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Incentive Policy – Incentive Programs that can Help Improving Work Culture

July 20, 2022
HRMS
Incentive Policy

Do you face difficulties in keeping your employees motivated at work? Are you unable to retain your employees? If yes, then you might not be able to make them feel attracted and motivated towards work. Offering effective bonuses and compensations to your employees can help you eliminate this difficulty at your workplace.

Keeping the incentive policies intact at your workplace is the best thing you can do. Offering deserved bonus and compensation to your employees can help you keep them motivated towards work and also retain them when required.

If you do not have an incentive policy for employees, this blog is the best place where you get to know more about incentive plans and also you can get access to free incentive policy templates.

Let’s get started.

What is an Incentive Policy?

An incentive policy is any method used to influence people’s behavior. When used in a business setting, the employment of employee incentive programs by an organization to persuade workers to do or not to do something that is typically advantageous to the company.

Above here in the blog, we mentioned the word “employee incentive programs”’ what are they? Continue reading the blog to know more about the same.

What are Employee Incentive Programs?

Employee Incentive Programs are designed to attract, engage, and retain the best talents. The word Incentive itself refers to benefits and rewards that are used to motivate positive behavior in your workforce. These programs come in many forms like more time-offs, additional flexibility in work arrangements, and tuition reimbursements etc.

What are the Examples of Incentive Programs?

There’s no doubt that you’ll need to do some study before putting together an incentive program. Make sure it is well-planned and structured, and keep in mind that each organization will have a unique incentive program that works best for them. Check out this list of potential rewards:

1. Rewards and Recognition

Rewards and recognition programs are the best way to keep your employees motivated and powered at work. When asked the employees for the recognition, 63% of the employees are likely to stay with the company if they feel important and recognized. 72% of the businesses that employee recognition has a positive impact on engagement.

Rewards are a type of physical token of some kind like certificates, gift cards, etc. Recognition can be given just in a few words at any time. Recognitions are of two types: Social Recognition and Point-based recognition. Every employee at your company can openly express their appreciation for other team members through social recognition; even a simple “thank you” can keep someone engaged. Every employee can exchange points for prizes of their choice from a variety of categories, including items, digital and physical gift cards, experiences, charitable giving, and concierge, under a points-based reward program.

Therefore, rewards and recognition is one of the best ways of employee engagement.

2. Referral Programs

One of the best methods for finding new employees in a company is through employee referrals.

Because their reputation is on the line, employees who provide referrals are motivated to discover the “correct” kind of candidate for a position. They spend time looking for candidates who are a good fit for the position. Employee referral programs tend to draw better candidates to a company since the referee has a natural stake in the success of the individual they recommended.

Additionally, it is a very cost-effective method of employment.

3. Professional Development

If we consider recent trends, millennial and Gen Z employees are looking for something more than just steady paychecks. Organizations that provide new training opportunities to its employees are more likely to retain existing and attract new talents. To ensure this kind of growth, companies need to make sure that they are providing the right development opportunities. One of the greatest ways is to offer specialized learning sessions consistently.

4. Profit Sharing

Want to improve employee productivity and morale? Share your profits. Profit sharing is the variable incentive that is paid to the employees when a company earns a significant profit. Profit sharing is measured by the net profit growth or revenue, or both. For example, a company can offer some percentage of its profit to be divided amongst its employees.

This incentive program is typically used to keep your employees motivated and make them focus on the company’s long-term success. One of the most known examples of incentive programs. When done right it can prove to be a great way to reward your employees, especially if you make adjustments according to the performance reviews and individual contributions.

5. Health and Wellness

Health- or burnout-impaired employees are unable to give their best at work. In the pandemic environment of today, health and wellness programs are very important.

To increase employee engagement and encourage a healthy work-life balance, business owners should create employee wellness initiatives.

Free healthy lunches, standing workstations, on-site fitness centers, free gym memberships, fitness-based virtual team-building events, and even voluntary health exams can all be used to achieve this.

6. Tuition Reimbursement

Every employee, including the CEO, ought to be gaining new knowledge every single day. This ideal practice can be reinforced by providing tuition reimbursement. Additionally, promoting ongoing education can be a terrific approach to create a culture of appreciation. Consider sending team-signed digital cards and recognizing employees’ accomplishments publicly when they reach educational milestones, such as receiving a new certification or finishing their master’s program.

7. Bonus and Raises

Giving staff bonuses and raises can be a very effective way to motivate them. According to a Payscale survey, 65% of American workers prefer bonuses based on individual success. Having said that, you must set incredibly clear KPIs and goals so that the employees are fully aware of how to earn their bonus. With your policies, strike a balance; the conditions shouldn’t be too hard or too simple to fulfill. Be careful not to incite conflict among coworkers. This could have the opposite effect and cause animosity or even alienation from your business.

