About the Landscape Juice Network

Founded in 2008. The Landscape Juice Network (LJN) is the largest and fastest growing professional landscaping and horticultural association in the United Kingdom.

LJN's professional business forum is unrivalled and open to anyone within within the UK landscape industry

LJN's Business Objectives Group (BOG) is for any Pro serious about building their business.

For the researching visitor there's a wealth of landscaping ideas, garden design ideas, lawn advice tips and advice about garden maintenance.

PRO Supplier

Incentive bonus schemes for Landscape site staff

Hi everyone. Im looking into bonus based payment schemes which Landscape contractors might operate. Has anyone ever either operated a scheme or been part of a bonus scheme? By a bonus scheme I mean where the employer provides his or her site staff with an incentive bonus for early or on time completion of tasks or projects. I am interested to find out how such a scheme might be managed , whether it is feasible at all and especially if they are ever successful in terms of increasing productivity, staff morale and especially profitability.

You need to be a member of Landscape Juice Network to add comments!

Join Landscape Juice Network

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Hi Sam,

    Have to say I agree with Gary here. Not only for the reasons outlined but also because of the weather. The lads can work their assess off to make up a load of time and then lose several days becasue of the weather. My response to them is 'well that's a shame' and their response to me is 'but the weather isn't our fault, we were well on target for a bonus.' Nobody wins and all you get is disgruntled staff!

    Dave

    www.the-gardenmakers.co.uk

     

  • Nothing like a bonus scheme to encourage rushed work! I'd never EVER consider this for my business...I want a team who take pride in getting a good job done and understand long term success. I do give bonuses but they are not driven by time performance on a job but long term hard work and dependability.

  • Sam - re bonus systems.  Have found only on an indivudual bases according to thier own performance for the whole year plus the companies - that way loyalty and quality are maintained with staff realising the highs and lows of business but staying engaged.   Very interested in your findings though.  Bri

  • PRO

    Bonuses are just that - they should not be common place as to be expected as part of their normal remuneration/package unless contractually paying on a bonus/commission basis (min wage Plus bonus...)

    Trying to construct a fair and balanced scheme is so difficult due job type, skills, weather etc. I have seen it cause problems in terms of expectation and/or rushing/short cutting to complete tasks on time. However, where they have done over and above that required (in terms of commitment, skill & speed etc) then I have rewarded accordingly.

    Otherwise, you can pay 'again' to have them do what they are paid to do - and does your client do that ?

  • Horses for courses this one.

    I implemented a Bonus Scheme in my previous life when Manager of a large Production Operation. With productivity gains it more than paid for itself. (Company actually saw significant gains, but there were some unavoidable problems like stock supply etc)

    In our game it becomes a much more difficult thing to implement. I looked at it to maintain a high level of performance on our Grounds Maintenance Contracts but it would be based on Customer Feedback rather than hard facts. You can base it on company profits - i.e. We turn over x and u get y, but there is not a clear indication for the employee. You can base things on productivity. Set them a m2 target for paving per day with quality controls added in etc. All depends on your activity really and how effective you would be in controlling it. In our game I prefer to rely on myself and my supervisor to ensure work is carried out efficiently and to a high standard. The lads get paid a fair wage and from time to time if we have had a really productive or profitable period I will "treat" them. This is easier to do with a small team whereas Bonus Schemes are generally aimed at the masses. i.e We had over 100 people in the production dept. and if we hit a particular target they might get anything from 20-100 quid bonus at the end of the month.

  • PRO

    I keep coming back to this subject for all manner of reasons, trying to decide if there is a place for this next year considering the economic climate. Xmas bonuses apart, I'm still unsure what the impact would be. However searching for ideas/inspiration I came across this old blog on LJN and found it relevant, so here you go :

    http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blogs/employee-bonuse...

    I like Mark's approach to business, albeit somewhat American,  there are ideas to pick and choose from his blogs...

    Xmas reading ? - http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/profiles/blog/list?user=3f0q1t...

  • At Microbee we have a quarterly discretionary bonus scheme.

    This is a non-contractual component of pay so, if we don't make a profit, there's no bonus. This is at Directors discretion so could in theory be stopped or varied at any time.

    If we do make a profit in a quarter, a proportion is paid out in bonus.

    It has been over £1000 and quite often recently £0.

    We find this preferable to giving pay rises which, once given, can't be taken back.

    Since its not task related, there's no incentive to rush. However, employees are keen to ensure that we get bonus and will turn on those who slack off or dont do work well meaning it has to be done again.

  • Thanks for digging that out Gary. An excellent read!

  • Hi Sam,

    Another Sam here.

    A previous employer of mine operated a grounds maintenance business. During the height of the season we would have about 12-14 men working for us just on the maintenace side. We encountered the problem of employees not turning up for work every now and again. It got to the stage that someone was off just about everyday. This threw out plans and schedules for the days work, then the weeks and so on.

     The solution the boss found was to introduce an attendance bonus each week, if you had time off or you were late no bonus was paid for that week. This had the desired result, better attendance, better time keeping, more work completed, a motivated workforce and a greater profit. Some employees grumbled about it at first, when they were late or did not turn in to start with, but they soon made sure they were there every day.

     

This reply was deleted.

LJN Sponsor

Advertising

PRO

How Do You Qualify A Sales Lead?


I don't know about you, but our phones and emails are starting to get busy with enquiries. I've learned over the years that it's all too easy to answer the phone, arrange a consultation and then spend a couple of hours with a prospective client…

Read more…
Comments: 0