Everyone loves a reason to come to work. But if your team isn’t performing at its best, you might be running out of ideas for motivating your workers.
A bonus structure is an incentive to your employees only when they exceed a certain level of performance, usually sales or productivity. A bonus structure can ensure greater productivity from your staff and help them grow. The secret is to target the area that you feel is causing a lack of performance.
Here’s a list of 7 bonus structures and call center incentive plan examples that will help keep you on top from day one until the day you need them again.
1. Commission Bonus: Best Sales Driver
The commission bonus is the most typical bonus structure. A commission bonus is a percentage of total sales that your team makes.
Because it’s a success-based method, you will need to research how salespeople manage their time to know how much volume your staff can handle. Set it up to only pay if they exceed what you determine as their greatest production level.
The great thing about the commission-based bonuses is that, in most cases, offering a percentage of a sale as the commission is easy to calculate in financial budgets, as you can account for “1% of all turnover” for the bonus scheme.
2. Targeted Bonus: Best for Underperforming Staff and Teams
Targeted bonus schemes work best of all the bonus structure examples when you’ve got a full potential team but aren’t quite achieving the standards set by the company. Most often, this occurs when a team that before performed well becomes demotivated for one reason or another.
To target a specific area of underperformance, create a bonus structure signed up to the performance manager that targets specific elements of the team’s production. You can use call center reporting software to monitor your team’s progress.
For example, you could ask your salespeople to reach an average monthly sales figure for the month, and if they hit that figure, they could expect a bonus.
3. Team Bonus: Best for Improving Relationships
Team bonus often ties in with targeted bonus. A targeted bonus can focus on the individual or the team. And for team bonuses, these work great because if one person fails, everyone fails.
Close-knit teams tend to do very well with team bonuses because they can work and communicate with each other. So it can be a great way of rebuilding a culture of support within your business.
That said, if your business deals in one-call transactions such as an insurance policy where the client only deals with one person, team bonuses won’t be as effective since that person is working from the rest of the group.
4. On-The-Spot Bonus: Best for Customer Service and Morale
An on-the-spot bonus is a simple, immediate reward that you give out in-person to your staff. This structure is one of the most direct rewarding methods because they get it immediately after they’ve done something great.
On the spot, bonuses work well for customer service-driven companies since it’s good not only for the customer experience but also for your team’s morale. Doing this improves their productivity and maintains a positive attitude within your team.
5. Compliance Bonus: Best for Keeping It Clean
A compliance bonus rewards your staff for procedures or for following set processes. In sales, for example, you can come up with a list of things that need to happen before a sale happens.
If your salespeople manage to hit that list of tasks and efficiently deal with the client, you can give them a compliance bonus that works as an extra reward on top of their normal commission.
Look at some sample call center bonus structures for ideas on how to integrate a compliance bonus into your business. But of course, remember to respect the laws in your area so you aren’t incentivizing anything that could be construed as illegal.
6. Attendance Bonus: Best for Poor Attendance
The important thing to note with an attendance bonus is that it’s very easy to get wrong. Suppose you have an excellent member of staff that has legitimate reasons for poor attendance. Make sure the plan doesn’t set you up for a discriminatory case.
7. Length of Service Bonus: Best for Keeping Good Staff
One of the biggest mistakes employers make is neglecting their consistent employees. Often, these are those who rarely miss their targets, always perform well, and get on with the job without fuss. And, because they’re often content, they stick around for a longer period.
But like anyone, if the business neglects to recognize the hard work they put in, and they will leave. So offering a bonus every year, for example, is a great way to keep them engaged and feeling valued.
Recognize the hard work they’ve put in for your company. They may not be the best or the loudest in the room, but they’ll have saved you an immense amount of stress and HR costs over the years.
8. Non-Cash Bonus: Best When Money Doesn’t Motivate
It is not always possible, but if you can offer a non-cash bonus, it will help improve your relationship with your employees. By offering things that aren’t easy to account for as part of staff budgets, you can provide incentives without breaking the bank.
One example is free product samples that you provide your customers with for them to test out. These are simple rewards, and they provide an opportunity for revenue growth at the same time.
Find the Right Bonus Structure for Your Business
Of course, your team will love getting extra pay. But the true hidden value of a good bonus structure is that it improves team morale and productivity.
The right approach to sales bonuses will allow your team to handle pressure better and increase the fun factor of working in your business.
For more work hacks, check out our other articles and see what you can find!
