Gary Brose, author of "Bonus Your Way to Profits!", has some unique first-hand insights into motivating employees and energizing the workforce. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 12 of his book about how to design bonus programs.

ESSENTIAL ELEMENT #8

"E" IS FOR EASY!

1. not hard or difficult; requiring no great labor or effort: a book that is easy to read; an easy victory.

2. free from pain, discomfort, worry, or care: He led an easy life.

3. providing or conducive to ease or comfort; comfortable: an easy stance; an easy relationship.

Your bonus program must be Easy!

What??!! OK, Gary, I thought this was going to help the company make money. Now you tell me I have to make it EASY?!

Yup, make it easy. But it’s not as bad as you think. Actually this is my favorite Essential Element. It’s counter-intuitive and has some weird side effects. Read on.

What is easy?

We touched on this earlier back in Chapter 5. Gradiating your bonus program allows you some latitude when it comes to making payouts. You get to create multiple levels of success. Nobody said that all of these levels had to pay out monster bonuses. In fact, back in Chapter 5 you may remember that we discussed creating the lowest levels of bonuses at a very attainable mark … and then paying out a modest sum for that.

Turns out that all you have to do is make the first level of the gradiated goals easy to attain. Not so easy that all an employee has to do is show up for work and they get it, but pretty close. As previously discussed, you want to set the lowest payout level at a low enough level so that, on average, 90% of your employees will reach it. Now, depending on what you have set as your goal criteria, you may have past data that you can study to figure out what that number is. Or, you might have to take a guess. When you have to take a swag, making the goal easy to achieve cuts you some slack. You don’t have to be perfect in your estimation. But you would want to err on the side of the employees. Better to have a fifth level goal that 100% of your employees make than to pick one that is too challenging and only 65% can get there.

Why does your bonus plan need to be considered easy?

There are several very good reasons:

1. Part of what you are trying to do by creating a bonus program is to engage your employees and to create a new sense of involvement and participation. So … let them participate. Get them involved. An employee, who does not get any bonus at all, is not an engaged employee. Regardless of whether or not your goal includes changing the Corporate Culture, your program will have a far greater chance of success if virtually everyone is participating.

2. Making the program easy is a dynamite way to change the focus of the conversation around the water cooler. You do not want to hear people saying "Did you make your bonus last month?" You want to hear them asking "HOW MUCH of a bonus did you get last month?" The difference between those two conversations is enormous. Employees can talk about how they just made or just missed a target. It becomes a bit of a game. It’s entertaining. And knowing that most everyone hit the lowest levels, it is not taboo to discuss it. And you WANT them to discuss it. The more focus on your company bonus program, the better.

3. Positive reinforcement is always far better than negative reinforcement. In some companies, missing a target is a reason to get called in on the carpet so you can listen to the boss tear your face off for not producing. Wow, now that’s motivating! Just think how productive you can be if you could berate every employee on a regular basis! When you gradiate the goals and set the fifth or lowest goal at an easily attainable level, you are building in an automatic positive reinforcement. While it doesn’t hurt for you, as the boss, to pat someone on the back now and then, you usually can’t do it for EVERYONE so let the bonus levels do it for you. Every time an employee surpasses one of the target levels, she’s giving herself a pat on the back.

4. Don’t forget the little guy! Have you ever seen a child who tries to do something as simple as taking a step, experience some success and then break out into a wide smile? Well, that’s kind of like what you are doing here. New employees or sometimes just your typical under-performers need to take that first step too. Remember, what you find incredibly easy to do is not necessarily so easy to a new hire. Let them experience a taste of success. It’s intoxicating! A little bit of success frequently whets the appetite and you’ll find your under-performers wanting a bit more.