Every boss wants to see his or her business be successful, but what sets the winners apart from the losers? Successful middle-sized and large companies typically rely on team work and performance support from the management. An individual may not be achieve it all alone. It goes beyond the managers and permeates the whole business at all stages.
Success of a business may be determined by employee bonuses and incentives, support from the upper management, and may be fostered by the relationships between the management and the employees. The following 5 companies are poised for very successful years in 2014.
Google drives the behavior of employees through incentives and the engineers are greatly rewarded for their projects for both the most important and less-important projects. Depending on the project, the rewards may be large. The financial incentives range from massage coupons and gift certificates through pay bonuses and stock grants. Every quarter, Google shows each project launched to everyone, and puts up the faces and names of the teams who launched each one of them. The strong support accorded to such projects motivates the workers to design even better and more successful projects.
Google employees also enjoy good working relations within the higher management team, making teamwork and collective responsibility for success in the business a reality. Google provides outdoor sports facilities, free food, and many other employee perks. These are tremendously impactful on the employees’ morale.
Quicken Loans is a private banking and credit services company. This is an online mortgage lender offering residential mortgages and provides such financing options as reverse mortgages, fixed and adjustable mortgages. Quicken Loans has built its successful business through such incentives as giving free vacations to their employees every two years. This boosts employees’ morale to steer the business to new levels.
Another private company, JM Family Enterprises is a major successful company in the automotive business. This is partly due to the wellness incentives the company gives to the employees, keeping the employees healthy. There are health and wellness centers staffed by professional nurses, doctors and other health care professionals at JM Family Enterprises that provide primary care, complete physicals, wellness exams, vaccines, and lab tests at subsidized or no cost to the employees. These incentives as well as others forms the basis of the company’s success and the business has featured in Forbes list as one of the largest and successful private companies.
Zappo, a specialty retail business, established a unique program by the name of Monthly Hero, aimed at recognizing and rewarding the employees. Every employee at Zappo received $50 every month to give to a co-employee as a bonus and a way of an appreciation for good job done and for being a good co-worker. A worker is then picked by the Zappo executives and branded as the Monthly Hero and a gift card of up to $150 is awarded to the winner. This is an incentive that goes on throughout the year, making the workers feel appreciated while boosting their morale at the same time.
Chesapeake Energy Company is another successful company. It often pays as much as $8 million in “Safety bonuses” to over 6000 workers for following safe work practices. Safety bonuses are an important reward used by certain types of businesses with typically dangerous work environments. By offering these bonuses, Chesapeake Energy has been more successful than its competitors by having fewer accidents.
Employees forms the most important assets to a business. It is only when you keep your employees stronger and motivated that your company will progress substantially, making yourself stronger too. The most successful companies like these five are willing to do whatever is necessary to motivate employees, taking a diverse blend of incentives, benefits and business practices to retain their workers to inspire and empower their employees as a step to realizing a successful business.