ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Incentives

gramps...are any of the projects around the philadelphia/new jersey area. have pipe bender will travel...

Bosses are all too ready to criticise, but do they ever pass on a few of the extra $$$ when a job comes in early, and under budget?
There are many "management" courses out there, but few "leadership" courses.
There is also a tendency to try to fit the man to the job, rather than exploiting a man's natural skills, or by helping/training him to adapt.
Finally, too often I've seen a boss expect you to be responsible for anything that goes wrong, but he is not willing to provide the means for it, be flexible in his policies to see it done, or allow you to use your initiative in the least. How many of today's poorly performing companies are "dealing" with their poor performance by awarding the CEO a bonus for firing shipping clerks?

sorry lighthouse...i'm in the "frozen tundra" of ohio...pretty long commute for you, but thanks for the offer....

gramps

Tsolanto:
Luckily for me, the four guys I have now are good. One is 16 yrs, 1 is 12 yrs, 1 is 10 yrs, 1 is <2 yrs.(Young guy out of local VoTech School)

As to incentives: 45 hr week, 5 days. OT as needed. Holidays, off w/pay. Sick days & vacation. (Flexible w/sick days)

Bonus a Christmas, $$ dependent on the "goodness" of the year. Cash "bonus" from scrap proceeds. Pat on the back is standard, quality of work is A+, the only way we do it.

We do primarily comm; resi for the comm people. Steady customers who expect quality work, immediate emergency response 24-7.

"No complaints" from the workforce here.

PS: LIGHTHOUSE, are you in "South Jersey" area?? I have a guy down that way who may need a hand, if yu're interested.

John

gramps....thanks anyway,yea that's just a little far for me too.

HotLine1.john.i'm allways interested in making a buck if the money is right.i live in philadelphia.but i keep my boat in south jersey. lets see work and fish the same day.avery day.maybe fun

Here in Florida we have to "sort" through at least 10 new employees to get one qualified electrican. Most applicants come from the "north" relocating to our warm climate. They want 3 to 4 dollars an hour than our adverage journeymen's pay. If you can talk them into taking the reduced wages most can not do what they say they can, and we end up letting them go. Just in my area alone there was 20 ads in todays want ad section. We have several strong apprentice programs but not enough to go around. 95% of the contractors in my area are non-union. So if anyone knows good quality electricans that need a job tell them to come to warm sunny Tampa (home of the superbowl champs).

Try to piece rate set up for those workers who are familiar with the work of a job. For example an apartment complex- The crew gets a set price to rough in, install the service and feeders, or finish it per apartment unit. Once they agree to this, your labor per unit is set. Make it attractive enough for them to beat their regular pay per week if they do at least 2 more units/week than you planned for. Let them know that any mistakes of the work are theis to fix at NO cost to you unless it's your mistake. Any inspection failures are treated the same way. For repeative work this ccan be very good for you and them.
One crew I used for a year made an average of 4200/wk split 3 ways just to rough in the units. They gave me 24 units/week. After the first two weeks the only fixes were caused by other trades or a foreman's layout error.
Normally these apprentices got 12.00/hr for a 50 hr week. or 660.00 gross hourly vs 1400.00/wk on piece rate On hourly I got an average of 15 units/wk
This worked for me quite well until I ran out of work they could do.

Its a shame that many of todays workforce feel that their employer owes them more just a paycheck. A slow economy may help fix this as jobs become more and more scarce and the people with the money regain control.

I'm considering offering my Helper a set price for his work on the next cottage.

If we kick butt, we both make more per hour.

Whatcha think?

I've had the priviledge/burden of being employed by a company which relied heavily on incentives. We had 'sales objectives' to meet which had almost nothing to do with our actual business - we just happened to be the first contract of its kind in the market we were in, hence an almost automatic 2nd place win. However, the prize was pretty cool - everyone in our office got a CD player (component type for a stereo) when they were just coming out on the market, 1st place got a TV (yes, every one of them in the office got one). OK, so that's out of the average small business owner's league but it was kind of fun.

Next, we were subjected/introduced to "Peak Performer Awards" wherein our fellow employees would nominate us for work done above and beyond the call of duty (not just for doing what was minimally required, but beyond that). One could accrue 'PPA' points that equaled a dollar which could then be spent on the catalog of items that was provided. I have a long list of items, as does everyone else because we were such great players, that I gained from the program. Also, each nomination went into a drawing for a $1,000 travel certificate, which was cool since I won that, too.

Also, one Christmas each of us got a coat with the company logo on it. Another time, we got a long sleeved T-shirt with the company logo on it. Another time, a duffel bag with the company logo on it. Another, Cross pen & pencil set with the company logo on them. It got to be a running joke that a technical company was competing with JC Penney with their apparel awards.

And the piece de resistance was the hope for a spot at the annual "Vice President's Club" which only the top 10% of the company went to - a 3 day trip to some resort (which included the mandatory business meeting/pep talk).

More rewarding than any of the 'material' programs and which actually was more compelling was our local manager's approach in calling us 'the A Team', the 'hit the ground, we knew you were the right people to make this happen' approach. We jumped through hoops for him, as he did for us when necessary, too.

I have been taught, and learned it myself, that when you can find someone who buys into your company's mission and makes it his/her mission, you have someone who will help push your company ahead. If your mission doesn't reflect something they can buy in to, take a look at improving it with the concepts of quality work & deliverables, safe conditions during and after installation, fair treatment & respect for employees as well as customers, and stability resulting from good practices, reasonable prices, reliable service, customer satisfaction, training opportunities and the like.