Incentives for Employees

Management is all about managing men. The main task of any manager in an organization is to get things done through his subordinates. And to get things done, motivating the employees and keeping their morale up is very essential. There are a number of ways which different managers in organizations employ to improve motivation, such as by treating the employees fairly, setting achievable goals, giving positive reinforcement, following an effective discipline policy, satisfying the employee needs and lastly, the most important of all, basing the rewards or incentives on job performance. Although, all these methods of motivating employees should be applied by a manager to increase work productivity, yet, special attention should be paid while deciding upon the incentives, as nothing can motivate an individual like them.

Incentives and Rewards for Employees

In simple words, financial incentives for employees are the amount of increment they will get, on achieving a particular target, i.e. if an employee does 'A' amount of work, he will get 'B' amount of money. Financial incentives are not the only types of incentives, there are companies which give incentives in the form of gift items or organizing events for the high achieving employees as well. Many organizations these days give rewards to their high performing employees in the form of books, gadgets, restaurant passes and movie tickets. Throwing parties for employees or having events such as special dinners are some of the other ideas used by companies these days.

The employee incentives such as a rise in the salary of the high performing employee, benefits the organization in two ways. Firstly, the employee who receives a pay hike gets even more motivated and thus, maintains his high level of performance. Secondly, other employees too get indirectly motivated to work harder in aspiration of receiving similar incentives.

Incentives may initially cost the organization some money, but if one looks at its overall and long term benefits, i.e. high productivity translating in lower cost of production, the initial amount spent by the organization on the various incentive plans will seem worth it.

Incentive Programs

The motive of all incentive programs is to increase the productivity of the employees and to help them enjoy their work. The employees who enjoy what they are doing are bound to work better with the clients and also among one another. Although, incentive programs are not a replacement for pay raises, but nevertheless they can prove to be quite effective.

Clear Communication
Neither reward, nor incentive can replace clear cut communication between the employees and their managers. The work environment should be such that the employees can openly discuss any work related issue with their managers. And if they have certain ideas on how to make their work more efficient or productive, those ideas should be thoroughly discussed and even applied, if found to be effective. Also, during the management meetings, certain employee representatives should be included to show that the management does not have anything to hide from its employees.

Motivational Incentives
Before implementing the incentive programs, a good idea is to make a list of all the rewards that have been planned and make the employees vote the ones that they think are the best for them. An organization can also consider the following incentives.

• Staff meetings in a good hotel instead of office.
• A birthday program in which a gift is delivered to the employees house on his birthday.
• Attendance incentives could be something like certificates with "time offs" for the employee.
• Soccer game tickets or concert tickets to a group which has achieved its target.
• Certain health incentives for employees who do social work.

Incentives, no doubt contribute a lot in motivating the employees, yet the organizations should be very careful when giving out incentives. The various incentive programs should be employed, only when the organization is in such a situation where it wants its employees to make that extra effort, such as if there is a shortage of staff or if it's been a really busy season, etc. The organizations should be very cautious while giving out incentives otherwise the employees will expect some extra rewards for even doing their regular job. So maintaining a balance, doling out incentives for employees when they deserve it along with appreciating them from time to time, is the key to higher motivation levels and increased productivity.