Donna Genie (YouTube) explains practical approaches to motivate studio employees by changing pay structures. She contrasts hourly pay with commission, recommends hybrid models (minimal hourly wage plus incentive/bonus), lists individual and team-based incentive metrics (e.g., class sign-ups, add-ons, parties managed, sales goals, day-specific incentives), and urges viewers to share experiences.
Finding the right way to motivate employees is a hard thing. When you look at how you pay people, that's the first source, paying them by the hour. Is there a way to pay them through an incentive program or bonus structure that will work out to motivate them better and give you better bottom line results? I think that can be a really big possibility. And especially in today's marketplace where you're competing against the hourly wage for the most part, maybe having that incentive or bonus plan helps push you to the edge where those folks come to work for you instead of going across the street. So let's talk about how an incentive plan can work. All right? Most people are going to revert to an hourly wage. We can go at this in small pieces. We can take a whole big chunk. You could say that I'm going to pay my employees solid commission. That's one way to do it. Now you'll have to guarantee at least minimum wage for them to make sure that you're complying with Department of Labor standards. But you could pay them on a commission. A lot of jobs work that way. Now most of you I know are probably saying, not in my area, not in my studio. They won't go for that. I get that. I get that. Truly motivated employees will love that opportunity though. So watch who says no to that and who might bite. Okay, so let's take a middle ground. What if you paid an hourly wage or a minimal hourly wage and had an incentive program on top? Think about how that could work. You could do it based on individual employees performance. How many people do they get to come to a class and how many people do they sign up? How many add ons do they have? How many parties do they have in their shift that they've managed? How many people have come through those parties? There's a lot of criteria. A world of creativity, not only in Bisque, but also in paying your employees exists. You could also take it as a team approach if you'd like to promote more of having your staff work hard together on an incentive. Maybe there's a weekly sales goal or a monthly sales goal. Or maybe it's a matter of you want to roll out and start opening on Mondays. Maybe you want to pay them an incentive based on who comes in on Mondays to promote that idea. Think about that as a potential strategy. I would love to know what you've tried in your studio and what's worked for you or what hasn't. Let's have a communication about that and let's get a conversation started and have everyone pitch in and help each other with this. I think this is a really big way that you're going to be able to compete with the increases in minimum wage going forward to help get those good staff members to join your team and to compensate them for who's doing a great job versus who's just getting by. All right, so let me know how that goes and give us some comments below. Thanks. Have a great day.
