Motivating temporary staff
While the popularity of employee loyalty and motivation schemes is growing, there is one section of the workforce that is neglected by most schemes: temporary and contract workers. The recent trends towards increasing numbers of temporary workers have forced employers to consider how best to motivate these workers who by their nature, have little or no long-term affinity or loyalty to the business.
It is important to include temps in motivation schemes because for the scheme to be totally effective, it needs to motivate 100 per cent of the participants for 100 per cent of the time. That is why elements like communicating with participants in the appropriate way, memorable messages and the opportunity to earn appealing and aspirational rewards are so important.
It therefore follows that if a sizeable proportion of a workforce or team are temporary or contract workers, they simply must be included as participants alongside permanent staff. Failure to include them will drag down the performance of the entire team, as they will not be focused on achieving the same goals.
Many employers may see motivating temporary workers as an unnecessary expenditure as they are only with the company for a short time. However, incentive programmes generally focus on short-term objectives, so if temporary staff help the organisation to achieve these goals then the investment in motivation has not been wasted.
The logistics of including temps on an already running scheme do not have to be a nightmare. The scheme, its objectives and the rewards available need to be carefully explained, with the awards given on a pro-rata basis according to the period of participation. A temp who leaves before the end of an incentive scheme, in common with all participants, will usually forfeit their right to receive awards, and this needs to be built into the scheme rules to avoid disputes in such instances.
One of the most common problems with temporary staff is that they can often break their temporary contract to go into permanent employment with another company. An incentive scheme can be an extremely useful tool for a company to create loyalty and reduce staff turnover, so it follows that temporary staff should be included in these schemes to give them an incentive to stay.
The incentive may need to be divided in a way that makes it easier to involve short-term staff with, for example, smaller monthly targets instead of larger quarterly targets.
For short-term staff, having instant rewards is even more important. From hitting objectives to receiving awards, the scheme should be quickly administered with no long processes to go through to claim awards.
Derrick Hardman, Managing Director of Capital Incentives & Motivation says that, "Retailers frequently employ large numbers of temporary staff at peak sales times (e.g. Christmas). Capital Incentives & Motivation would always recommend to retailers running incentives that these temporary staff should be included. For example, vouchers are the perfect reward for temps as they can be supplied even in small amounts and provide a reward that is appreciated. Points programmes do not work for temps as the collection period to earn a meaningful reward is probably longer than most temps' contracts. Equally, they are unlikely to be able to qualify for incentive travel awards, which are inappropriate for this type of worker."
Temporary staff should be treated fairly alongside permanent staff on a scheme. However, the value of awards that they can earn should be pro-rated according to the time they have participated in the programme, and the same programme rules must apply to all participants.
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