Motivating Workers: Richfield Company Utilizes Incentives

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Author(s): Sarah Filus

Parties, perks, and prizes.
Companies are going big with these enticements -- and at times getting creative -- to recruit and retain motivated employees.

Take Equity Consultants of Richfield. On a Friday afternoon in July, the home mortgage company was occupied with more than financials.

Instead of arranging mortgages and other financing for clients, employees in Hawaiian shirts, shorts, jeans, and tennis shoes chatted over hot dogs, hamburgers, and an extensive spread of side dishes.

An executive dunk tank and water balloon toss were the order of the day. A large white tent, blow-up palm trees, foam parrots, beach towels, and flowery leis decorated the lawn outside the company building.

And this was just a monthly employee appreciation party.

The previous month, the company rented a conference room in a Doubletree Hotel in Independence, where people danced and shot confetti cannons.

"We had Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl playing and the women were dancing. It was like a pep rally. It wasn't hard to get them motivated," said Janie Plank, senior executive vice president of human relations.

Since the company's inception in 2001, Equity Consultants' motivational employee meetings have grown in scale. Plank said the monthly parties vary widely in price.

"We know that investing in employees in the end makes us better at what we do. We are very picky about people that get hired here," she said.

The company often uses the parties as recruiting tools, Plank said.

"We have a large sales force of people, and we work hard to incent them in terms of sales. We recognize people who have excelled."

At times, recognized employees are entered into raffles to win high ticket prizes such as electronics and gift cards.

This month, the company began a yearlong contest for a 2007 Z-4 BMW.

If an employee reaches $25,000 in sales in one month, he or she receives a Z-4 key. In the end, whoever possesses the key that starts the engine wins the car.

"This is a very aggressive sales force, and they like the competition," Plank said.

Dan Logan of Parma was one of the first employees to receive a key.

"A contest, if you win, is a nice bonus. A Z-4, that's better than what I'm driving now," he said.

Then he added: "Incentives motivate me to a certain extent, but mostly it is the money to take care of my wife and two kids."

Selena Johnson of Sagamore Hills met her sales goal and won an iPod Nano and an accompanying Bose speaker dock at a raffle at the July party.

She has her eye on the Z-4.

"I need a car; I have to have it," she said. "That's my goal -- have as many $25,000 months as possible."

Incentive programs date back to the '20s and '30s and have grown vastly in magnitude, said Bill Termini, vice president of domestic and global sales for Hinda Incentives, an employee motivation specialist company and incentive provider in Chicago.

While companies used to do primarily sales-based incentives, they are expanding to general employee recognition to promote a strong company culture, he said.

Price tags on incentive programs have risen, too. Termini has handled incentive programs for companies that cost in the low eight figures.

Paula Godar, director of performance strategy for Maritz Incentives in Missouri, has seen companies give out a pair of ostriches, a trip to Antarctica with a cocktail party on a glacier, and a "run through the warehouse" -- in which employees have a minute to push a cart through a merchandise warehouse and grab as much as they can.

However, there are effective, inexpensive incentives that are just as useful, said John Putzier, president of FirStep Inc., a provider of workplace-strategies for higher performance in Pennsylvania.

They include opening doors to employees' children, in-house support groups and clubs, and costume and theme attire for various special events. The author of "Get Weird! 101 Innovative Ways to Make Your Company a Great Place to Work" said these tactics started in the dot.com era in the '90s and are still used today.

Many experts agree that incentives alone are not enough to recruit and maintain employees. Workers value an environment in which they feel valued and can assimilate, said Lynda Ford, president of The Ford Group, a human resources consulting group in New York.

A good flow of lateral communication, equitable pay and the ability to take on risks and responsibilities without the fear of being fired if mistakes are made are vital to employee satisfaction as well, she said.

Employees rank support and involvement highest in job importance followed by personal praise, autonomy and authority, and flexible working hours, according to research by Bob Nelson, president of Nelson Motivation Inc. in San Diego. Cash and cash incentives are 10th on the list.

"At first, incentives are important," said Roger E. Herman, chief executive officer of the Herman Group, an employee retention specialist in Greensboro, N.C. "Incentives bring more to the picture so people pay attention, but you can throw incentives at people all day and have them not take it. There has to be something behind it."

Equity Partners runs video of company parties, footage of meetings between the CEO and staff members, and sales goals daily on large flat screen televisions that adorn office walls to motivate employees all month long.

"The monthly party is one day and expresses what is going on the rest of the time," said Plank.

But it doesn't hurt to look forward to next month's party: In August, Equity Consultants will raffle off a trip to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic to qualifying employees.

Sarah Filus can be reached at 330-996-3838 or sfilus@thebeaconjournal.com

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