Employee Bonus??

Question

I have a great employee, who is a hard worker and very attentive to details and or codes, which makes having him on staff frustrating but good. I feel as he has lost his drive/desire to work on real estate, he is taken longer on his projects than before... To try and help speed up production and give him a drive again, I was thinking I should give him a bonus each time we sell a project he has worked on. What would a fair amount be? 1% of the profit or 1% of the sale price or a flat $500.00... Looking to get some opinions on this subject!!

Mike C · Answer

Tim, 
            
            As suggested, you need to find out what is causing his lower drive/desire because until you do, you donâ€™t really know if you can do anything to solve it. It could be family, medical, the law, or who knows what. After finding out the real problem, then you can try to tackle it.
            
            When you find out what motivates him (and assuming you want to keep him), you can do what it takes to bring him back to his usual standards. I agree that money does not solve all problems as others have suggested. That may or may not be the problem. Quality of life, time with the family and job security mean more to many people, especially these days. 
            
            But if you want to put more incentive into his work with more money, you have to align his/her interests with yours. You donâ€™t say exactly what type of employee he is but I am guessing he/she is on your rehab crew, and may or may not be your crew leader. I would put in his contract for that property or give him a written agreement (also with others on his crew as you see fit) outside his other contract stating that if he brings in this job or rehab under budget, or ahead of schedule based on reasonable original schedule (donâ€™t set him up for failure here) to complete it, he/she gets a bonus of x on a sliding scale based on how under budget or ahead of schedule he/she finished the rehab or project. The amount is up to you but a week or two of pay is a good starting point, depending on the length of the job. Be sure that shoddy work is not tolerated to try to meet a time budget. 
            
            This way his (potential) interest in earning more money is aligned with your desire to get quality work done under budget and/or ahead of schedule allowing you to turn your rehab or rental quicker, which is obviously good for you as well. This is how I would handle it.
            
            Good investing
            
            Mike C

J Scott · Answer

I've never seen it, yet have seen LOTS of data that indicates that money is actually a very poor motivator of already-existing employees... (not saying it's not a motivator for some things, but certainly not for existing employees).

Jim Wineinger · Answer

There is also a lot of research out there that says that money is the biggest motivator. The only question, which I attempted to bring out, is in what form that money is going to take.

The benefits of going and doing things with the boss is going to give people that recogonition that you spoke of. The cost of doing so could be paid to the empolyee in the form of a cash bonus, or in the recogonition that he desires. This is where the employee evaluation spoken of comes into play because you KNOW your empolyee and how they respond to things by the way they respond to you in the evaluation discussion.

The same thing goes for the status "awards" such as employee of the month or employee of the year. These are monetary rewards even if the employee recieves more status instead of the money directly.

So I do stand by the money motivator and encourage you to find out from the employee what HE wants and apply his "bonus" to him in that fashion. It may be as simple as saying thank you to him in front of all the other employees, then go to an addition step that he did not expect. What that is is for you to decide from your interviews and discussions of him but make it something that he appreciates.

You should already know this about all your employees or it shows that you do not appreciate or understand employees. And if you do not appreciate them they will not appreciate you not matter how much you pay them or what you give them.

Do not always look to the employee for the problem, it may be looking at you in the mirror!!!

Alan Brymer · Answer

I recently wrote a blog post about this same topic:  http://www.alanbrymer.com/blog/?p=736
            
            Money is not the biggest motivator. There is so much research out there that shows that things like recognition, status, and other things are bigger motivators and money is in a variety of businesses.
            
            Just because you and I have big dreams doesn't mean that everyone does. Experiment I would get rid of the guy. It is so easy to find someone who is excited about their job and will do it gladly for a flat hourly rate it's worth the hassle of finding somebody else.

Jeff M. · Answer

Jon,
i must respectfully disagree. 
firstly,i am speaking of sending him to a good program. a bad one may be worse than none.

if you want to keep this employee, then you will do the leg-work and find the best one you can.

problems like....
a. something going on in his life
b. clarifying his desire to do the job
c.feeling under appreciated
d. bringing him back to his full production capability

would all be solved by a GOOD motivational sessions.

it bothers me when people try to micro-analyze a problem. he clearly has an issue in his life that needs to be fixed. don't waste your time looking for it, let him do the searching and that is what motivational sessions will do for him.

Jon Holdman · Answer

Speaking for myself, I couldn't disagree more.  I find most of these "motivational seminars" pure claptrap.  If my boss said "go to this or you're fired", I'd go, but it would be a demotivator rather than a motivator.

I too have been a manager.  People are different.  They have different work styles and different needs for interaction with their manager.  You have to figure out each employee individually.  Have you tried doing a performance review with this person and discuss his declining job performance?  Perhaps something is going on in his life that is taking energy away.  Perhaps he just no longer wants to do this job.  Perhaps he feels unappreciated.  Perhaps he was working very hard to make a good initial impression, and now you're seeing his normal work habits.  Set down and do a review and discuss it.  The only case where throwing money at it might help is if he feels underpaid.  Otherwise, he might happily accept the additional money, but nothing will change.

J Scott · Answer

Sure, it may seem like common-sense, but trust me, after managing thousands of employees in my career, I can tell you it's not...

Jeff M. · Answer

i do not believe that more money is the answer.
you want to turn him back into the work horse he once was? then send him to motivational classes or courses. your money will be much better spent that way and he will thank you forever.
instead of having to give him incentives, when he gets back he'll give you some.

if he wont go, then fire him.

jeff

Jim Wineinger · Answer

I believe that money is the biggest motivator, period. But how you recieve that monies value may make a difference to different people.

Some people will be motivated by recieving that "bonus" in the form of an extra weeks vacation. And some others in the form of a free trip to Vegas, or Disney, or a cruise.

The key is talking to the employee and finding out what is his motivating factor.
Sometimes it is a simple as changing his job duties for a week or two to get him out of his rut. Maybe he goes with you for two weeks just to see what his work leeds to and how important it is to you.
And why the timing of the deals are important to you and how much you do appreciate his work.

J Scott · Answer

As someone with plenty of management experience, I would suggest that if your employee is losing motivation for the work he's doing, offering him more money is NOT a long-term solution.

If you want to keep him motivated and happy long-term, try finding something more interesting for him to work on (from his perspective) and probably more challenging.

Money (as in higher salary and bonuses) is not a great long-term motivator...