8. Fun Gifts

Giving gifts to your staff to show appreciation shows your concern. For company-specific holidays like work anniversaries, customer service week, global wellness day, or boss’s day, gifts make excellent incentives. Create enjoyable contests and quizzes to gamify each of these holidays, and reward and honor staff members who participate the most.

The range of popular employee presents includes everything from on-site massages to catered meals to a half-day off. Additionally, quality gear (branded or unbranded), tasty food brought to the office, and tech gadgets are also excellent options. Gift cards are a terrific option for employees who would want to select their own gifts.

9. Additional Time-offs

Paid Time-offs (PTO) gives employees the time to destress themselves and maintain a healthy work-life balance. <Moreover, employees feel more motivated towards their work once they have had a decent vacation. Therefore, you should encourage your employees to use their additional time-offs.

Additionally, you can reward the best performing employees with the gift cards of a service that sends them to nice decent vacation destinations.

10. Choice of Projects

It’s a great idea to empower and motivate high-achieving staff to allow them to select their own projects. When managers give workers the freedom to choose what to work on, which is something many businesses find difficult, trust is increased.

Of course, each employee should find the project possibilities you provide to their liking. A general, one-size-fits-all reward has less of an effect. Team leaders and staff should often discuss their employees’ short- and long-term goals as well as their career interests and propose assignments that fit those interests.

What is an Incentive Program and How to Develop One?

Incentive Program is defined as a planned activity meant to motivate people to attain preset organizational objectives. Simply said, it’s a well-organized strategy for persuading people to act in a certain way.

How to Develop an Incentive Policy?

Although there are many incentive plans available, you should give priority to those that will have a good effect on your business objectives and corporate culture.

Here are five techniques to guarantee that your employee incentive programs are successful:

1. Define Clear Goals

Identify what goals or objectives you want to accomplish for your organization. It can be performance improvement, attendance regularization, etc. the objectives must be attainable and simple. Begin with utmost 3 clear benefits and communicate them to all the participants.

2. Identify Audience

Your focus may not be the complete employee or customer base. Decide which individuals or groups can accomplish your aims and objectives; these are the participants in your program.

3. Fact Finding and Involvement

Getting input from participants’ audience representatives always makes programs more effective. Increased ownership and engagement in the program will result from asking for input on its guidelines, incentives, and other elements. What actions must be taken to accomplish the objectives? Do participants have the tools necessary to accomplish them?

4. Program Structure and Budget

Carefully lay the groundwork for the Incentive Program, developing the intended methodology. It is at this point that you choose between an open-ended and a closed-ended program design, as well as your fixed and variable costs. A closed-ended program is easier to budget and may allow for larger rewards because there will be a set number of winners, but it may not be as motivating for your participant audience if the rules are not carefully structured. An open-ended program is trickier to budget but can be financially backed through incremental sales or other gains.

5. Choose Your Rewards

Employee incentives and recognition should be in line with your business’s image and target demographic. These choices shouldn’t be made in a vacuum. Your program will be more successful if you actively seek feedback from your audience on the kinds of incentives they will find valuable. Naturally, the reward vehicle you choose will have to stay inside the limits of your budget.

6. Training & Communication

Determine the announcement and launch strategy for the initiative. Create a communication plan to keep participants informed and interested during the program. Branded programs often outperform generic ones in terms of effectiveness. The success of the program or campaign depends heavily on management training for program execution.

7. Tracking and management

Choose the items you’ll monitor, then create the system to monitor them. The budget for the program may include 20% or so for administration. The time spent on administration can be decreased with the use of the correct program dashboard or other technology.

8. Eighth fulfillment

Better if it is immediate. Thanks to technological advancements, awards can often be digital and can be redeemed online by participants. The reward and fulfillment experience must also be aligned with the brand features of your business.

9. Assess and Measure

Did the Incentive Program succeed in achieving its goals? Did the participants have a strong desire to alter their behavior? What extraneous elements played a role in the program’s success (or failure)? Every component you measure can help you choose the next program parameters, which will increase success moving forward.

10. Honor achievements

Inform your audience of the employee awards and the outcomes of the recognition program. Celebrate both individual and team accomplishments and describe how the training affected company success. Making sure that company leaders participate in presentations is important since they will provide crucial support. Consider web events or other strategies to include all attendees in the celebration if you have remote workers.

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Make Your Incentive Policies Work Today

An Incentive Policy is the best way to create and manage employee incentive programs by consolidating them all in a centralized platform. UBS HRMS Software is a platform that offers various other HR Policies, forms, Job Descriptions, and other HR-related documents for free. Get in touch with us to get access to free documents.

Alpesh Vaghasiya

Alpesh Vaghasiya

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