Alternative ways to structure a tree business?

[Dan]

Evening all.

 

I've talking with the guys at work and been reading a few of the posts on here recently about wages not increasing with inflation and how many people have trouble keeping good staff for the long term, and its got me thinking.

 

Can small business owners offer more to their employees and subbies so that they are inspired to stay develop their arb career within the company? Often the natural progression in the industry is to leave your employer and set up on your own. I've heard some of the big firms offer a more structured employment system with a bonus or % of extra sales to the customer but I have no personal experience of this.

 

I'd be interested to hear any ideas, from either business owners and employees/subbies on the subject. Or others with experience of other industries where this is done as the norm, as seems to be the case in the tech or business sectors.

 

1.Would bonus schemes or profit sharing help?

2.Would share options/incentives encourage staff members to stick about for longer?

3. How can people become inspired to push themselves to achieve what they want without feeling the only way forward is to go it alone?

4. When people want to start finding and then doing their own work, how can this be encouraged and rewarded within the organisation without being detrimental to either party?

 

Thanks for reading and I hope this might get people thinking of how we can work together to improve all our chances in the sometimes difficult world of work/life balance.

 

Cheers Dan

[Steve Bullman]

Good thread Dan

 

I think all the points you mentioned have merits but would be unworkable for the most part for small companies(2-3 men).  

As a subbie, the only place I have come across incentives has always been in the larger companies

 

Profit share?  Not sure how this can be feasible really.  It would have to be a yearly thing perhaps, but then who gets the share? There are going to be plenty of occasions where jobs over run, eating into the profit.  Tools are broken/lost through carelessness, all coming out of the years profit.....how to fairly decide who breaks the tools and receives less of a profit share?  In my experience very very few employees put their hands up with they are responsible for breaking something unless caught in the act............'who put that new dent in the truck'???  all employees shrug their shoulders.
 

[Dan]

Your right Steve but how about if you as a subbie felt ownership of of that truck. knowing that say 5% of the cost came out of your bonus at the end of the year or every 6 months or however it was structured. Would you have a word with the guy responsible, get him to buck his ideas up if needed. Or if was just bad luck that day as a one off say never mind it all works out in the end lets try a bit harder tomorrow to make up for the loss as you would if it was your own truck on your own job?

 

Does this sort of thing just create more tension within the team?

[chopper brown]

A local electrical firm to me does something similar and I think your on the right lines Dan.

 

Instead of training up apprentices and then losing them to other companies or them going on there own they make them share holders. I don't know exactly how it works but it has tax benefits seemingly and makes the employees feel part of the company not just an employee.

 

I think it's also the smaller things that work and keep interest going.

 

I worked for a big company that asked if we would hand out small A6 type flyers with initials or name on at the street where the job was. When or if that flyer was successful you got a bonus in your wages. Unfortunately it came to an end as calls were being made and work won but the lads weren't getting anything. Sad really.

 

Nice thread.

 

Jim

[Steve Bullman]

9 minutes ago, Dan said:

Your right Steve but how about if you as a subbie felt ownership of of that truck. knowing that say 5% of the cost came out of your bonus at the end of the year or every 6 months or however it was structured. Would you have a word with the guy responsible, get him to buck his ideas up if needed. Or if was just bad luck that day as a one off say never mind it all works out in the end lets try a bit harder tomorrow to make up for the loss as you would if it was your own truck on your own job?

 

Does this sort of thing just create more tension within the team?

If I saw the person who had done the damage I would make it quite clear that they needed to own up to it, because I sure as hell aren’t going to have suspicion upon me through someone else’s cock up

[Steve Bullman]

3 minutes ago, chopper brown said:

 

I worked for a big company that asked if we would hand out small A6 type flyers with initials or name on at the street where the job was. When or if that flyer was successful you got a bonus in your wages. Unfortunately it came to an end as calls were being made and work won but the lads weren't getting anything. Sad really.

I like this idea, as you say though the boss has to live up to his side of the deal

[Dan]

5 minutes ago, chopper brown said:

A local electrical firm to me does something similar and I think your on the right lines Dan.

 

Instead of training up apprentices and then losing them to other companies or them going on there own they make them share holders. I don't know exactly how it works but it has tax benefits seemingly and makes the employees feel part of the company not just an employee.

 

I think it's also the smaller things that work and keep interest going.

 

I worked for a big company that asked if we would hand out small A6 type flyers with initials or name on at the street where the job was. When or if that flyer was successful you got a bonus in your wages. Unfortunately it came to an end as calls were being made and work won but the lads weren't getting anything. Sad really.

 

Nice thread.

 

Jim

I had a similar thing happen to me at a big national company. They promised a bonus if we hit a target, so we worked really hard to do it and they refused to pay us the bonus because some other crews at the other end of the country did not hit the target. I handed in my notice the same day!

[Dan]

5 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

I like this idea, as you say though the boss has to live up to his side of the deal

This is what happens people get greedy, can't see past the instant gain of the money in their hand now and screw the lads over. then down the line wonder why they struggle to get good staff

[Joe Newton]

Good thread Dan
 
I think all the points you mentioned have merits but would be unworkable for the most part for small companies(2-3 men).  

As a subbie, the only place I have come across incentives has always been in the larger companies
 
Profit share?  Not sure how this can be feasible really.  It would have to be a yearly thing perhaps, but then who gets the share? There are going to be plenty of occasions where jobs over run, eating into the profit.  Tools are broken/lost through carelessness, all coming out of the years profit.....how to fairly decide who breaks the tools and receives less of a profit share?  In my experience very very few employees put their hands up with they are responsible for breaking something unless caught in the act............'who put that new dent in the truck'???  all employees shrug their shoulders.
 

the last company I worked for had a profit share scheme. In theory it was very good. As team leader I got my salary plus 5% off the annual profit.

As you mention it only works if you trust your guys. On the occasion that I broke something at my own fault I'd anyways own up and contribute to the repair or replacement. Because of this attitude I tried hard to avoid those situations.

It motivated me to push that bit harder and try and earn over our targets, and on paper I could earn 5 or 6k on top of my wage.

Things to be aware of: quality can suffer due to trying to get an extra job in, and outs not uncommon for a business owner to maker big purchases to avoid a tax bill, which obviously affects the employees bonus.

[chopper brown]

It's just a shame because some of the simplest ideas are the best. Unfortunately what is promised and what actually occurs is rarely the same. 

 

My mate works for a high end garage spannering and as a bonus they used to stock pile the scrap and weigh in for a monthly bonus. 

 

The powers that be smelt the money and the staff were told that the scrap needed to be disposed of by there means!