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Bonuses make work merry
By John Eckberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As Christmas bears down, executives in the region are prepping for a holiday ritual and a series of questions that accompany it:
• What makes a good gift?
• Does the bottom line in 2003 justify a bonus for employees?
• And - above all else - how much is too much?
Kevin Bevan, president of GBI Cincinnati in Carthage, has a couple of ways to let employees know he appreciates their efforts.
Though one is a year-round program of incentives, it culminates around the holidays with a little game.
"When I was vice president and general manager of Cincinnati Machine, in my group, I was the only one who received a holiday bonus, and I never agreed with that," Bevan said. Back then, at year's end, he offered subordinates an incentive that came right out of his pocket.
In July, when he created GBI Cincinnati from the ashes of a division of the former Cincinnati Machine, Bevan instituted a complex but potentially lucrative bonus system for the 14-employee firm.
Every time the company sells a machine tool, somebody rings a bell in the office and another chunk of cash goes into the employee kitty. At the end of the year, that kitty gets sliced 14 ways.
"Right now, the take-home is close to $1,100" for each employee, Bevan said. "Without the people under me, without them I have no business. So one of the core values of my business is valuing my employees."
A time for congeniality
Incentives such as these usually are for private companies. But some agencies find that it's a good idea to reward public servants, too.
Sherry Knapp, chief executive of the Hamilton County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board, is mindful that her agency must not be extravagant with the public purse.
But she'll pay for a once-a-year holiday meal for her 14 employees, a bonus that she believes builds morale.
"This year, we closed down the office and went to Palomino's," a downtown restaurant, she said. "We found that it gives us a chance to enjoy each other's company in a relaxed setting and lets us be outside the office for a couple of hours."
Bevan is not satisfied with the bell-ringing approach to loyalty, either.
Whenever a customer commends an employee, Bevan tosses him a plastic football. Each football tossed is good for $20, and employees can win up to 10 each quarter. At the end of the quarter, he plays Bevan in an arcade-toss game of football.
The final score is multiplied by 10, the cash goes into a pot and at the end of the year, the person with the most footballs goes one-on-one with Bevan.
If the person winds up winning, the rest of the workers again split the pot.
"This is a fun program that gets employees behind what we need to do as a business," he said. Yet another incentive brings a formal bonus to workers based on company profits.
Real morale boost
Companies are foolish to not offer significant bonuses or incentives around the holidays, said Jeffrey L. Magee, a Ph.D. in organizational psychology and marketing, a workplace expert and the author of 20 books. The books include Yield Management: the Leadership Alternative (CRC Press: $39.95), the 1999 top-selling textbook in graduate management curricula in the U.S.
"Bonuses are a lot like putting gasoline in a car," he said.
"No matter whether you have a brand-new shiny car or a beat-up car, a car is a car, and it won't move unless you put gas in it. People are the same way, whether it's a brand-new employee or a true-tested veteran.
"If you want somebody you can count on, people have to be incentivized," Magee said.