Editor's Message: What is the Value of Changed Behavior?

At BCMC in Milwaukee last month, a group of component manufacturers (CMs) from across the country hosted the show’s first roundtable focused on employee incentive programs. Regardless of the type or role of the employees at whom the incentive programs were targeted, the underlying goal of each is to influence behavior. 

“The trick to creating an effective incentive program is identifying the behavior you want to change,” says Steve Szymanski, president of Truss Systems and one of the CMs who helped pull the roundtable together. Steve wanted to find a way to encourage all of his employees to be ready for work and clock in on time. “Guys were showing up chronically late, which disrupted the production line at the beginning of each shift.”

So his company developed an incentive program for their production employees and made eligibility for a wage bonus tied to working a full shift. “Suddenly, everyone was showing up a few minutes early for work. It was great,” says Steve. The action they took produced the results they wanted to see. But does that mean it’s a successful incentive program?

There was agreement by several of the CMs who helped plan and host the roundtable that any incentive program should have a measurable return on investment. In Steve’s case, his employees’ behavior changed in a positive way, but at what cost? His company needed to compare the production value the company received from the new employee behavior (production lines running at capacity at the beginning of each shift) against the cost of the bonuses paid out.

“Based on that comparison, I think the program has been pretty successful,” says Steve. Yet, before the roundtable at BCMC, he always wondered if there was an even more cost-effective way to reach the same goal. “The benefit of participating in SBCA, SBCA chapters, and BCMC is you can interact with other component manufacturers across the country and share ideas.” The incentive roundtable gave Steve the opportunity he needed to explore how others structure their programs and to evaluate potential improvements to his own.

“It’s hard to find employees these days, so keeping the ones you have and making them more efficient is necessary,” says Steve. “I think incentive programs that go beyond just money are becoming more important for our industry. I’m glad we are talking about this as an industry and we took this opportunity to share ideas.”

If you missed the incentive roundtable at BCMC, there will be additional opportunities to explore this topic on SBCA webinars in 2019, as well as SBCA quarterly meetings and potentially again at BCMC next year. Another tool you may find helpful in evaluating various incentive/benefit approaches is the SBCA Wage & Benefit Survey. This industry-specific survey can provide meaningful benchmarks on everything from entry-level wages to health insurance premiums.