Incentives for creative teams
I recently spotted a workshop being run by accountants who position themselves as coaches in the creative industry. One of the areas they are covering is incentivising staff.
As someone who ran a design business for 30+ years let me say to coach on this issue you need to have practised it.
Observing incentive schemes from an accounting viewpoint is a long way from implementing it and making it work. We know because we tried many ways; failed in some and excelled in others.
WIKI; Incentives start long before employment
Incentivising (motivating) people is a complex area. Frustration and boredom are the death knoll for incentives. We observed it doesn’t matter how much you pay or pander creatives if they are frustrated or bored they are demotivated.
You can’t incentivise someone without setting benchmarks; targets, goals, KPIs.
To set these you need to understand the type of work being done by the business and the key tasks needed to do the work. This leads to defining the tasks and setting them for individuals.
You need to balance the transactional tasks with the high order design tasks so people don’t get bored. To do this you need a workflow model.
Once you have developed that you need job descriptions that communicate the tasks and expectations. These need to be negotiated with each team member. Then you can talk about incentives.
Takeaway
I wouldn’t trust an accountant to analyse a creative business, define the type of work done and then advise on workflow and job descritions. That’s way out of their league.
Contact Greg if you would like to learn more about using the design value chain to create competitive advantage for your clients
Greg Branson
Want more?
Here’s more information on incentivising the team:
- What does burn out look like in a design studio
- Studio culture and job descriptions.
- Designing a studio culture.
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