Using Incentive Pay Programs to Motivate Workers & Drive Value

Finding and retaining talent has been a key struggle for employers for years. The talent shortage is a serious problem, and staffing and recruiting firms are hit especially hard with this crisis. SIA predicts staffing will grow by 12% in 2021. With the United States already in a labor crisis, staffing firms need to ensure they are keeping up with the demand for quality candidates.

It’s time to get creative about how to attract and retain talent. Incentive pay programs are a fantastic way to maintain your talent pool and attract new employees to stay competitive.

What is Incentive Pay?

An incentive pay program is a compensation plan that rewards employees for positive behaviors and actions. Incentive pay can come in the form of cash, gift cards, or merchandise. Incentive pay programs have recently increased in popularity, and we expect this trend to continue in 2021 and beyond.

Why Implement an Incentive Pay Program?

The cost of showing up to work has increased in recent years with the introduction of alternate income sources from human cloud platforms like Uber. Staffing firms need to work harder to attract the attention of talent in the market. Incentive programs are a creative way to attract and retain top talent by rewarding positive behaviors.

Avionté recently polled staffing firms about behaviors that are most important to their businesses and found that over 50% listed talent behaviors such as:

  1. Motivating staff to stay on an assignment to completion and
  2. Getting staff to show up on an assignment

Firms can easily promote and encourage these behaviors using incentive pay.

How to Use an Incentive Pay Program

We recently polled staffing firms to learn what incentives firms currently use to motivate talent. Almost 90% of firms said they offer a referral bonus. However, less than 30% of these firms leveraged other incentives like store discounts, merchandise, and raffles. Go beyond the ordinary and offer incentives through means other than simple cash bonuses. Gamification and points systems are a great way to keep talent engaged long-term.

Avionté Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Chris Ryan, recently examined the topic of incentive pay in a webinar. He offers a few tips for designing incentive pay programs.

  1. Start with the outcome in mind. What business impact are you looking to make?
  2. Identify the behaviors that impact the desired outcome. What action(s) would you like to encourage?
  3. Determine a program that is easy to measure and communicate.
  4. Ensure your incentive pay program is compliant.

For more information on staffing incentive pay programs and how to use them, watch the full webinar below.

CHANGE is the first and only payroll card built specifically for the staffing and recruiting industry that empowers your agency to incentivize the good behaviors that benefit your bottom line. You can pay your employees and reward them with points for the good work they do. Interested in learning more? Request a demo.

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