The leisure travel industry is driven by seasonality; in the Northern US or Canada for example, vacationing in southern destinations is highly popular during the winter months, with the bulk of sales taking place during a three month period. People do travel at other times of the year and to other destinations like Europe and Asia of course, but sales aren’t as brisk and flights are more limited. To ensure fairness and a strong ROI, agent incentive plans must take seasonality and availability and profitability of product into account.
Our client – a retail chain with locations across the country, had a near-revolt on its hands. Employees who relied on the incentive program to make ends meet found that the bonus incentive program was unfair and nearly unattainable, and many threatened to quit. Its blanket design did not address geography and seasonality, and demanded the same level of performance from young agents and seasoned veterans.
Feeding our powerful rules engine with their POS data nightly, we implemented an annual incentive program with individualized targets for each agent, and also added a special component targeted to each branch manager:
The program is based on an annual target that is a multiple of the salesperson’s salary, with a lower multiple for beginners.
Variable monthly targets to accommodate high and low selling periods
Agents can earn a flat payout for reaching their target plus a bonus payout for every dollar over their annual target, ensuring a strong return on investment for the organization.
The agency manager plan is designed to share profit with managers who helped deliver revenue growth and operating profit for their store.
Personal monthly revenue targets for selling managers
Revenue growth targets as established in the store’s financial plan
Branch profitability and branch financial objectives.
The Manager Plan has three elements:
Agents and agency managers can follow their progress-to-goal with personal dynamic graphs on each incentive details page, ensuring motivation and excitement throughout the period.
In less than a day, a single program administrator was able to set up fairly complex, automated incentives for the entire year - without the need of spreadsheets. Each participant now gets their own monthly targets based on their location and salary level, adjusted seasonally.
This has become a truly motivating program; with one quick look at the progress charts recalculated automatically based on a nightly POS data feed, each participant knows exactly where he or she stands ahead of month end and can make the extra push to achieve their financial goals before it's too late.
At month end, the data is trued-up with a new feed that includes cancellations and adjustments. Then, accurate payouts are made with earnings automatically loaded onto each agent's reloadable Visa card.
In less than a day, a single program administrator was able to set up fairly complex, automated incentives for the entire year - without the need of spreadsheets. Each participant now gets their own monthly targets based on their location and salary level, adjusted seasonally.
This has become a truly motivating program; with one quick look at the progress charts recalculated automatically based on a nightly POS data feed, each participant knows exactly where he or she stands ahead of month end and can make the extra push to achieve their financial goals before it's too late.
At month end, the data is trued-up with a new feed that includes cancellations and adjustments. Then, accurate payouts are made with earnings automatically loaded onto each agent's reloadable Visa card.
