YOU PAY YOUR employees a living wage. Your company environment is safe and friendly. You give employees cash at Christmas as a bonus. Pizza lunch on birthdays. Company swag. Boom. Done.

Sorry, no boom, not done.

Consider developing a “long-time satisfaction” strategy for your employees by incentivizing your business.

“Employee incentives are a proven method for boosting retention as they foster engagement, reward hard work, and create a sense of loyalty within the team. When employees feel valued and recognized for their contributions, they are more likely to stay committed to the company and its goals. Incentive programs, whether financial or non-financial, also can drive higher productivity and motivation, leading to a more satisfied and stable workforce. In a competitive job market, these rewards can be the key differentiator in retaining top talenent.” Amy Balatoni, CHRP Managing Consultant at AMITA HR 

It Ain’t Easy

Attracting and retaining key staff as artisans/manufacturers has been downright sticky and problematic the past few years. And, in my estimation, it seems to be getting worse. (Stupid Covid). Good staff retention brings confidence that work will get done with deadlines met. We all know how depressing it is to have to replace staff — especially key staff. Then you’re tasked with finding new staff, training new staff, only to find out that maybe the new staff isn’t so great. It’s time consuming and expensive. Ugh. Is it me, or does it seem that since Covid, new hires move on quickly or show unreliable traits sometimes not understanding that they have accountability to their job?

Changin’ the Vibe

Let’s look at possible incentives that might help you with staff retention. Fun and interesting incentives just may motivate and inspire your employees. A well-planned reward strategy should create a brag-worthy culture that helps keep staff put. Finding out what your employees “want” or “need” is the key to implementing incentives. There is a big difference between “want” and “need.”

“Needs” include workplace safety, appropriate wages, maybe some form of benefits, feeling valued, and having a sense of community at work. “Needs” are very, very important but feel mundane or dare I say “predictable?”

“Want” is so much sexier than “need.” “Want” is profit sharing, relief from the day-to-day routine, experiences that are brag-worthy and out of the ordinary, something exciting to look forward to, or a reason to stay in your job. “Want” should fall on the surprising or exciting side, be enjoyable, and should be fun for you and your staff.

Yes, some incentives will cost money. Carefully chosen incentives should generate more income as it is your “carrot.” According to Google, the most desired and common employee incentives are:

Cash bonuses. Salary raises. Additional vacation days.

Duh.

Money is great — who couldn’t do with extra money? But when the money is gone, the incentive sort of is gone. Once it is spent, it doesn’t feel like it even happened. If money is given as a holiday bonus, it is then gratuitous not really earned — it was given. The new hire gets the same as a long-term employee and they may feel trivialized.

Earned cash. Now that’s a great feeling!

Profit sharing is a much better platform for rewarding employees. At my former company, Traces Screen Printing, we implemented profit sharing as a way to get employees motivated and excited to work. Not only do employees understand that their hard work will result in a cash payout, but it’s a reason to hold themselves and other workers accountable for the monetary success of your business. Profit sharing should promote teamwork. Reduce, recycle, and re-use can come into play. Environmental initiatives can save money.

Offer EG profit sharing after an employee works one year to qualify and offer a sliding scale percentage appropriate for company positions. EG is from 5% to up to 8% for experienced and key staff. Use a contract for each employee stating when the profit sharing started (the start of our business year), when it ended (year end), and what percentage of profit they would receive. Monies to be paid out after year end is settled. Employees would have to work that full year to receive profit sharing. You create the terms.

Spain 2009: Hola from Spain, circa 2009! Traces Screen Printing’s employees were treated to seeing the historic sights of Madrid and Benalmadena. These annual incentive trips actually cost less than Traces Screen Printing’s latest incentive program — profit sharing. But earned cash is a very popular — and rare — incentive for the staff.

Luckily when I implemented profit sharing in 2003, our year end came a couple months after our busiest, hottest, and most money-generating season. Hence it was an incentive for employees to stay with the biz during the busiest and most difficult work months. Employees knew profit sharing was right around the corner.

Structure your profit sharing in a way that suits you and make sure everything is in writing and communicated clearly. Use a yearly calendar and your month-end statements to create the most advantageous incentive reward. It needs to benefit you, your business, and your employees.

Keep in mind, incentive goals that are unreachable or unreasonable can create bad feelings with staff. That carrot must be in reach to work.

Key West 2006: Let’s get away. That was the goal of the incentive trips that employees at Tracey Johnston-Aldworth’s screen-printing shop, Traces Screen Printing in Ontario, Canada, worked toward each year. Employees had a chance to relax, rest, and reset.

OK, it’s time to look at other incentives.

• Additional vacation days. After you have taken those vacation days, the thrill is gone. It is a nice perk, but as an employer, how do you ration those out? Who gets them? How do employees earn them? Are there stipulations on when employees can use them? It’s not my favorite incentive.
• Bonuses. Cash buys groceries. It would be gauche to brag about money bonuses. Gift cards are nice. Meh.
• Experiences buy memories. Give your employees a fun, shared experience and it strengthens work relationships. How about going as a team to escape rooms, ax throwing bars, cooking classes, horseback riding, skeet shooting, scavenger hunts, white water rafting, helicopter rides? You want happy employees — be creative and make it happen.

Carve out an hour here or there to compete in board game round robins. Offer fun prizes! Or book an hour, a half or full day with group surprise events. Break up the day-to-day humdrum and have some fun as a group. Do a SWOT analysis (real work) in the morning, cater lunch, then move onto silly competition games. A little good-natured round of chirping is bound to break out.

Carnival Cruise 2014: The 2014 Carnival Cruise Incentive Trip took the staff to exotic places such as Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Costa Rica. Who wouldn’t work hard and do everything possible to grow the business, if the reward was a mostly all-expense paid vacation?

Working for Lifetime Adventures

By far, the biggest success I ever implemented was an Annual Trip Incentive (2003-2019). Everybody goes or nobody goes. (I had staff of about 6 to 10). We traveled as a group for 17 years in a row. Trips included cruises in the Caribbean, and destinations like New Orleans, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Halifax, San Francisco, Mexico, Costa Rica…anywhere a deal to travel could be had. Sometimes I even booked all-inclusive vacations. The business covered airport transportation, insurance, flight and accommodation, some meals out, and some tours. But for some North American or European destinations, staff did have to cover some of their own meals.

The staff members could bring a significant other at the travel price paid by the company. Overall, the trip incentive cost the company less than profit sharing. When asked, employees would not give up the trip incentive for other benefits.

I created a visual thermometer of sales/profits that I would add or subtract from each month for the first six months of the year. I knew just where the sweet spot profit-wise, and where it needed to be in the first six months. Once we hit that, I booked our trip. Wooot!

Yup, I shut the shop down for a week. This was our brag-worthy employee incentive. I could satisfy my own need to travel and have something to look forward to. After each vacation, we would frame a group picture to show our customers. Our customers were very curious and excited to hear about this incentive.

In my opinion, employee incentives are a definite factor in employee retention. Profit sharing, fun event days, and the trip incentive created a brag-worthy culture for my staff. Owning a company with that kind of culture is tons of fun and very satisfying.

You pay your employees a living wage and offer profit sharing. Your company environment is safe and friendly. Surprise events are created to take some of the routine out of your work week, maybe even your entire year. Employees are excited to work for your company. Long-term staff retention is your goal. Boom. Done.