Does any one have an official pay for preformance plan they have written up. I want to write one up but would like some help with ideas to keep it fresh and interesting. I want something that would motivate my employees.thanks Tonya

I don't have an "official" pay for performance policy, but I used to increase an employee's wages up to $10.00 per hour based on performance reviews... which included scores for quality, attendance, customer service, and longevity. I no longer pay for performance for several reasons. If they can't perform they simply don't work for me. I tie job security to performance these days. It costs me a lot less in payroll and performance is still quite good on average. Don't worry about motivating cleaning ladies unless you want constant headaches. Let them worry about motivating you to keep them on the payroll. You'll have fewer headaches and much better employees. Sorry if that sounds heartless but it's the truth. If they're not motivated, so what? Look for people who are motivated by the extra money the paycheck will bring them and make them earn it. The only employees worth keeping are those who can motivate themselves... find them. Good luck!

 How do you go about finding such great employees? Some times they work good in the beginning then slack off. If they turn out to be aversge employee ,then you are stuck with them ,till they mess up or quit.

Tonya:

 How do you go about finding such great employees? Some times they work good in the beginning then slack off. If they turn out to be aversge employee ,then you are stuck with them ,till they mess up or quit.

Great employees will be great employees regardless of what you do. These women are internally motivated and do not require external rewards and incentives to do a good job.

Employees who seem to do better when offered rewards, verbal praise, and other bribes of this sort are too needy to do a good job for the long term. These are the people who will do their best work during the first 3 weeks of employment then increasingly become a total pain in the neck.

If you find that your new hires tend to give you their best work for a short period of time before the customer complaints start rolling in then you might want to reconsider your strategy for hiring long term workers.

Here's what I do. I attempt to indentify those applicants with an internal locus of control vs. an external locus of control before I decide how I'll use them to benefit my company. I have hired those who need rewards for short periods of time, fully aware that I will not keep them for more than a few weeks. I don't always hire someone with a plan to keep her long term. I do this at times when a team needs an extra hand in the field or when I'm in the middle of a growth spurt and don't quite have enough new customers to fully support a new team. I consider these types of individuals temporary employees.

If you constantly advertise, search and get the word out that you're always hiring, you will find the greart ones little by little, until you have a pipeline full of them from which to choose. The bottom feeders that need external rewards are only there to fill in the gaps when needed for short periods of time. Just let them go the minute they start to slack. If you do not have a great employee to fill the slacker's place, then you are not staying in hiring mode year round and you will be stuck in a no win situation... constantly.

The key is to always be in hiring/firing mode so when the great ones come knocking on your door for a job you are ready and able to put them to work... FAST! Keep your help wanted ad running at all times. Assume that every new hire is "temporary" while you search for someone better to fill her spot. If the new hire proves to be one of the great ones, you will know it within 4-6 weeks. Keep her. If the new hire begins to fizzle out after 3-4 weeks, replace her with another new hire so that you can maintain the benefit of the "honeymoon" stage that new hires go through.

I assign new hires to the least profitable customers who will not be home during the cleaning. Make this standard practice and the turnover of bad new hires won't affect your business too much. Be sure to send your best employees to service your long term and/or most profitable customers.

This is my system of hiring, and I have a pipeline of applicants from which to hire and evaluate at any given moment. I get rid of the slackers the minute I feel the need to persuade them to work harder, show up, or whatever. I just give the slacker the boot and go to the next applicant in line. I have a staff of great workers who motivate me to come to work each day with a smiling face. Any employee who starts giving me trouble after the third or fourth week gets the boot. Period. End of discussion. 

This is how I do it. I'm sure others out there have some suggestions concerning rewards and motivational activities you can use with your employees. Try both methods to see which one works for you.

Just remember that you are not a therapist, teacher, social service agency, caregiver referral service, or a credit agency. Write a job description for yourself and post it near your desk so that you can quickly review it during moments of weakness. If it's not in your job description, don't do it! Good luck. :)

Thank you for your answer ,I will need to practice on this.  Sounds good to me, I will work torward something like this.

Hazel that what was pretty dam good, I like it.

I feel better, Now that I know I am not the only one out there who hires and fires employees on the drop of a dime.

if they need to be rewarded, bribed or praised to motivate them to work, thats called babysitting.

this how I reward our employees: there reward is, they work they get a paycheck. they don't work, they get fired.

 there praise is, they did a good job I say see you next week. they did horrible, I say I'm sorry your services are no longer required NEXT!!

 I loved Hazel's advice.  And RJ's. 

Looking over mistakes I have made...cajoling employees and bribing them with incentives contributed to a lot of headaches.  I often times would provide lunch as a "thank you" or treat.  One day one of the girls asked me what she was going to have for lunch.  I said, "What did you pack for yourself?"  She got mad and demanded that I buy her lunch.  Let's just say that in the end, I fired her.

Later, I decided to avoid the whole lunch issue (some girls didn't pack a lunch and then slacked off at the last half of the day due to hunger).  I got "smart" and thought that providing lunch ($5 per day) would squelch that problem.  Instead, they pocketed the extra five bucks and still went without food and slacked off.

I am on a hiatus from work right now and TRUST ME, when I come back there will be a LOT of things I will do differently.  I am done babysitting and bribing.  

Hazel is way ahead of me on this.  :) 

 can anyone advise me on how to hire a second team , right now there is only me and a couple of other workers since I just started last year , but now I am booked full and need another team.  Should I hire employees or sub contractors , right now all have is subcontractors.   I am scared to send another team by themselves , I have no idea how well they would do etc etc.  Im really lost on how to grow my business this way .