Want your workforce to offer their best performances ever? Having trouble identifying what's going wrong with motivating, managing and moving personnel to the next level in the coaching and career chain? There could be serious concerns regarding sales incentive compensation and the level of engagement employees feel toward these assets.

Implementing the best incentive compensation strategy requires a strong understanding of what employees want, how to give it to them and what companies are able to do to make these rewards even better. Sometimes giving people what they want before they even know it can make for the best responses of all, so getting in touch with what makes businesses function best allows for dynamic opportunities in implementing superior workforce engagement and motivation.

Still, it's important to recognize that not every sales incentive compensation plan is going to be best for employees. While some strategies are directly in line with what people want, there's also issues at times with how leaders model their operations, as well as intentional misuse concerns. Recognizing the problems in these scenarios and what works in others can help companies differentiate within their own operations between what they should keep and what they can discard.

Find what works
So what should companies look for in terms of things that really help employees and get them motivated? as some sources show, it's important to focus on sales incentive compensation strategies that create return on investment not only for businesses, but also provide a real reward and savings to employees as well.

Here are some of the top positive incentive compensation plans right now:

  • Driving and transportation offerings
    • The Orange County Register reported that the Orange County Transportation Authority is providing its personnel with carpool bonuses in the form of cash and paid days of. This has helped establish and drive interest in the agency's Commuter Club, now offering services to almost one-third of all workforce.
  • Health and wellness options
    • Mobile Health News wrote that Aetna employees are being given access to a new CarePass program. This provides personnel with fitness apps, wellness planning and health planning options.
      • The Milwaukee-Journal Sentinel commented that Kohls is giving its workers gym memberships and fitness planning services as part of regular benefits.

Watching for errors
There are many options for organizations to implement leading solutions for sales incentive compensation, but it can be easy for corporations to ignore these solutions as well. When firms implement the wrong rewards programs or ignore solutions that have been shown to be effective, there can be serious complications in the workplace.

Here are some of the biggest problems currently facing sales incentive compensation in some organizations:

  • Trust and transparency
    • Star News Online wrote that the Roger Bacon Academy in North Carolina is refusing to reveal its salary packages, bonus programs or incentive compensation strategy tied to pay and compensation. This can alienate workforce as well as clients in the region.
  • Unfair compensation strategy
    • While holiday pay and days off are desirable rewards in some circles, there are issues with how certain firms handle payouts in these instances. Employee Benefits Online stated that the Court of Justice of the European Union just ruled that companies need to actually offer commission for sales performance management when employees work on holiday, as well as their regular base and holiday pay.
  • Ignoring wellness
    • Though health and wellness have been shown to be effective in motivating and encouraging engagement, there are still some firms that resist investing in these kinds of employee incentive compensation plans. Employee Benefit News stated that there are many companies under the Affordable Care Act which are avoiding spending any more on employees than absolutely legally mandated. This is causing major schisms in engagement that could hinder profits and damage retention.