I want to talk to you about an annual Holiday Bonus that makes sense. Yes, I know what month it is. But, you need to plan and do some financial work to do it right and it also means you need to start now.
Here’s why….I bet you just hate having to give an annual Holiday Bonus that’s more out of obligation than deserved. Am I right?
It’s not that you’re Scrooge or anything but a lot of contractors have to take the money out of their own bank account or even worse from their own Holiday Fund.
Plus, what I used to hate is if you give a certain size bonus to a staff member based on something that’s not objective it’s pretty near impossible to take it away or even lower it. That stinks!
Here’s what I teach my clients to do instead. It’s called the Company Wide Game:
Everyone on staff participates in this game. So, everyone needs to understand how the game is played. And, this starts with the process we used to arrive at the Annual Company Sales goal. We need to do this through the budgeting process so we know if goals are met the money needed to pay the company-wide bonus is not out of the company’s pockets.
Typically the bonus is 2 to 3% of annual salary [commissions don’t count because you can’t know this when you do the budget] . This number is known and should have already been added into our annual budget [again why you can’t wait till it’s holiday season] used to arrive at our annual sales goal. If they hit the annual sales goal and profitability target, they get the bonus and we’re happy to pay it.
A good company-wide game should address the measurable profitability in an objective way. This profitability goal is the one you used to create your annual budget and your annual sales goal. The cost of providing this special bonus for all full-time staff is an excellent way to bring the company together once a month to talk about how we all play a role in sales and profitability.
A big graphic representation that tracks the progress weekly and monthly makes it more fun and more real. Once again, any reward programs must be self-funded. They are only rewarded based upon hitting the goals which means they pay themselves the bonus.
This game takes you out of having to “motivate” them. They will understand the benefits of playing the game you describe. Posting it and talking about it is how to obtain this. My desire is that nobody will be better at posting and talking about statistics than you!
The real purpose of a company-wide game is to allow for open discussions on what role a good CSR, a good Dispatcher and a good Tech play and how each person is dependent on the other to win.
This company game helps the company come together and your training helps them understand that how the CSR handles the call, how the Dispatcher maximizes production and how the Tech handles the call effect the company sales and profitability goals and their own pocket.
It’s a win-win-win for customers, staff and owners.