It's a fact that the labor pool for skilled employees in the printing industry is shrinking. Motivating and retaining productive employees in today's economy is one of the most significant challenges for printing company managers.
Consistent praise, recognition, and incentives are proven to be the best way to improve employee performance, as well as satisfaction. Incentives, Motivation and Workplace Performance, a study conducted by researchers for the International Society of Performance Improvement, found that properly designed and implemented incentive programs will increase performance from 25 to 44 percent.
Creating an incentive plan involves defining the goals, defining the objectives, defining the measurements or calculations, and defining the incentive rewards.
Incentive measurements or calculations can be based on numerous criteria such as employee efficiency (actual vs. standard), spoilage costs, down time hours, net good impressions, orders processed, number of customer complaints, employee absenteeism and tardiness, or number of incorrect job tickets.
Incentive benefits can be financial rewards based on a fixed dollar amount or based on a percentage of an employee's wages earned during the incentive period. Financial rewards can be subsidized using corporate credit card rebates, vendor rebates, local business sponsorships, or income from recycled materials.
Incentives do not have to be in the form of cash. You can also reward employees for their performance with tangible items such as lunch on the company, gift certificates, grocery store gift certificates, movie passes, merchandise, dinner for two, or weekend getaways.
Printing companies that provide exceptional incentive programs that motivate employees and appropriately reward them for their performance will realize the greatest financial gains.
Printing Industry Ideas & Insights Blog contains ideas to help printing and packaging business owners, managers, and employees improve their organization.
