A recent Gallup survey has found that an alarming number of American employees feel disconnected from their jobs. The State of the American Workplace reported that 70 percent of employees either intensely dislike or feel disengaged from their jobs. This level of disengagement is bad for business – when workers aren’t interested in their daily tasks, performance suffers and sales may fall. There are some solutions, though, and incentive compensation plans can help. If a supervisor is looking to boost office morale and engagement, they can initiate a sales competition with a financial reward as a bonus. This will motivate staff members to produce high-quality work, and with the possibility of a financial reward on the table, they are likely to improve performance. The Gallup study found that employees who were allowed to work from home were more actively engaged than their office-bound counterparts. Using ICM, a supervisor can offer options to work remotely, or use this as a reward for top salespeople. An executive can hold a monthly sales competition, and in addition to a financial incentive, those who meet their goals can also be rewarded with an allotment of several days they will be allowed to work from home over the coming month. Supervisors should make efforts to improve engagement levels, because the costs of not doing so are big: According to the survey, U.S. companies lose between $450 billion and $550 billion each year due to low productivity and absenteeism caused by disengagement.
