Carolyn B. Thompson Reprint Rights
Training Systems, Inc. 2622 Words
221 Vermont Road
Frankfort, IL 60423
815-469-1162
Inspire Employees to Care About Customers and Profits
by: Carolyn B. Thompson & Rhonda LetoMany of the mistakes or oversights
made by your employees that hurt customers or profits are things you'd
never do because they'd directly affect your wallet. Likewise, you'd go
the extra mile because you'd see a direct affect - let's create the same
incentive for employees! Monetary compensation for a job well done is just
as rewarding as an exciting environment to work in. As much as an
individual needs non-monetary motivation, they also need monetary
incentives. When you effectively blend these two together, you have
employees who will stay loyal and therefore provide better customer
service which leads to a highly successful business. In order for monetary
incentives to be effective, you have to focus on two key elements:
individual efforts and team accomplishments. You must establish guidelines
that eliminate direct competition among employees. You don't want your
employees to have a cut-throat mentality. Individual efforts must be
encouraged and recognized as to create a better team player. A team's
success depends on the cumulative efforts of all those on the team. Offer
a policy that offers incentives for individual efforts as well as rewards
for team accomplishments. Try some "non-sales" oriented guidelines for
individual incentives for performance in areas like:
1. Timeliness
2. Appearance
3. Cleanliness
4. Attitude
5. Helping others
Many companies only focus on punishment when these areas are below
expected performance. Motivate with rewards for following and improving
the above areas beyond expectations. By focusing on individual efforts,
the whole team should get to where it's going faster.
Example: a car has four wheels. If all the wheels are properly inflated
and maintained the car gets to where it's going more efficiently, saving
time and money. Team rewards revolve around individual efforts. Team
performance should be recognized by overall customer satisfaction which
leads to measurable sales increases and cost cuts, thus promoting higher
profit margins for the entire company.
Define teams according to job description, and encourage open
communication between teams. Here's an example: Team 1 feels that it needs
a faster response from Team 2. Team 2 agrees and offers that they could
give Team 1 more of what they need, and in return Team 2 would let Team 1
know how they could help Team 2. This creates a win-win situation for all.
A teams' direct sales impact can be more easily measured and rewarded
monetarily versus individual sales in many situations. When everyone knows
the whole team will be compensated evenly, you eliminate negative actions
that create a cut-throat environment. The obvious goal in a team effort is
to make that team's area in the business more efficient and productive,
thus creating more profits to reward employees. All teams operate toward
the goal of satisfying the customers. Employees will care as much as you
do about customer's needs and profits if you allow them to share in the
monetary incentives as you do!
Carolyn B. Thompson is the President of Training Systems, Inc., a
customized training and HR consulting company that helps small and medium
sized organizations enhance their ability to recruit, inspire and retain
quality employees and improve performance through training. Training
Systems, Inc. also provides training design and delivery services to
training companies and the training departments of large companies, and
professional and trade associations. Carolyn B. Thompson is an experienced
trainer and consultant knowledgeable in the challenging area of employee
recruitment, inspiration and retention. She is an exciting, inspirational
trainer who leads people to learn. She has written articles for prominent
magazines, has been interviewed for Chicago's TV Channel 26, the "You're
Hired" radio show, Safety & Health, Small Business Computing, Business
Week, Working Woman, Redbook and Inc. magazines, been the subject of
articles in the Daily Southtown and Star newspapers, as well as
written chapters in several books. Most recently, Carolyn produced a
two-tape audio cassette set entitled "Straight Talk for Employers" , has
written a book entitled "Creating Highly Interactive Training Quickly and
Effectively" and is writing a book about on-the-job training for Crisp
Publications.
Rhonda Leto is Co-Owner of World's End Brewing Company.\
Training Systems, Inc. 1999 |
