Rewards and Incentives, Case Study Example

A realistic goal that, Atlas should set for it to reduce the outstanding amounts each month is $ 12000. This means thateach clerk will fight to collect approximately $ 3000 every month. In one year, the company will have collectedapproximately $144000. This will be a good progress, which will enable the company to collect all outstanding balancesand start to operate on the normal conditions of the company. After collecting all the outstanding balances, Atlas should look for the final solution of the problem. Atlas should consider reviewing the credit department and see if there is anychange or improvement to be made. The improvements might include offering more training to the existing employees in the department. This can be done by offering training to them on how they can handle the clients professionally such thatthey can pay their outstanding amounts on time. Another change might be reshuffling the employees to see if there are changes in the collection of balances. If all the changes do not work, Atlas can consider employing new and highlyqualified staff to manage the credit department. It is better to employ a highly paid and qualified professional, than theone paid less, which lead to the collapse of the company.

The incentives and rewards should be given individually for this matter. This is because the clerks are workingindividually on improving the monthly collection of the balances. In addition, the team-based incentives should not be ignored. This is because there might be a group clerks who team up together in collecting the balances. The incentives andrewards should not be mentioned to the clerks. This should be made to be a surprise. If the rewards are mentioned, theclerks will fight to meet the set target. This might lead to other problems like harassment to the client. To avoid theseproblems, the rewards and incentives should be a surprise to the clerks. Those who will perform well by increasing their monthly collection will be rewarded. This will motivate the others to work hard by increasing their monthly collection of the outstanding balances.

Incentives should be given to individuals, groups, or even the company. All the improvements in the performancesshould be recognized by being rewarded. The rewards and incentives should be given to the management and evenindividuals giving ideas. In this situation of Atlas, the employee or stakeholder who gave the idea of using the rewardsand incentives should be recognized by being rewarded. The clerks should not be given a limit on the amount can collectmonthly from the outstanding balances. This is because other clerks might work hard to exit the limit set by themanagement. When they reach the limit, they might relax as they have achieved the set target (Robinson 2001, p. 158).

The incentives should be given monthly. This is because the clerks are supposed to meet a certain target of collecting the outstanding balances each month. They should be rewarded every month for them to get morale ormotivation to collect more balances in the following months. If they are not rewarded, they might feel that the companyhas not recognized what they have done  at the end of the month. When an individual or group contributes to the companyand the contribution is not recognized, it will kill the morale of more contribution. Even if the contribution is in the formof an idea or physical, it should be recognized by being rewarded. If the incentives are given to the clerks or otheremployees quarterly or yearly, the employees will not have any morale or motivation to make them work extra hard. Thisis because the employees will work extra harder for the company to meet the target of collecting the outstanding balances. At the closing period, which might be year-end, there should be general rewards and incentives to appreciate theemployees. This will be an appreciation for what they have done individually or what the company has achieved in thecourse of the year.

The rewards should be given in public and not in private. The rewards and incentives should be given in publicand at the same time, what has been achieved or accomplished is said publicly. This will motivate the clerks and otheremployees as they have been recognized for what they have done in public. This will make to fee that they are part of theorganization because what they contribute or do to the organization is recognized. On the other hand, the managementwill be happy, as they are associated with what their employees has achieved for themselves and the organization. Therewarded employees will be motivated and they will work hard to accomplish the set target of collecting the outstandingbalances. They will share the tricks and ideas they used in achieving their targets with other clerks. This will make themto work as a team when collecting the outstanding debts.

When the employees work as a team by sharing ideas and tricks, the company will benefit. This is because theemployees will have the highest morale and they will do anything possible for the company to achieve the targets. After a given period, the company will have accomplished its target by collecting all the outstanding balances. In addition, whenthe incentives and rewards are given publicly, the other clerks and employees will be motivated. This will make them work hard by accomplishing their duties in a professional manner and meet the set targets. This is because they want to be recognized and rewarded as their colleagues who were rewarded publicly (Shaw & Chen 2011, p. 285).

The incentives or rewards can be anything; it can be cash, presents, seminars and workshops, trips, and evenrecognizing someone through appreciation. Clerks can be rewarded by being given cash. This will enable them to spendthe cash on anything that they will choose. This is betters because other employees might be given what they were not expecting as rewards. Presents are what are used by many organizations to reward their employees. The company might decide that the clerks or other employees will be rewarded by being given presents. The presents will be given as per theperformance or achievements. Those who performed better will be given the highest or expensive rewards as compared to those who are following. Each clerk will receive the presents, which are determined by the improvement he/she has madein collecting the outstanding balances.

Another form of incentive is the organization of seminars and workshops for the clerks. The clerks will participatein the seminars and they will be awarded the certificates of appreciation, attendance, and training. This will enable them to boost their career when looking for better positions in the future. The company should inform the employees or clerksthat the seminar is a form of reward for what they have done to the company for a given period. The organization can decide to sponsor the clerks to a given trip. This will enable the employees to feel recognized for what they havecontributed to the company and they will work extra hard to maintain the same spirit (Goldman & Daily 2007, p. 335). Appreciation is a simple form of reward. The organization can decide to appreciate their employees by recognizing whatthey have done to the company.

The top management or any representative of the organization should decide what kind incentives should be given to the employees. This is because the employees cannot decide on what should be given to them, as it should be a surprise to them. This can lead to discrimination if the employees are given chance to decide on what can be rewarded. In addition, the employees can choose expensive items as rewards, which will be difficult for the organization. Themanagement will decide how the rewards should be given. They will decide if it should be given in the form of ceremony, publicly, privately or individually.

References

Shaw, A. D., Horton, J. J., & Chen, D. L. (2011, March). Designing incentives for inexpert human raters. In Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work (pp. 275-284). ACM.

Robinson, J. C. (2001). Theory and practice in the design of physician payment incentives. Milbank Quarterly, 79(2), 149-177.

Goldman, R. L., Thompson, B. H., & Daily, G. C. (2007). Institutional incentives for managing the landscape: Inducing cooperation for the production of ecosystem services. Ecological Economics, 64(2), 333-343.