Cashless ways to stimulate inceased performance in your workplace.

What a great combination. Motivate your people to achieve the results you want...without spending a lot of money. Plus, have fun.

How? For guidance we asked Dave Worman, Dr. Motivation. He's written Motivating Without Money, which focuses on cashless ways to increase the production in telephone sales operations.

Explain your statement: “Time off is the biggest motivator.”

I have found in our industry as well as others, that most people rank time off as their top motivator...or very close to the top.

Why? Because it is natural for everyone to want time away from their job for individual time, more time with family, extra curricular activities. It's that natural tendency to want what's hardest to have or get.

The beauty of it is that you can set up time off so that it has to be earned and therefore everyone wins. You stretch the goals or expectations a little and the employee must exceed the normal to earn time off. You end up with more productivity or higher quality than you would have normally gotten. The employee gets to leave early or come in late (after being more successful than they would have been).

We can see how this incentive (time off) can apply to sales people. How can an employer apply it with clerical, retail, professional, manufacturing and other non-sales employees?

No matter what industry you're in, paid time off will be a tremendous motivator. In some environments it's obviously easier to create opportunities for time off than in others. In some retail, restaurant and manufacturing environments, very specific personnel coverage is necessary, minimizing the opportunities for developing time off programs. Whenever you can set performance standards or productivity measures you can probably structure some programs that utilize time off as the reward.

Think about what happens. If someone is willing to work hard and dedicate themselves all week to reaching and achieving 110% or 120% of their goal or quota - why not let them go early? Would you have gotten 110% or 120% if you hadn't put the "time off" in front of them?

Now take the concept of percent over goal/quota and attach it to a non-sales environment. In a clerical position perhaps there is a set amount of work that must get completed either in a day or week, plus a little extra that could get completed. As long as the quality of the work at hand does not suffer in any way you can offer a couple hours of time off to this person when they achieve all the work before them.

Comment on "gags and gimmicks" as motivators for all types of employees in all types of work settings.

For example, let's look at one of my most popular recognition awards, the "CAN DO." Simple, inexpensive and extremely effective in any environment. I purchase 12-oz cans of Mountain Dew by the case and gold peel-and-stick labels and then I sign or initial them. Where there is a supervisor or manager between me and the associate they also sign or initial each label. Then once a week (or every two weeks or every month) the individual employee that you feel exemplifies or most represents the "CAN DO" attitude is awarded a signed can. And make sure this is done in front of other employees. That's where you get double stimulation. The employee who receives this "status symbol" is naturally stimulated and so are all the others who didn't, but now want the same public recognition.

You stress the value of job titles. There are employers who are dropping job titles in fa- vor of a flat organization. Futurists predict that the "flat" organization is the organization of the future.

The value of a job title is far more important than one might think or expect. Once again, this taps into the very essence of self-esteem and pride within people. That's why it's important. Futurists certainly may be correct in their prediction of more "flat" organizations but until then it is an issue we all deal with. Do your employees feel important? Does their job title make them feel that they are important? If so, great. If not, then it's an issue that you should revisit. Too often employers don't even feel this is important so they never look into changing or revamping old titles or the overall impact on the people.

Contests can really only be effectively implemented in work environments that have some type of performance productivity standards attached to them. But this certainly represents a wide variety of industries. While sales environments obviously offer natural opportunities for contests, the success of my first book, Motivating with Sales Contests, proves that sales departments are only one of many different types of work environments that implement contests.

Fast food restaurants are running contests to see what individuals, teams and stores can cross-sell food products with other purchases better than someone else. Manufacturing companies run performance contests for frontline workers or production people all over the country. Retail stores and chains are competing within themselves and with each other in organized contests while various professional offices utilize contests of some sort to improve productivity as well as quality of work.

The theme part is the easy part. Just create special contests that highlight certain holidays, special events or specific activities. Theme contests allow people to dress a little differently or special and provide the opportunity to authenticate your environment with props or decorations. That's part of what makes them so successful.