Incentive compensation management can be a wonderful tool for attracting and retaining top talent. It can also be useful for developing strategies to keep your company safe from rogue employees and insider threats. No one wants to think about their organization at risk from its own employees, but the reality is that sometimes personnel go over to the dark side. Insider threats – those contributed to from within an organization – are on the rise, while the digitization of many companies can make it easier for personnel to cause a lot of damage to an organization’s reputation or pocketbook. While incentive and sales compensation management strategies aren’t meant to be used as a tool to mollify hostile employees or put business leaders in a precarious place, these techniques can be used to increase overall employee satisfaction. This, in turn, can increase productivity and morale, cutting down on the behaviors and workplace climate that can breed bad eggs. When good employees go bad All companies use networks to share information, whether it’s just for email or in a full-scale, cloud-based framework. The average sales team communicates and shares confidential information via company networks, and may use networked applications to compile and analyze sales data. Others might use voice over Internet Protocol or video conferencing for sales or internal communications. This leaves a lot of potential ways into a company network, which means more opportunities for a rogue or misguided employee to compromise the organization’s data. A recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers pointed out that cyberversions of economic crimes such as fraud are becoming more common, with individuals within a company increasingly likely to purposefully or indirectly contribute to data leaks and breaches. Unfortunately, the promise of illicit rewards can cause employees to turn on their own organizations. Inc.com contributor Barry Schuler wrote about reasons that personnel might “break bad,” attributing the phenomenon to workplace cultures that can cause negative behaviors to fester. While it’s possible that an employee was able to completely mask a vindictive objective even during the application process, what is more likely is that he or she will develop a viewpoint over time. Schuler wrote that employers need to be on the lookout for signs of trouble, but more importantly should look for ways to prevent “breaking bad” altogether. How incentive compensation management can eliminate potential issues In nearly every case of a disgruntled employee, all roads will lead back to him or her feeling underappreciated. Schuler advised employers to remember a few important things, including the fact that employees don’t have the same investment in the company as its creator or leaders might (that’s just the reality!). They also have personal goals and a desire for their job to be a fulfilling part of their life. “If you hired A-list, super-smart, self-motivated people – which you did – then you also stacked your company with individuals with all the tools to break bad,” Schuler wrote. “That’s because hyper-motivated people also tend to love power and authority. They’re movers and shakers with long-term aspirations that supersede their current gig with you. Keep in mind that while they’re helping you build your empire, they are also accumulating the power base to build theirs.” Incentive compensation management can help employees build their own power base within the company by providing them the means and tools to advance in the company and receive rewards for top performance. Instead of relying on a rigid hierarchy to micro-manage employees and using service time or the calendar as a means of bestowing incentives, organizations can tie their approach more directly to personal performance. This can make great strides in keeping employees feeling appreciated and content. As difficult as it is to say, bad apples are out there. It’s one of those things that is much better handled in a preventative manner rather than after the fact. Incentive compensation management helps organizations be more proactive about rewarding performance in general – including eliminating potential problem spots.
