respect for all ideas on the part of the supervisors, to discuss the ideas
submitted by their subordinates in order to train them in seeing the
company-wide implications of their ideas. These supervisors, and ultimately,
the employees reporting to them, have also attained career advancement, as
they have since demonstrated their ability to translate the critical
perceptions and attitudes of management into everyday behaviors of
subordinates at all levels of the organization.
This client is in its fifth year with NBRI, and has moved from a poor
performer to near best in class.
In summary, most organizations immediately think of tangible items in
relation to employee incentive programs for increasing employee performance.
Prizes, trips, money, and other tangible rewards can certainly play a part
in an effective employee incentive program, and recognition, alone, can
often be seen as nothing more than hollow words. However, by conducting
employee surveys, NBRI research has proven that it is often the case that
the incentive most motivating to employees or supervisors is primarily
psychological in nature, and whether it stems from a desire to play a
greater role in the future development of the enterprise (as above), or a
desire to improve one's work-life balance, or a desire to see policies
executed with fairness throughout the organization, and so forth, it is of
utmost importance for employers to first identify the motivational factors
that will work best with their human resources, through valid research, and
then leverage that information by app! lying interventions - employee
incentive programs - that strike strategically at that root cause.
