Keys to Motivating Employees

Parcel Shipping and Distribution

Forum 2006

Wayne M. Teres
Teres Consulting Inc.
teresconsulting.com
wayne@teresconsulting.com

Successful Motivation Programs
Best of class warehouse operations have
productive and motivated workers as a
result of successfully implemented
employee motivation programs
Why Invest the Time and Effort?
Lower costs and lower employee turnover
Increased quality and productivity
increases profits
Low investment - High payback
How Motivating are
Your Programs?
Do your employees feel adequately
recognized?
Do your employees get excited about
the program rewards?
Do your employees have input into
the rewards they receive?
Does your program drive the
behaviors that you desire?
Program Essentials
Hire the right people Hire smart
Hire for attitude, dependable, motivated people
Southwest Airlines
Enhance desired outcome of the
organization motivate behavior to
achieve corporate goals
Provide interesting work
If tasks themselves cannot be fulfilling, team
collaboration or membership in a committee can be
used to create interest and value at work
Program Essentials
Recognize employees are motivated by
intangible rewards
Make people feel good about their current and
past accomplishment
Create cost effective programs
Provide visible feedback
Build on past programs success

Program Essentials
You get what you reward!
Be sure you have clearly defined what you
want to get, then use rewards and recognition
to move toward those goals



What is your Goal?
What outcome do you want
Make sure it is a global goal,
not a local goal
Example

Why Rewards Fail
Excessive dependence on
monetary rewards
Lack of recognition value
Entitlements
Wrong things are rewarded
Delay
De-motivators

Excessive Dependence on
Monetary Rewards

Money is not the common denominator of
achievement
Money rewards are very costly, often
difficult to maintain and hard to take away
When people are striving for money, they
will often take the shortest and fastest
route to maximize their financial gain
often sacrificing quality
Lack of Recognition Value

Few organization realize the importance of
recognition and appreciation
Everyone wants to be recognized
Most workers feel unrecognized
Recognition is the most cost effective
motivator
Highly motivator organizations celebrate
small successes

Entitlements

Be careful with monetary rewards, they
become viewed as entitlements
Thanksgiving turkey
Mix up your programs to avoid the
entitlement belief
Wrong Things are Rewarded

Rewarding the wrong things occurs often
Be careful what you ask for
Productivity example
Remember no matter what you say
verbally or written in your manuals, what
you reward is what you get
Ask yourself Do the rewards we are
giving elicit the performance we want?
Delay

Research discloses Delay discounts any
reward
In most companies, rewards do not occur
promptly
For example, yearly profit sharing
Build instant recognition into your program
Rewards on the spot

De-motivators

The most common is unfairness
Be constantly aware of them
Avoid the perception of unfairness
Most de-motivators can be eliminated by
involving your workers when designing
your program
Proper Motivation Program Design
Define the objectives of the program
What do you want to achieve?
Decide how you will measure it
Discover what motivates your workers
Decide what the reward should be
Selling the Reward & Recognition
Program
Getting top management commitment
Communicating to the worker
Involving the worker
People fear the unknown
Communicating the Program
to the Worker
The Role of the Supervisor
Can make or break a program
Conditions
Standards are based
System is dynamic and will need to be
changed no surprises
When it will change
If business conditions change

No Train, No Gain!
Training
Greatest reason for failure
Employees wont understand
Methods
Their Role
What is expected of them
Supervisors dont know what is expected of
them




Quality Incentive Program
Employee motivation program to increase
Quality by reducing the following errors:
Inventory
Shipping, over, short, damaged or poor
quality
Paperwork
Team based reward
the entire warehouse gets the same reward
Quality Incentive Program
Calculating the Reward
Determine current status and what quality
errors cost
Identify the savings by improvement
Decide what percent to share with the
warehouse
Quality Incentive Program
Benefit
Customer/Employees/Company wins
Advantages
Ease of administration
Promotes teamwork
Encourages teamwork

Safety Program
Employee program to reduce work accidents
Accidents increase insurance and lost days
Measurement
Number of days without an incident
Program - Safety bingo
Every worker receives a bingo card
Each day without an accident a number is drawn
Prizes increase in value as number of days without an
accident increases
Safety Program
Additional Rewards Safety Milestone,
say 100 days without an incident
On the 100
th
day, pizza celebration
Supervisors and Managers unfurling banners
and streaming confetti to celebrate
A celebration that was not forgotten
A memorable event
Celebrate milestones

Gainsharing Programs
Gainsharing programs are group incentive
programs that reward employees when
targets like cost reduction are met usually
in a percentage split
These kinds of programs are self-funding
Gainsharing Key Features
Typically paid out in dollars
Programs have no effect on base pay or
individual performance appraisal
Should have inclusion of financial, quality,
or productivity measure that
the individual has control of
Programs should be based on
improvements achieved
Gainsharing Benefits
Can help organization achieve objectives
Can be a method of introducing pay
bonuses (rather than salary) to employees
May promote commitment to goals
Low cost
Self funding

Gainsharing Challenges
Formulas and calculations may be difficult
to create and understand
Eventually reach a point in diminishing
returns
Could distract people from less measured
goals not rewarded by the system
Requires a shift toward team oriented
management style
Pitfalls that Can Cause Failure
Lack of commitment from
top management
Poor communication with employees
Doing To rather that With
Installed on poor work methods
Doing it too quickly
Pitfalls that Can Cause Failure
Lack of Supervisory support and involvement
Blindly copying another companys plan
Poor worker acceptance
Focusing on productivity and omitting quality
Failure to seek outside assistance when
necessary
Dont be afraid to get help
You dont know what you dont know
Top 7 Ways to Motivate a Worker
Personally thank them for doing in a good
job one on one verbally in writing or
both. Make sure it is timely and sincere.
Take time to meet with the employee and
listen to them Theirs no substitute for
face time when building relationships
Provide regular specific feedback about
their performance
Encourage new ideas and initiative
Top 7 Ways to Motivate a Worker
Involve employees in decisions
that affect them
Recognize, reward and promote people
based on their performance. Deal with low
and marginal performers so they improve
or leave.
Celebrate successes!

5 Ways to Keep Your
Program Exciting
Charts and Displays
You can not have enough
When using money issue separate checks
Team competition
Champion & celebrate success
Celebrate milestones
Tee shirts and other recognition
Low Cost Motivational Rewards
Pot luck lunch
Gift certificates
Post names of winners in warehouse
Achievement certificates
Write up winners in company newsletter
T-shirts
Free lunch
Gas cards


Low Cost Motivational Rewards
Sporting event tickets
Coupons for gifts
Employee chooses reward
Wash the employees car
Give the person a two hour lunch
Extra time off
Write a letter of praise
In Summary
What gets measured, get done
What gets measured and fed back
gets done well
What gets measured, fed back and rewarded
gets done repeatedly!
Make common sense, common practice
Practice recognizing your workers
and their achievements
Design your program to elicit the behaviors
that drive your goals
Do not confuse simple with simple minded
Resources
Hire Tough Manage Easy
Mel Kleiman
The Goal
Eli Goldratt
1001 Ways to Reward
Bob Nelson

Thank You

Wayne M. Teres

Teres Consulting Inc.
teresconsulting.com
wayne@teresconsulting.com
508-872-4922