Incentivise with careIt was reported in the Sunday Times that average salaries in Anglo Irish Bank have halved due to the high proportion that staff were paid in bonuses related to lending. Is it any wonder that the bank was left in such an exposed position if so much reward was given for making loans? I can imagine staff finding all the supporting arguments for making a loan while ignoring the reasons for not doing so. In the heady days of the dot com boom I was charged with looking for companies with ‘synergies’ with the one I worked for in the hope that we could benefit. Looking at the sorry tale that was AOL Time Warner I’m so glad I wasn’t heavily incentivised to find those synergies. I could probably have broken the company completely! It is human nature to find ways of achieving goals if high personal benefit is attached. Equally it is human nature to ignore the things that do not bring personal benefit. I know of one company sales team that is rewarded purely on sales, not on the accuracy or completeness of the order details that back up the sale. The company is paying a ‘clean-up’ team to follow up on the sales team’s work. I guess they feel it’s worthwhile and that they maximise sales this way but one has to question the message this sends out. It’s OK to mess around with our customers so long as you get your target (which ultimately translates as ‘Screw the customer, doesn’t really matter’). Doesn’t sound like a good long-term proposition to me. Add a CommentYour comment will appear once it has been approved. |