It has long been a goal of ours to be the number one choice of employees in our industry and I have to say we have done a great job creating a culture and enviorment that people like to come to work in each day. Our emplyees often say they “Love” coming to work.
But once you have your culture and environment figured out the next challenge you run into when you are a business that is growing quickly is that everyone wants to be promoted and everyone wants to make more money. As I am sure you know there is a financial reality to what you can pay a person in a certain position and still have a healthy business. And there is also the reality that not everyone can be promoted after their first year - you need your front line people for the business to run. So how do you compensate and motivate the person that says the “Love” coming to work before they start to no longer feel that way?
As we continually evolve our roles, responsibilities, and comp plans I thought I would share some key factors we use to attempt this challenge and get the opinion of the group on other ideas that you all are successfully employing:
- Pay for performance - People that want increased pay with no performance requirements or growth in responsibilities will eventually leave the company weather you help them do so or they do it on their own. It is always interesting when someone decides they should receive a 20% raise because they do a good job or a year has passed.
- Create a compensation program that rewards top performers more than everyone else. - Why should your top people not receive better compensation. Create a pay grade that everyone wants to achieve and outline clear steps and time frame to get there. Make it so attractive that once someone is there they won’t want to leave.
- Pay tied to basic job responsibilities - This is something we have been thinking about lately. The idea could be something like should a hundred bucks a week of your pay or a couple hundred bucks a month depend on you showing up on time? Sure seems like it would fix that problem once and for all.
- Compensation tied to the financial health of the company - One of the most powerful things we have implemented, and we are just in the very beginning stages, is open book management. It sure does create a whole different conversation when someone wants a significant pay increase and you can say “you know the business, show me where the money is gong to come from in your group to pay for that increase.” Amazing things start to happen in your business and with your people when you do this. Ideally they start to create new efficiencies and even products that increase profitability which is what we are starting to see.
- Create clear growth paths - It is important that your employees can see what their future can look like if they apply themselves. It is just as important that the criteria for getting there is on paper and clear to everyone.
- Make it clear that you invest in the development of your people but that it is their ongoing responsibility - Purchase the study and lab materials for the certs that make sense for your employees and your company and then make it each individuals responsibility to receive them in a certain time period. Create tests about your company, culture, and products that have to be completed successfully in order to continue on to another level in the organization.
- Bonus plans - I have to put it here because someone would call me out if I did not but in a fast growth company cash bonus plans can seem insignificant or become expected causing challenges. This is not to say I don’t think they can work, we just have not made them work to date. We have on the other hand successfully implemented Annual Themes with mini games and rewards that work wonders. The ides is to put a goal up on the wall and tell the team to go get it - the power of reaching the goal and the pride they take in doing so is all they need, although we also compensate the success with a celebration, team outing, or cash when appropriate.
These are the types of things we keep in mind when figuring out how to compensate and motivate our people.
What are you doing in your business? What have you seen work?
JC
