The Culture of Just Enough
Staff are normally paid a wage or salary to do their job. Down at the workplace, you pay them to work and, providing they are reasonably productive, they continue to get paid. So, are you breeding a culture of adequacy - i.e. 'just enough will suffice'?
The answer is that for staff that are not incentivised or commissioned, you could indeed be creating a culture of 'just enough'.
The Management Challenge
For managers 'just enough' can be a big problem as almost all organisations are under pressure to achieve more from less and this normally translates into tougher targets and fewer staff.
You can ask your staff to work harder, your teams to be more productive, but why should they - they already get their salary for adequate performance, why should they work harder. It comes down to the question - 'What is in it for them?' and quite often the answer is not a lot.
In the mind of the average worker, delivering increased performance equates to receiving increased rewards. They need to see something real to strive for; something that is motivational and rewarding.
Motivation and Reward
Recognition in the workplace can work a little and can encourage a more positive attitude to work - but recognition doesn't really work for operational performance improvement and it doesn't keep staff focussed on targets and goals - day after day and week after week. A lot of recognition ends up giving staff rewards for vague and fuzzy reasons that are not for things that they understand or factors they can easily influence.
Breaking the mindset of 'Just enough will do' is where incentivisation and commission are most effective - engendering in staff the willingness to work harder for tangible reward. Both provide Management with the opportunity to set individual and team performance objectives that clearly make the connection in the minds of staff between real achievement and real reward.
Commission works fine for sales roles where achievement can be measured in cash terms but for all other roles Incentivisation is the tool of choice. Incentivisation allows Management to create campaigns that measure daily, weekly and monthly achievement and to reward that achievement against predefined performance targets. And it works well for individuals and teams; encouraging a greater awareness of the individual's responsibility to perform as efficiently as possible and to work with colleagues to help their team achieve higher performance.
In conclusion
The mindset of 'just enough' is a challenge that confronts almost all managers but it is a challenge that has to be met if efficiency is to be improved. Incentivisation is an extremely effective way of combating adequacy but campaigns need to be well thought-through and correctly targeted at particular target groups.
Contact John Archibald on tel. +44 (0)1273 669 707, email. john.archibald@incentivise.com.
+44 (0) 1273 669 707
