Incentive Programs to Motivate Workers

Managers have the task of generating the most production from their teams in an attempt to meet the guidelines established by management, increase productivity and build continuity within the team unit. Group or team incentive plans is one of the methods utilized by managers to meet production end states because it provides the element of peer pressure to get task completed on time and to standard.

As with all organization wide incentive plans, there are options that may be utilized by the manager to disseminate justified rewards to individuals or teams as a whole. There are essentially five extrinsic incentive plans that can be selected.

One of the plans is known as the profit sharing plan. This is a plan in which all or most of the employees receive a share f the firm’s annual profits. There are variations to this plan and managers who utilize this incentive option must make the choice that will suit their team the best.

Another option that can be used is the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). ESOP’s are companywide plans in which a corporation contributes shares of its own stock-or cash to be used to purchase such stock- to a trust established to purchase shares of its own stock.

Gain sharing is another alternative that may be used as an incentive to motivate employees. Gain sharing is an incentive plan that engages many or all employees in a common effort to achieve a company’s productivity objectives, with any resulting cost-savings gains shared among employees and the company.

The last incentive that may be an option is the at risk variable plan. These are plans that put some portion of the employees weekly, monthly, or yearly pay at risk. Then if employees meet or exceed their goals, they earn back not only the portion of their pay that was at risk, but also an incentive.

Because of labor laws preventing organizations from requiring overtime or uncompensated time among professionals, organization wide incentive plans has become a very...