As far as I’m concerned, there are three main elements of the credit application incentive plan that make it so successful.

1. It’s a form of recognition.

I love being told that I’m doing a good job. It gives me the warm and fuzzies. It makes me feel like I’m good at my job, which makes me more likely to hang around and give it my all. The candy bars and energy drinks are really just different tangible forms of a pat on the back.

2. Management is fully behind it.

An atmosphere in which success is rewarded starts from the top down. Your Gen Whys won’t be patting each other on the back and celebrating the successes of your business if you aren’t. By taking the time to design these contests, the managers are showing that they care about credit applications. More importantly, when they deliver the coupons, it’s a celebration. There is no question that they care about this. There is no question that they want it done. There is no question that there are rewards for doing it.

Anything short of this would be a half-measure. You’d just as well do nothing if you’re going to do that. Managers who only give 50% engender employees who give even less. If those setting the norms say that 50% is acceptable, those following will give only that meager bit, at most.

3. It’s fun.

An eloquent thank you letter with flowery language and calligraphy doesn’t mean a thing to me. Maybe if I’m thinking about the future I’ll be able to save a copy of the letter to show future employers who wonder if my performance ever merited something printed with fancy lettering. But aside from that, it doesn’t change my life much. Bringing me something fun, whether it’s the name of the teams or the candy bar prizes, makes an immediate, noticeable improvement in my life. For your incentive plan to truly be an incentive, it has to include something I want. And fun at work is near the top of the list.

On Friday, I promised to present a cheap incentive plan. Get ready to take some notes.

I currently work for a major national retailer. One of the measures of success in our store is the number of customers who apply for the company’s credit card. These are not a particularly easy thing to get young employees to care about. We don’t see money from them. We don’t see merchandise move off the shelves. All we see is someone filling out a form.

Credit cards, however, are extremely bottom-line friendly for our company. So, it pays to get young employees caring about them. Knowing this, the managers at my store have found a number of extremely effective ways to get the store’s Gen Whys to care about credit applications.

Almost every week, they create different competitions for the cashiers at the store. Those who are able to get credit applications earn small coupons that can be traded for candy or energy drinks. Those with the most coupons win the competition and some sort of other accolade along with it. One time, the losers had to cook a pancake breakfast for the winners at a staff meeting. The next time, tickets to ball games were the prizes for winning teams.

Teams usually get goofy names (’Running Bull’ and ‘Rock Stars’ being just two examples), and the entire thing takes on a spirited atmosphere. The managers have even taken to trying to get the non-sales associates involved in rooting for credit applications by tying rewards for them to the successes of a member of the sales staff. This goes a long way in creating an atmosphere in which getting credit applications is celebrated.

Overall, the plan is cheap. The costs are printing a few coupons, buying a few candy bars and energy drinks, and taking the time and energy to come up with ways to keep it fun. Best of all, the young employees get into it. When I first started there, I would hear the cashiers paging for their coupons. Based upon the level of excitement they displayed, I figured that the coupons could be turned in for a raise, or paid days off. Imagine my surprise when I found out they were trading them for a Mars bar.

See! It’s cheap. It’s easy. It’s effective. Do it.

I’ve known many managers who simply don’t want to institute any sort of extra incentive plans for their Gen Whys. Their attitude is basically this: “I’m paying these kids to work already. That should be enough incentive for them to give me their best efforts.”

I will readily concede that the pay he gets for working should be enough for any employee to give his all. But that’s simply not the case with many young people. So, managers who are reluctant to implement these plans need to change their strategies. I know it’s painful and it feels like it shouldn’t be the case. But managers cannot afford to allow their views of the way the world ought to function to overshadow their understanding of the way the world actually is.

Retail companies recognize that, while people ought not steal, many people will steal. So, they adjust to this unpleasant reality by hiring loss prevention and buying security devices. They adapt their business practices to the world in which it must function. They’d be dumb not to. Employers must do the same thing when it comes to motivating young employees.

Once you’re ready to start providing that extra little push for your young employees, there still exists the question of how to do this efficiently. When I say ”incentive plans,” my mind jumps to stock options, company cars, and six-figure bonuses. I think that this type of association leads to a lot of reluctance and hesitation for employers who are told that they need to add a little extra incentive to get the most out of their Gen Whys.

