Unkillable Monster

What is the best Incentive

Bill Ritchie

Incentive schemes have been much criticised in recent years, and it is quite true that some schemes have been singularly unsuccessful. Their failure, however, has often been the result of inadequate planning, rushed introduction, or not thinking through such a scheme properly. These points should not be used to generally condemn other more successful applications.

Whether any particular incentive scheme achieves long term success depends initially on the thoroughness with which the current working situation is reviewed, hence the need to re look at some key Action Points, and question why you need an incentive scheme.

1. Increase in earnings for employees?

2. Increase in output?

3. Improvement in quality?

4. Better mobility of labour?

5. More efficient methods of working?

6. Improvement in safety?

7. Higher housekeeping standards?

8. Reduction in absenteeism?

9. The following questions will act as an aide memoire .

11. Does the work necessitate skilled, semi skilled or unskilled labour?

12. Can individual skill be fully applied when manipulating machines etc. or is the employee TMs quantity and quality of output regulated to a large extent by factors outside his/her control?

13. Does the level of output remain steady throughout the year or is it subject to seasonal variations?

14. Is production organized on a process flow line, batch or jobbing basis?

15. Have your current production methods been recently reviewed for maximum efficiency?

16. Is any new machinery or plant, to be introduced in the near future, likely to upset the standard upon which an incentive scheme might be based?

17. Have you sufficient qualified staff to introduce an incentive scheme, or alternatively, have you one qualified employee who is capable of training other staff in work study techniques?

18. Once the scheme is introduced, will you have the necessary number of staff to be able to keep it under constant review, and to introduce modifications where necessary?

19. Will the present staff in the wages department be able to cope with bonus calculations etc. without additional help?

20. Are other parts of the organization such as Production Control, Maintenance, Distribution etc. geared to cope with the increased flow of materials and output that are likely to result?

21. Are your present channels of communication, both formal and informal, capable of coping with the dissemination of detailed information to all employees, on the workings of any proposed incentive plan?

22. Have you the necessary facilities, away from the production area, for any operative training or re training that might be required?

23. Have you agreed the principle of using work measurement with the trade unions and employee representatives?Articles Connexes：