How incentives & events can help new staff start strong in your start-up

by Startacus Admin

Ways that incentives & events can really help your staff start off strong in your start-up and hopefully help your business succeed. 

Creating your own start-up is an exciting time. You’re ready to show people your skills and really benefit the people who use your services as you grow more and more. To succeed and grow well, though, you need helpful and skilled staff who’re ready to help your business thrive. 

From a positive work environment, to employee incentives and rewards, there are a lot of ways you can help your staff fit in and work to the best of their abilities. This article will go into the ways that incentives & events can really help your staff start off strong in your start-up and hopefully help your business succeed.

Pushing for success 

In any business, a new employee may feel a little overwhelmed early on as they meet new people, learn new things, and get used to a new business environment.

With that in mind, an incentive or onboarding scheme can be a fantastic way to help your new starters really hit the ground running and succeed.

Setting sales targets that are reasonably low in the early stages can help staff to feel rewarded early on, while slowly raising those targets will encourage them to get better at their role. Periodic smaller rewards as they reach these targets, such as a small gift card, for example, will create a consistent sense of pride and accomplishment over their continued good performance.

Bonding as a team

Of course, having staff that perform well enough to meet targets and sell well is important, but it’s also important that your team feel like a cohesive unit that works well together. 

This is where group incentives can be so helpful for new starters. For example, instead of creating teams that compete against each other, you could set a collective group target for total number of sales or positive customer feedback. Whatever goal or metric you decide on, you can offer a larger reward to your entire staff if they meet it. 

Staff who’ve worked for you for a while will appreciate the chance to earn a fantastic reward, while newer staff will enjoy the sense of camaraderie and unity of working together towards a shared goal with their new coworkers. This can help your newer staff feel like a valued member of a team right off the bat, instead of feeling like they need to earn their place somehow.

For example, for their hard work and effort, you could send your staff off to a holiday resort for the weekend. While they’re new and old staff members will be able to enjoy themselves and bond as both new colleagues and new friends. When they return, your new starters will feel like a valued part of a team, and will also likely work more effectively thanks to feeling more comfortable working with their new coworkers.

More than just an employee 

It certainly is true that incentives and events are fantastic to help new starters meet targets and bond with their new coworkers. However, there’s also another key benefit to rewarding your staff members for good performance: they come to feel like more than just staff members.

Consider getting to know your new staff on a personal level so you know their likes, hobbies and interests. Perhaps if you think a staff member has done exceptionally well during a stressful period, you offer a small reward that’s specific to that person. For example, offering a trip to the cinema for a resident film lover, or a book voucher for someone who’s always reading in their spare time.

Demonstrating that you both care about your staff and are aware of them as people instead of only as employees can help them feel proud to work for your start up; by showing that you care about them, they in turn care more about you, and may feel more inclined to help your business succeed as long as they’re with you.

Content by Corporate Events, a leading events organiser for a wide variety of needs, ranging from conferences & meetings, to incentive travel rewards.

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Published on: 1st May 2018