But I know for a fact that extra incentives to get your Gen Whys to perform better can be easy and cheap. I swear it. I’ll prove it in my next post.

Here are five things you could teach me during a down period, instead of asking me to detail the soda fountain a third time:

1. Train me in a new area

All I do is make sandwiches. Throw me on a cash register for a while. Cross-training is good for your business. It’s also a great cure for boredom.

2. Show me how to interpret customer feedback

Most large companies use phone-in or e-mail surveys. Show me these. Teach me what they mean. If you don’t have this kind of a system, walk the floor with me. Teach me how to talk to customers and anticipate problems. I’ll be engaged while we’re talking and I’ll be better informed in the future.

3. Teach me about the nuts and bolts of running this business

Teach me about costs. Teach me how to control them. The more I understand about “the business we’ve chosen,” the more effective I’ll be. (Note, however, that if I seem bored by this, don’t waste your time. Some people will get into it. Others won’t. You can have them detail the fountain.)

4. Ordering

Go a step past what you did when you taught me about costs and get me involved in ordering supplies, food, or whatever. Even if you never intend to have me complete a single order, learning the amount of intelligent guessing that goes into a good order is a humbling experience. I probably won’t complain quite so loudly next time we’re out of some supply or another. And, if I’m reliable, you’ve just taken a task off of your plate.

5. Let me go home

Doesn’t really keep me busy, but I’m more likely to be busy in the future if I’m not burned out by mind-numbing boredom.

A note

I know this list is a little restaurant-centric, but it can be applied to almost any industry. Just substitute restaurant tasks (detailing the fountain) for retail tasks (re-folding clothes) or office tasks (collating).

Every job I’ve ever held has included down times that get incredibly boring. Whether it’s between rushes at a restaurant, filling out the same paper again and again and again at the office, or sitting in an empty retail store, I’ve been bored. Once I was so bored I tried to use a ball point pin, a push pin, two sticky notes, and a cork board to start a game of darts. (It didn’t work.)

I know that these down times are a necessary part of reality. They’re a part of school. They’re a part of summer break. TV shows have them. Movies have them. Work is bound to, too. But just because something is inevitable doesn’t mean one should do as much as possible to avoid it. Especially if you’re interested in retaining promising Gen Whys.

There are a number of reasons behind this:

First and foremost: Boredom sucks. When work is boring, it sucks. When work sucks, your Gen Whys start writing their resumes.

Second: Idle hands are the devil’s playthings. Most of the strange, upsetting, stupid and unproductive things I’ve done at work have been the result of boredom.

Third: Inevitably, someone who is bored will get yelled at for not working. Whether he’s talking with co-workers or simply staring at the ceiling, someone who is bored is just asking a manager to come ream him for not working. “Get back to work!” can seem insulting when the place is clean and there are no customers.

So, make sure your Gen Whys have work to do. Real work. Meaningful, challenging work. Please don’t ask me to organize and reorganize the toothpick display. Please, please, please don’t ask me to clean things that are already clean. Much better to just let me chat with a co-worker for a few minutes if you know you’ll need me later. If you won’t need me later, let me go home.

Or better yet, develop me a bit. Train me to work in a new area of your business so that next time I’m bored I can help out there and make your day a bit easier. If you notice that I am a creative and energetic enough individual to build a castle using catering boxes (walls), cups (towers), hotel pans (moat), and frill picks with stickers on them (flags), odds are good that those energies can be directed toward something more productive.

When dealing with Gen Why, managers should remember that we are a generation for whom sarcasm and cynicism are the norm. We didn’t grow up on Leave it to Beaver. We grew up on The Simpsons. Our sense of humor and our sense of what makes for a normal (or an irritating) interaction is far removed from the good old days that sprouted these expressions. Yet, managers keep using phrases that even seemed to irritate the Beav, thinking that we’ll spring to our feet with a “Yessir! Good point, sir!” each time they share one of these little pearls of wisdom.

So, here is the latest installment in my war against empty phrases masquerading as management techniques.

This week’s winning expression:

Boss says:

“Planogram.”

I think:

Profanities.

