Bonus plan for employees

[hyper_racing]

Boss is thinking about changing our bonus plan around for the installers. Was just wondering what others are doing. He is asking me for my opinion and I'm kinda at a dead end...

[greg o]

We show up for work and do the job. As a bonus we get paid!

[dash]

Estimator/boss set the time for various install functions,if you do it in less time,you get 50% of the hourly rate saved,subject to no callbacks in 30 days.

[hyper_racing]

Hey dash, he said that was what he used to do, but people got mad if the job went in the hole and they didn't end up getting anything. I had mentioned doing that. If we sit down and tell everyone that if it loses money, you get nothing. I wouldn't see what they could have to fuss at.

[dash]

The fuss comes,if they don't consistently estimate the job functions and conditions, for the same amount of time.Usually that's due to a salesman,lowering the price to "get" the job.



A better system,IMHO,is the job tasks/function have a
flat rate " pay system.No matter how long it takes ,the pay is the same.


We see guys averaging ,3 to 6 dollars an hour extra,on that system.



Company benefits for the boss;

1.Labor never exceeds estmate.

2.More jobs completed in a week,month,year,with no extra trucks or benefits.So more gross profit with the same people

3.The guys usually stay and finish,if it takes a little overtime.


[Edited by dash on 06-12-2005 at 08:43 AM]

[Irascible]

Greg's sarcastic remark is more on the ball then he may realize. Read this and believe it.

http://www.alfiekohn.org/managing/fbrftb.htm

Think of parents who have spoiled rotten kids. They want their kid to do something so they bribe them. The bribe works but it was only a temporary change of behavior brought on by manipulation. The kid is still a little hellion. You may counter with the fact that we're talking about adults and not children. But that aspect of human behavior is constant at all ages. If you have to bribe someone to make them do something then the change in behavior is not only temporary, but it's often resented.

What you want are good quality tradesmen who do the job right because they answer to a higher standard. Those are tough employees to come by, I know. So I suppose a big shop that can't find a good crew has to do what it has to do.

[greg o]

We are pretty much 90% commercial. No way a reward system would work for us anyway. Many times the crew that started a job is not the crew that finishes it. Also with differant people haveing "specialties", we often change workers in the middle of the job because of the differant abilities that workers have. Also most of our installers have a few years of experiance. The owner gives the lead man the authority to to changes as he sees fit. We do not have any supervisors to look over the differant projects in the works.
On the other hand I can see how with residential work it would be easier to give bonuses for a job well done. As many residential jobs can be figured in hours instead of weeks or months, it is more likely that the workers that start the job finish it. One would have to be careful that job quality would not go down the drain because the installers were more interested in getting 'er done, than job quality.
We have one tech we hired lately that is a great worker, but we have to beat the "hack" out of him. He worked for a company that did mostly new residential and the owner was concerned more about time than quality. He rarely used a vacuum pump untill he came to work for us. Just blow and go on new installs. He never even heard of a micron guage!

[ct2]

we have a bonus plan at work : WORK OR GET FIRED

[heatpumpguru]

We are given a set amount of time to do a job, if we do it under we get the hours at base rate unless call backs related to install. Also customer feedback card get us vacation days which we can use or get the cash.The salesman are also tied in on hours and same thing for vacation.Not all come in on time but most come in at or under, we sink or swim as a team. Service guys have something close to this also.