Motivating through incentives

Rewarding employees can be a great incentive to help motivate them in order to help the company reach its goals. It is also a way that companies try to retain employees as well as a way to persuade new skilled employees in applying. For example, DPR has plaques up of employees who have safety hours in which they also award them with a trip and a 40-hour work week off paid.  Salesforce gave their employees a two-week trip for their dedication to the company. After doubling in size in five years and reaching their goal, Hilcorp gave each employee a $50,000 voucher to get a new car. In building onto your knowledge, creating a strategy supportive system of rewards and incentives, a company should reward employees for accomplishing results and goals, not for just showing up to work.  Every manager and employee should be held accountable for achieving outcomes that can help to contribute to excellent business performance. For example, if the company’s objective is to be a leading low-cost provider, incentives should be rewarded for achievements that result in lower costs (Thompson, 2018).

Very big rewards these companies hand out, but not on the regular rewards they offer their employees. For example, Salesforce benchmarks regularly to ensure compensation plans remain market competitive. They offer Employee Stock Purchase Programs, offer 401(k) above market, offer income protection, offer life insurance, they offer $100 a month wellness reimbursement, prove 24/7 back-up care if your health coverage falls through, 24 hour emergency assistance when traveling abroad, education reimbursement up to $5000 a year, offer treadmill desks for people who want to stay healthy, and up to 7 days of paid time off per year to volunteer to name a few (Salesforce.com, Inc., 2019). Hilcorp offers not only annual bonus programs, they offer buy-in incentive programs, charitable accounts for employees who like to give back, and scholarships (Hilcorp, 2019).

            Rewards should be implemented in a way that is proactive and seeks to help drive the business strategy.  However, they need to be closely monitored because evidence suggests that most rewards can have a positive impact in the short-term but may limit impact sustaining change in the long term.  The rewards strategy that is implemented should align with the stated values of the organization.  This means that they should also align with the new world or restructure of an organization.  The reward system should reflect any of these types of changes because if they are not aligned, it can lead to a barrier to change, rather than an enabler (Rose, 2014).

References

Hilcorp. (2019). Competitive Compensation. Retrieved from Hilcorp:  Retrieved from http://www.freemanagementresources.com

Rose, M. (2014). Reward Management. London: Kogan Page. Retrieved from http://www.freemanagementresources.com

Salesforce.com, Inc. (2019). Rewards.  Retrieved from http://www.freemanagementresources.com

Thompson. (2018). Crafting & Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage 21st ed. McGraw-Hill ISBN: 9781259732782.
Retrieved from http://www.freemanagementresources.com