When thinking about what best motivates their workforce to increase their productivity, employers may fail to take into account that individuals have different tastes and preferences and a blanket approach to rewards may not work for all sales representatives. Since workers may differ on what kind of incentives encourage them to meet goals and achieve their sales quotas, employees may want to personalize incentives to each employee. Employers will be better equipped to tackle individualized incentives through installing incentive compensation solutions that will help them collect and analyze data to gain insight into what motivates employees.
Employers can boost productivity by viewing their workers as individuals rather than viewing them as a workforce. Some sales staff have various styles that cause them to have different strengths and weaknesses. To play off their strengths and ensure they maintain high levels of productivity, companies should try to hone in on what kind of incentives make them the most engaged with their jobs.
Determine what kinds of rewards to give
Companies may be wondering what kinds of incentives work well and which ones to give to workers. Incentive compensation programs could contain typical monetary rewards, or even gifts and prizes that they could use outside of work. Workers are likely to appreciate rewards that are tailored to their personal interests, making them more motivated to hit their benchmarks even faster.
Employers can determine which rewards work by measuring employee productivity and pinpointing changes in performance when certain incentives are offered.
Plan rewards depending on company size
When planning custom incentives, companies need to take into account their size. Richard Rosenblatt, former chairman and CEO at Demand Media, wrote in LinkedIn that large companies may want to plan individual rewards around their top workers since they may not have the time to craft customized rewards company-wide. Smaller organizations, however, may benefit greatly from personalizing their entire incentive compensation structure.
“So, if you want to reward someone in a non-impactful way, write a check,” Rosenblatt wrote in LinkedIn. “If you want to make them feel uniquely valued and eager to do it all over again…reward them with something that speaks to their interest or passion.”
Flexibility with rewards and goals could pay off
Workers may want to be able to set their goals themselves to take control of their professional development. Employers could install sales performance management solutions that will track employee performance and see whether employees’ individual goals are being achieved.