The lesson:

This word is one of the stupidest things that has ever happened to the business world. For all the talk I’ve heard about business being a straight-shooter’s world, I’m shocked that this word managed to make it into vocabularies, much less a wide usage. I don’t use pet names for my co-workers, and I don’t think that the tools I use at work should be any different.

CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic’s eyes to improve his vision.

-Ambrose Bierce, in The Devil’s Dictionary

Even Bierce, the paragon of cynicism, recognized that the cynic is far from a universally loved figure. This holds twice as strongly in the workplace. Few managers are interested in hearing negative attitudes, and few people are interested in working with those who hold them.

To teach me this lesson, during college fate had me work with a guy my age who I’ll call Trent. Trent hated his job more than anyone I’ve ever met. The way he made sandwiches, you’d think that each customer’s request was a separate, increasingly vile insult aimed at Trent’s mother. If things got really bad, you could count on him to be visibly angry and generally unpleasant to co-workers and customers alike.

But Trent also produced. On the staff of twenty or so, he was by far the most competent sandwich maker. He showed up for all of his shifts. On time. Simple fact was, even with his attitude, he was one of the best employees at that restaurant.

I can tell you that some of the young people working with Trent loved working with him. I was one of them. His competence alone would have been enough, but when you added in his edgy, frequently sarcastic sense of humor, I couldn’t help but enjoy working with the guy.  Younger employees would often take his lead, as his age (23) and charisma often put him in the roll of a leader, even if unintentionally.

Others were less than thrilled that Trent stuck around. I remember one manager who was constantly on the fence between wanting to fire Trent and wanting Trent to quit. He couldn’t argue with Trent’s productivity, but he sure did hate Trent’s attitude.

Trent ended up getting canned. And, love him as I may, I know that was the right move. When you find these people (young or old) you have to get rid of them. It’s a good idea for the sake of your company’s relationships with its clients, your staff’s relationships with one another, and even your relationships with your employees. Profits drop as these relationships fail.

But getting rid of a serious hard case is even more important when you’re managing Gen Whys.

I think the most important part of this is norm setting. For any inexperienced person, the environment observed in a new workplace see is what will be thought of as normal. Gen Whys will be entering your workplace wondering how they should act. If they walk in and see Trent glowering at a customer, they’ll follow suit.

But it’s also important to Gen Why to work in an environment in which our virtues are appreciated. In theory, these virtues should be hard work and a good attitude. When employees with attitude problems hang around and no one does anything about it, it tells me that my good attitude isn’t being appreciated. And that’s a pretty quick way to turn it into a bad attitude.

So, don’t be afraid of disciplining or firing someone who is a certifiable pain. I wouldn’t advocate anything else. Just be sure you know the difference between what those folks are saying and the age-appropriate sarcasm you’ll see from many Gen Whys. But that’s a post for another day.

When dealing with Gen Why, managers should remember that we are a generation for whom sarcasm and cynicism are the norm. We didn’t grow up on Leave it to Beaver. We grew up on The Simpsons. Our sense of humor and our sense of what makes for a normal (or an irritating) interaction is far removed from the good old days that sprouted these expressions. Yet, managers keep using phrases that even seemed to irritate the Beav, thinking that we’ll spring to our feet with a “Yessir! Good point, sir!” each time they share one of these little pearls of wisdom.

So, here is the second installment in my war against empty phrases masquerading as management techniques.

This week’s winning expression:

Boss says:

“Hey, would you like to scrub the toilet for me?”

I think:

“No, I would not like to scrub the toilet for you. Or for anyone else. Don’t you get upset when I do what I want instead of what I’m supposed to do?”

The lesson:

I never want to scrub toilets, mop, put away the truck, or do any of the unpleasant tasks at work. In the end, though, I will do them since that’s my job. But your leadership should make it clear from minute one that this is a question of job functions instead of my desires. I understand that you’re trying not to seem like you’re lording your authority over me, but each time you ask if I want to clean up bodily fluids I die inside wondering in what universe someone might want to do that. In the future, I suggest saying “I’d like you to please (insert undesirable task here.)” This is hardly an authoritarian way to make the request, but it still makes it very clear that you are issuing a directive instead of an opinion poll.