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Survey your employees asking them what motivates them and
you will see one answer at the top: "More Money".
Unfortunately the best private duty managers know that money is
actually a de-motivator. Any employee who is truly motivated by
$0.50 more per hour will also be motivated to leave you for a better
offer.
While the work your caregivers do is extremely important,
and frankly, the good ones should be paid more than they are, the
unfortunate truth is that these workers are your inventory.
Maintaining consistent growth and profitability depends on maintaining costs
when it comes to caregivers.
So how do you motivate people without the almighty
dollar? Here are some ideas.
First, the ground rules...
- Rule #1:
Offer competitive starting wages. Don't eliminate good
workers before they begin. While you don't want to offer the
most in your community, offer a fair wage.
- Rule #2:
Give cost of living raises at least annually. Your
employees should not have to work for less money this year than
they did last year for the same work. Nothing de-motivates
your caregivers like shrinking paychecks.
- Rule
#3: Don't give additional raises unless asked by the
employee. Make sure that additional raises are based on
merit rather than an employee's financial needs. Employees
need to recognize that additional money requires additional
responsibility and/or improved quality.
Do
the little things for everyone...
Demonstrate
to your employees that you care.
One
of our clients purchases automobile club memberships for every single
employee. The memberships cost less than $50 each when purchased
in bulk. This only adds about five cents per hour to the cost of
a part-time employee (1000 hours annually).
Another
company was celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. They
considered buying a memento, but decided because of summer gas prices
to purchase a $20 gasoline gift card for every employee. Again,
costing them pennies per hour of care provided.
Many
of our clients send birthday cards, and some
of them include small gifts to their employees. It's important to
stay in touch with your employees when most of them don't visit the
office frequently.
Cash bonuses for exceptional
service
In lieu of merit raises I recommend using large bonuses to
reward exceptional service. You could offer an extraordinary
employee $0.50 more per hour, but next year they would expect the same
raise for the same level of service. Instead, try offering
bonuses for behavior that generates high profits.
Rather than offering vacation days, reward your workers
with 40 hours of pay after they work 2000 hours for you. This is
roughly the equivalent of one week of paid vacation for every full-time
equivalent employee. The more they work, the faster they can earn
their bonus.
Do you have an employee who hasn't missed a day this
year? Reward them with a $500 cash bonus. For a full-time
equivalent employee, this equates to $.25 per hour. The amount of
money they saved you in reduced scheduling time and reduced recruitment
costs will more than pay for the bonus.
Offer large bonuses for people who recruit new caregivers,
or better yet, refer a new client. How much should you
give? Calculate your marketing costs divided by new clients or
your recruiting costs divided by new employees and you'll have an
accurate number to reflect your savings. Give bonuses roughly
equivalent to half of your cost.
Give bonuses for brains! If an employee offers a
suggestion or idea reward them proportionately. FedEx has a bonus
program that rewards cost-saving ideas with a 10% bonus. One
low-level manager offered an idea that was expected to save the company
$18 million. He was rewarded with a check for $1.8 million.
Finally, make sure you recognize and announce these
bonuses publicly. Large bonuses act not only as a reward, but
also as recognition. Hopefully you'll motivate other employees to
replicate the behavior. An annual awards banquet or simply a
mention in your employee newsletter will go a long way.
Remember... what gets rewarded gets
repeated.
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