Do you incentivise your team?

I am often asked by clients for ways in which they can increase their teams pay packet.

This is wonderful – if a team is working hard and reaching the business goals then rewards should follow,  so it becomes a Win-Win as Stephen Covey states.

Practices generally do one of the following:

1. Pay their staff a set amount of money on top of their basic salary for reaching targets.
2. Or if targets are reached pay for special days out such as trips to Paris or Spa days – basically unforgetable team building experiences.

When you introduce someting like this decide what will work best in your practice and implement it. Every practice is different.

What I often find is that this is not good enough for some team members. They state they can not work harder than then do already, that they would prefer the money in their basic wage (who wouldn’t?) or would prefer the money in lieu of the experience and a day off instead of spending it with their team.

My advice? Do not give in. Set the rules and stick to them.

It is time that the dental world in the UK realised that we need be a business not a service provider. If you have team members that ague this point I would look into their motivating factors for working in your business in the first place. (This may point out the people who just want a 9-5 job and in those hours do as little as possible).

The only exception to this is if you are underpaying your staff.

How do you know if you are under paying them? Look on Gumtree and see what your staff could be offered elsewhere. Ask your dental friends if they think  you are paying a  decent wage. Sometimes staff are under paid and paying the average and introducing a target related incentive will boost the practice no end.

Laura