In the Know: Fran Hayter
What kind of incentives can I introduce to keep my staff motivated?
Keeping staff motivated with incentives and initiatives is a constant challenge. To begin with, we should remember that all team members should have clear job specs and objectives that they are expected to fulfil as part of their role, regardless of whether or not additional carrots inspiring them to achieve are being dangled in front of them.
However, we all know that demotivated staff won’t perform well, and finding replacements will cost more than introducing a few incentives to keep your existing staff motivated. A few suggestions for simple but successful initiatives are:
An achievable commission structure: If you run a commission scheme, make sure it’s achievable. The quickest way to demotivate a team is to put targets in place that are not realistic. Run a tiered system with different targets for different rewards, ensuring that the higher you go, the bigger the commissions are. This inspires everyone to push harder.
Make initiatives inclusive: When creating specific incentives, make sure everyone can participate. Often, the same people win each time, which means the others will switch off instantly. Run an incentive where the prize is obtained through a draw and where, the more you achieve, the more tickets you get for the draw.
You can make the prizes in the draw as big or as small as you like. In some cases, everyone who has achieved a certain goal might receive a small prize, a product or a scratch card, for example. This makes it fun, and gives everyone the chance to win something.
Introducing an element of competition often also works: For example: split people into teams, with the winning team getting a night out. Run in-house lucky dip offers. For example, for every £500 taken in a day, you get a lucky dip. I ran an incentive once with a big bag of chocolate bars as the lucky dip. It was amazing how many in the team wanted those chocolates every day.
Work with your suppliers to give you prizes. This could be products or larger incentives that you can use. The real challenge is coming up with fresh ideas each week. Get your team involved as well and allow them to contribute ideas.
Finally, always make sure the return you get covers the investment you make in the prizes. This is about motivating your team to go above and beyond, not to simply get them to do the job you pay them for in the first place.
Fran Hayter runs consultancy and recruitment business Fran Hayter Consulting and has worked in the salon and spa industry for 36 years. She is also part of the UK-based Beauty Business Experts team, which provides advice, mentoring and support to independent spas and salons at a competitive rate.
http://www.franhayterconsulting.com
http://beautybusinessexperts.com