Send Flowers to the Living

TJ Schier, one of our most recent additions to the SPEAK! roster has a great philosophy – don’t wait to show your appreciation, do it now and do it often! TJ is an expert at teaching companies how to effectively incentivize front line and hourly employees.

 

TJ is unique in that he is both a talented speaker and trainer with many years’ experience working with hospitality and restaurant owners and he is also a multi-unit franchise owner himself.  TJ walks his talk daily and used his own 14 units as a ‘social lab’ to test the many actionable strategies and tactics that he teaches in his interactive seminars.  Here’s a snippet of one of TJs core messages…

Send Flowers to the Living

This generation, contrary to most people’s opinions, is loyal…if they believe in the cause. Do they believe in you (the manager/boss) and what you and the company stand for?

This generation loves to have ‘likes’, ‘views’, ‘friends’ and ‘fans’.  Leverage their thirst for attention in the following ways (i.e. ‘Send flowers’ while they are still with you…and make them more loyal):

• Have employees create training videos ala YouTube – the videos will be hip, fresh, speak to their generation and received more positively than ‘corporate training’ videos. Yes, you’ll

  need to have editorial approval of their videos before they go out to the rest of the company.

• Provide a ‘fraction of the action’. Costs out of line? Have a bonus (i.e. 25-50 cents/hour) if cost targets are hit. For example, if the team reduces costs by 1%, everyone receives a 25 cent/hour bonus for each hour worked that week. Not only will most employees change their behavior, they will help hold others accountable when the boss is not around. Why? The employees’ bonuses are now at stake, not someone else’s.
• Sales slump? Provide a 5-10% sales incentive for ANY employee who brings in new business. For example, a restaurant could provide a 5% incentive for any employee who brings in any catering order over $50. Putting your money where your mouth is…and teaching everyone joint accountability to build sales and provide more hours for everyone!
• Provide managers logo’d cards they can give out to each employee which are equivalent to 25 cents. Employees save cards (i.e. 20 cards = $5) to win prizes. Cards are given out for ‘above-and-beyond’ performance, not as ‘bribes’ to get employees to do the basics they are already paid to do. 

So what is the most effective incentive? The one the employee wants! Ask them – it’s different for everyone. Many want cash in today’s economy or cash equivalents (i.e. gift card for gas). You can add trophy value to cash by presenting it effectively (personalized note, public recognition, etc). Find out what incentives/prizes would motivate each player on the team and start ‘sending flowers’ to reap the rewards.

If you are looking for a speaker who can connect to your franchisees peer to peer, then TJ is a fantastic choice.   Whether delivering a tactical general session or dynamic breakout topic, your franchisees will walk away with tips, tools and techniques to motivate, incentivize and inspire their front line team.

Let me know if you’d like to brainstorm how TJ might best support your content objectives for your next franchise convention!

More Soon!

Katrina

P.S.  If you have not done so already,