Your business can’t afford to “…wait ’til next year”

As a long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan, I am very familiar with giving up on the current season, and looking forward with optimism to a new one.  The phrase “…wait ’til next year” has become an annual ritual for Cub fans, as the team hasn’t been to a World Series since 1945, and hasn’t won it for over 100 years!!

Unfortunately, “giving up on the season” is happening at a lot of businesses right now. 2009 has not been a good year for most organizations, and many employees have a substantial part of their compensation tied to company and individual financial results,  particularly positions like sales.

Challenging economic times trap an organization into a vicious cycle towards the end of the year as employees know they will not earn very much from these performance bonuses, and begin focusing on a reset of the targets at the beginning of the next year.  For businesses just coming out of a very tough period - or even struggling to survive - this “coasting” can’t come at a worse time!!  In addition, the lack of a bonus award removes an incentive for key employees to stay with the organization until the actual payouts early the following year.  This, at a time where the economy seems to be thawing and hiring is starting up again.

So how do you get your people to focus on the 4th quarter ? …. updated incentives!  Here are a few ideas: 

• Implement a special 4th quarter bonus program:  Create new 3 month targets and a special one-time incentive payout for reaching them (just make sure not to double up on existing sales achieved).  This can be a very effective approach to getting people to focus on the final three months in order to recoup some of their lost incentive pay.
• Revise the targets:  The real time to do this would have been in June, but it may not be too late to salvage the 4th quarter.  Just make sure the payments as a result of this change will be ”self-funding” based on the potentially increased sales, and be careful to stress the one-time nature of these programs.
• Start the new year early:  There is no law that says you cannot start a “new year” with new targets.  You need to be careful of the overlap of two bonus programs, but those details can be worked out.

Unlike the Cubs who are finished for this season, it’s just too early for your business to give up on 2009.  Get creative, and get people motivated to finish the year up strong.  You really can’t afford to ” …wait ’til next year”.