3 oddball — but effective — ways to retain good people
October 10, 2008 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Incentives, Latest News & Views, Management, Money, Retention and turnover, Supervisors
From the book 401 Proven Ways to Retain Your Best Employees, here are three that companies have tested – and that work for retention.
1. One company whose CEO used to give $200 spot bonuses for outstanding performance decided to ditch the bonuses. Instead, the company rents a fancy sports car for a week and hands the high performer the keys.
2. The employees of another company get three coins every three months. The employees present the coins to co-workers who helped them above and beyond the norm. Recipients can redeem the coins for prizes. The approach makes for happy employees and a great work atmosphere.
3. At a third company, employees get to grade their managers on a “report card” three times a year — giving them an ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ’C’ and so on for communication, accountability, quality and professionalism. The grades are partly used to determine managers’ raises.
Tags: 401 Proven Ways to Retain Your Best Employees, bonuses, performance, raises, retention
October 13th, 2008 at 10:39 am
All three are good motivators. I especially like #2 & #3 because they let everyone feel they, and their opinions of co-workers, are appreciated. An appreciated employee is loyal, hard-working, and gives that 110% becuase they know it does not go “unnoticed”. Depending on the industry/department #1 would be a great motivator too. I can totally see employees giving extra effort to get those keys.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am
I really like #2 and #3 also. We’re getting ready to roll out a program very similar to #2, so this helps me to know we’re on the right track!
October 14th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Loved #2! Nothing like feeling appreciated. The boss shows it by performance reviews now your coworkers can show their appreciation too. Great idea.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Years ago I worked in an engineering firm that had employees give thank you notes to co-workers who helped them above their daily duty. The one with the most notes got a prize. After a while, employees started to pressure co-workers to give them thank you notes for every little thing.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I have been planning on doing something along this line, so I also would be interested in a sample letter and website resources. Greeat job, thanks!
May 27th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
What is so oddball about the coin idea? We have the coin program here. each coin is worth $2.00. The employees collect their coins and bring them in and tell me where they want a gift card from. I usually receive from an employee 5-10 coins at a time. This year we started “competitions” and “safety Incentives” for sporting event tickets. We are now season pass holders for our pro hockey and soccer teams. We also offer half price pro baseball tickets (all levels of seats) which cost our facility nothing.
The employees benefit and I benefit as well as an HR person because I have made great professional connections and can continue offering our employees these incentives.
For employee of the month they get a certificate, their name on a plaque, and $100.00.
For perfect attendance for a qtr which is 3 months no call offs, no tardies, no leave earlies, no “forgetting to clock in”, and completing computer based training on time you receive 1 day off with pay in additon to your already paid time off. We don’t have a huge voluntary turnover at either of my facilities.
May 27th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Debra,
We get our coins through a company called baudville.com I think its $20-$30 for 50-100 coins As far as sports incentives..we were contacted by two of the pro teams sales executives and the other team I contacted at request of employees interest.
The only thing about the coins is they tend to “disappear” for awhile beacuse some employees wait until they get an astronomical amount of coins, so that is one thing you will need to address.