Generally 'incentive' programs, from my experience, also come with a 'penalty' chargeback if you do not meet the 'incentive'. So my opinion, these incentive programs are just a way for the guy at the top to make money, masked behind a bonus program if you meet a mostly unreachable metric, or chargeback if you don't make the 'neutral' zone.
This system is very evident in the DirecTV system, they have metrics, that are very often very hard to reach (if not impossible in some areas) If you are in the neutral zone, there is no incentive or chargeback, if you are in the red zone, you get a chargeback for every job, if you are in the incentive, or bonus zone, you can get a payment for that category.
Example: DirecTV has a metric for connecting to phone lines or Internet, well before the internet option, it was home phone, they required like 80% connected, or you received a $1 chargeback for every receiver installed in a month, well that was a cash cow for DirecTV, (or the HSP, or insert which every entity you want) Imagine, one installer, doing 3 jobs a day, average 3 receivers per job, 6 days a week 3x3x6, the sub contractor has lets say 10 techs, doing that same amount of work, and as a group, they do not meet that metric, that is $2400 a month chargeback, if you hit the incentive on those same numbers, you would maybe get $500, so that is a profit of $1900 for the top guy.
The guy on top, just made an extra $1900 a month, just on 10 techs. Multiply that by 100 in a large market like Dallas/Ft Worth.
Cash Cow, plain and simple.
So to answer your original question, incentive programs can be nice, if they are legit, mostly they are just a way for the company to bring in additional income, at the expense of the person doing the actual work.
Re: Incentive Question
Member #: 53734
Registered: 7/29/2007
Posted:
1675
Company:
Premier Star Services
Occupation:
Owner
Personal:
Experience:
~28 years
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