Incentive Compensation for Contractors - Audience Question: Keep Why Top Of Mind?

Incentive programs can be as seemingly small and informal as a handshake from a manager for a job well done up to very large cash compensation.

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Contributors Sue Weiler-Doke David Brown

What is important is that these programs work together to reinforce your culture, behaviors, and daily actions that lead to great outcomes. Remember that success in every role and for the team as a whole is a combination of skills, behaviors, and leading activities. These will result in achieving your objectives and all must be kept top-of-mind.

There are a few key techniques for keeping these top-of-mind:

  • Frequently celebrate wins, both small and large. Do this publicly and privately.
  • Share the outcomes but also link it back to the behaviors, skills, and daily actions that lead to the outcome.
  • Troubleshoot misses objectively to the root cause(s) so everyone can learn.
  • Where applicable, help people quantify how their actions impact the bonus pool as a whole. For example, if they negotiate another $1,000 in savings on a buy-out, then that impacts the bonus pool by $____.
  • Put up visible indicators that change regularly on job sites, trailers, office walls, hardhats, safety vests, etc. Keep it fresh and make it relevant

In this video series, Courtney Stearns, Sue Weiler-Doke, and David Brown discuss the most common questions we get from contractors about incentive programs, including a bunch of great questions from the audience.

This is Part 19 of a 20-Part Series


Topics Covered in the Series Include:

  • Union vs Open
  • Succession
  • Types of Programs
  • Risks
  • Culture

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More from Courtney Stearns
Incentive Compensation for Contractors - Risks
The highest risk with any incentive program is the lack of a well thought out and systematic approach to either administering or implementing the program.
Incentive Compensation for Contractors - Audience Question: Higher Base Compensation?
There is absolutely no perfect ratio between base vs. incentive compensation. Here are the variables and some rules of thumb.
Incentive Compensation for Contractors - Introduction
Every successful and profitably growing contractor we work with has a comprehensive and integrated set of incentive programs in place at all levels of the organization. These programs reinforce the daily actions and behaviors that make them successful.