Non-Financial Incentives vs. Commission for Retail Employees
Running Title: Non-Financial Incentives vs. Commission for Retail Employees
BACKGROUND
Learning Express is a franchised educational toy store. We try to operate the store as a team with each of our employees possessing different skill sets (inventory knowledge, interpersonal skills, tasks). We also prefer that our more experienced staff take care of the checkout procedure. We also offer exceptional and more personalized customer service to encourage them to keep coming back as their toy needs grow and change. We offer customer special shopping opportunities if they spend a certain amount, sign up for our marketing list or join our Facebook page. We also offer many free or no cost events for their children such as holiday crafts, singing/ dance classes, and visits from their favorite characters, Elmo and Dora the Explorer. Throughout the year and especially in the slower retail seasons we need to look for ways to motivate our employees.
There are two types of incentives, financial and non-financial. Financial incentives can be provided directly or indirectly. Direct financial incentives come in several forms, such as, higher wages, bonuses, profit sharing, stock options, commission, etc. Indirect financial incentives can include direct phone lines, high quality furniture, subsidized food and more.
Non-financial incentives are those that don’t involve money payments. Employees are incented non-financially with perks such as job security, challenging work, recognition, and cross training. No matter what the form, incentives are provided solely to motivate employees. Due to the nature of the business and reduced cost to Learning Express we would like to offer low or no cost incentives. For the purposes of this paper, low and no cost incentives will be called non-financial incentives (NFI).
EFFECTS ON EMPLOYEES AND MANAGEMENT
NFIs are used to motivate employees and can allow the employees to continue working as a team since financial
BACKGROUND
Learning Express is a franchised educational toy store. We try to operate the store as a team with each of our employees possessing different skill sets (inventory knowledge, interpersonal skills, tasks). We also prefer that our more experienced staff take care of the checkout procedure. We also offer exceptional and more personalized customer service to encourage them to keep coming back as their toy needs grow and change. We offer customer special shopping opportunities if they spend a certain amount, sign up for our marketing list or join our Facebook page. We also offer many free or no cost events for their children such as holiday crafts, singing/ dance classes, and visits from their favorite characters, Elmo and Dora the Explorer. Throughout the year and especially in the slower retail seasons we need to look for ways to motivate our employees.
There are two types of incentives, financial and non-financial. Financial incentives can be provided directly or indirectly. Direct financial incentives come in several forms, such as, higher wages, bonuses, profit sharing, stock options, commission, etc. Indirect financial incentives can include direct phone lines, high quality furniture, subsidized food and more.
Non-financial incentives are those that don’t involve money payments. Employees are incented non-financially with perks such as job security, challenging work, recognition, and cross training. No matter what the form, incentives are provided solely to motivate employees. Due to the nature of the business and reduced cost to Learning Express we would like to offer low or no cost incentives. For the purposes of this paper, low and no cost incentives will be called non-financial incentives (NFI).
EFFECTS ON EMPLOYEES AND MANAGEMENT
NFIs are used to motivate employees and can allow the employees to continue working as a team since financial
References: Waters, Shari. 8 Low Cost Perks: Staffing Incentives for Retailers. Retrieved February 1, 2011 from http://retail.about.com/od/staffingyourstore/a/perks.htm Smith, Michelle M. (May 1, 2007). Engaging Employees. Retrieved February 1, 2011 from http://promomagazine.com/incentives/marketing_engaging_employees/ ER Consultants. (Date Unknown). Motivating Incentives. Retrieved February 6, 2011 from http://www.hrmreport.com/article/Motivating-incentives/ Non-Monetary Rewards. May 22, 2008. Reach Management Blog. Retrieved February 6, 2011 from http://reachmanagement.blogspot.com/2008/05/non-monetary-awards.html