Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Importance of Incentive Programs

By hispanic

Incentive programs are used to motivate individuals to achieve business goals and accomplish aims with the prospect of a reward, either monetary/material (money incentives or gifts) or honorary (employee recognition), in exchange for exemplary performance in the academe or in the workplace. Because of this, incentive programs work hand-in-hand with employee/student achievement recognition.

Incentive programs fuel the success of a company by satiating the drive and motivation of their employees. The policy also contributes to the individual success of each worker by helping them reach their professional goals. A good incentive program promotes a healthy and competitive environment, not cheating and backstabbing among co-workers.

Incentive programs are designed to reciprocate positive internal or external attitudes displayed either by the employees (i.e. consistent early birds in the workplace) or by the customers or clients, like customer loyalty. It is non-verbal communication that tells the end receiver that the positive traits he or she is continually displaying - such as work ethics, mastery of tasks, diligence or commendable performance - did not go unnoticed.

Incentive programs are designed to rewards those who are performing above and beyond the average expectation, as they are made to inspire others to do the same, ultimately making the company not just more productive, but also teeming with positive and professional attitude. There are several ways for designing incentive programs. These designs may be based on point programs (i.e. points being earned for point-generating achievements with the accumulation of points equivalent to rewards) or sales incentives (i.e. reaching, and if possible, breaking of sales quota), for example.

You can hold an incentive program in different ways. One method is to base output level on points. You can give points to those who performs the best and whoever gets the most points deserves the reward. Another option is to provide sales incentives, wherein you reward employees who surpass their quota. Implementing incentive programs can be done with the help of a company task force from the HR department. It can also be done by getting help from a company that specializes in creating incentive programs. Whichever path you take, the ultimate winner should be the company.

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