The assets of today’s companies are its people, and more so if the company draws most of its revenues from the services. I have always enjoyed working with people, and have almost assumed dealing with people to be strength. This was 5 years back, and then Tekriti happened. The definition of “working with people” got expanded to cover many more things than what I had assumed initially. A large part of my job is to manage the expectations of people, and ensuring that they are incentivized enough and still keep the company healthy.
I have realized that incentivizing a team in a growth company is very different from a pre-profit startup or an established and mature company. A growth company is characterized by its dynamism represented through the parameters of management, policies and customer topping the list. The key to incentivizing the team of a growth oriented company has a two-fold aspect - first the personnels or contractors of the company and secondly the client or customers. Now the question arises whether Incentives cater only to the monetary aspect or does it transcend beyond that? I believe it is one of the strong aspects but too much reliance on 'employee-compensation' gradually leads to 'a point of diminishing return' for some and for a growth company it also is not a constant viable option (in fact not even for the already established companies too). Incentivizing the team should involve encouragement to think beyond the core job to dredge and innovate more avenues for the growth of the company.
Few of the elements necessary in incentivizing employees are:
- Properly designed 'compensation program' – this does not require any discussion.
- Learning Opportunities: An opportunity for today’s fresh graduates to become tomorrow’s experts gives a lot of kick to the employees.
- Minimalistic Hierarchy: The person closest to the top management gets to see more things closely, and ensures transparency to boost the confidence of the team momentously.
- Diversified Learning: This helps the team to know its limitations, break its boundaries, surpass its own goals and achieve some impossible targets. The company should also incentivize by introducing rewards and recognitions for efficient contributions leading beyond the gamut of defined work. This will have a two way effect into getting more people for the company to repeatedly have the incentive to perform and, secondly, to get more out of them.
- Fun Activities / Celebrations: Little gestures like involvement in any kind of celebrations, doing charities, providing freebies, listening to the team, interacting on a personal basis and trying to keep the team in the loop wherever possible can make a huge difference. I can endorse on this because Tekriti Software not only believes in it but also follows the same.
From the Client's standpoint of incentives, the message is clear. Be rapid and nimble while pitching the contract so that the path towards delighting the customers becomes obvious. To every contract you should try and add more functionalities, features, benefits and fringes. The scope and spirit of such requirements are enormous in a Growth Company. The spurring of the company growth resides with the encouragement that the employee and client receives not only during a contract, but also after it through the company's behaviour, conduct and decorum. A growth company is always looking to increase the size and value of the firm and properly orchestrated incentives just augments the process.
In the end – remember that it is only when the employee wins, the company 's victory becomes worthwhile.
